Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5320429" data-attributes="member: 59082">Here's the scenario: A bigwig at Hasbro is browsing the EN World forums and is impressed by your insights into the world's most hallowed roleplaying game. You get a call offering you complete control of Dungeons & Dragons for at least five years, with no intervention (within reason) from either Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro. You, of course, agree and shortly thereafter a helicopter appears in your backyard and you are whisked off to Renton, WA...What would you do? You have at least five years, maybe more depending upon how things go. You can take whatever approach you want - you can try to maximize profits, move quickly to 5E, apply all of your house rules,  kill 4E and take its stuff, or whatever you dream. As for me, I haven't thought about this too much, only just as I was reading over <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/293968-if-paizo-can-why-cant-wizards-coast.html" target="_blank">this thread</a> that I started. Here are a few thoughts:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rebirth of the OGL - I would institute some form of the OGL. I don't know the details, but it would essentially make it not only possible but easy for other companies to create and publish D&D books without undermining company sales (too much), maybe some kind of small commission to use the D&D logo.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Adventure Competition - I would announce a yearly adventure writing competition, the  winner getting their adventure published in a hardcover form.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Revised Core Rulebooks - I would publish revised and expanded versions of the core rulebooks that were heavily edited and due out in 2011. These would be compilation books; the PHB would include most of the races, classes, and other info from the first three PHBs and other sources, but without the magic items and many of the extraneious powers and other info, making it a 500-page book along the lines of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. The DMG would include most of the first two DMGs, plus a more extensive random dungeon generator, magic items, and other useful info like random encounter tables.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons - I would publish a beautiful coffee table book entitled "The Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons" which would include write-ups, maps, and art on every campaign setting every published by TSR or Wizards of the Coast. Page count for each setting would range from about five for the lesser known settings (e.g. Jakandor) to twenty+ for the major settings (e.g. FR, Eberron, Greyhawk, etc), with the book being in the 350+ range.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">New and Classic Settings - I would publish both one entirely new setting and one "classic" setting. The new setting would be found through a year setting competition ala the Eberron one of a few years ago.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Designer's Handbook - I'd create a "Designer's Handbook" which would reveal the code behind classes, feats, powers, etc, allowing DMs to create their own with relative ease and compatibility.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">5th Edition! - I would start a task force for designing 5E. I would have them play  every edition of D&D, as well as other RPGs, and gather information  for the next 2-3 years. The underlying design philosophy of 5E would be to try to capture the best elements of every edition of D&D, with innovations from other games. It would have a modular game design with a simple, core mechanic and numerous interchangeable parts that could be used as desired. 5E would be due out in 2015.</li> </ul>That's just what came to mind as I wrote but I'm sure other stuff will come up. A note and disclaimer: these ideas need not be what makes financial sense, but could simply be what you'd like to see from Dungeons & Dragons. Don't take it too seriously and just have fun with it...</blockquote>

Verification