Now WotC has taken Dragonlance (merged)

[D.Shaffer]

From the new DND Mini's preview...

"You'll learn which Realms, Eberron, and Dragonlance personalities will be immortalized in plastic."

 

[lrsach01]

From the new DND Mini's preview...

"You'll learn which Realms, Eberron, and Dragonlance personalities will be immortalized in plastic."

The Dragonlance mini is Raistlin. This has been planned a long time. I first heard aboud it at last years GenCon.

 

[pedr]

I'm not sure there's anything in the inclusion of DL characters in D&D Minis sets.

At the very least we've already had Mina (from the War of Souls) and Raistlin figures.

 

[sir_ollibolli]

They've already issued Dragonlance minis. Lord Soth was in "Giants of Legends" and Draconians in "Dragoneye".

 

[Accursed]

From the new DND Mini's preview...

"You'll learn which Realms, Eberron, and Dragonlance personalities will be immortalized in plastic."

Big Deal....

There have been a few DL mini's before and there is at least one more planned Raistlin, old news, like I said Big Deal....

 

[Jolly_Blackburn]

I've just checked Kenzer's website...

the newest Kalamar products do not sport the nifty "Dungeons & Dragons" logo on their cover.

Maybe that license also was not renewed... but we didn't hear about that, since Kenzer chose to continue publishing under the d20 license.

Sorry this is late -- been at GAMA for the past five days. If somebody already pointed this out please ignore.

We still have the option to put the D&D logo on Kalamar product. But we've chosen not to recently. Partly to see if anyone noticed. Partly to help build the Kalamar brand (looking out long term to the day when we CAN'T use the D&D logo).

We may start putting it back on the cover with all the recent developments. Not sure.

But WotC certainly hasn't made any move to 'yank' our license or bully us into giving it up (an odd rumor I ran into more than once at GAMA).

So I'm in the camp that believes it's simply a renewal issue and that NOT allowing renewals is simply Hasbro/WotC policy where D&D is concerned and nothing nefarious.

 

[EditorBFG]

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft probably made WotC more money than the entire Ravenloft license did.

I think this illustrates why the Dragonlance license issue is more complex. While WotC can probably use Ravenloft to make more money than White Wolf can with the property, the bestselling Dragonlance products are not games (which they license) but novels. And the most profitable novels have Margaret Weis's name on them (especially with Tracy Hickman's). She is under no compulsion to write more Dragonlance novels unless she really wants to, since she is not a WotC employee. Therefore, unlike any other licensor WotC has, making Margaret Weis unhappy risks the profitability of the entire line.

So, business-wise, there is good reason for WotC to be cagey about this one.