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RPG Evolution: The Brand Risks of Infinite Compatibility
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<blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 8937563" data-attributes="member: 6777737"><p>They are just so paranoid about losing total control of the brand. It really shows just how much they <em>don't</em> understand the hobby that D&D was built for.</p><p></p><p>Matt Colville talked on stream a few weeks ago about working on Decipher's Star Trek RPG (2002). At one of the meetings with the Star Trek owners, they were explaining that each player uses the rules in the book to make their own character in Star Trek.</p><p></p><p>"Do we have to do that?" </p><p>"What?" </p><p>"Let them make their own characters. Can't we supply the characters for them?" </p><p>"Uh... why would we want to do that?" </p><p>"Well, they might make the wrong kind of character. Something that we wouldn't approve of." </p><p></p><p>This is how corporate execs that manage IPs think. They want total control and ownership over <em>everything</em> associated with the brand. They don't get that RPG rules are meant to be toolkits, not board game experiences where everything is out-of-the-box or commercial-off-the-shelf.</p><p></p><p>That's why they keep bringing up the nothingburger that is The Book of Erotic Fantasy and the specter of extreme right-wing D&D. Those are two things that their customers might broadly agree would be better off not associated with D&D, and <em>not coincidentally</em> they would need the same level of dominant control over the brand that would also all</p><p></p><p>Of course, neither one is really an issue. The BoEF could exist totally independent of D&D and still use D&D compatible rules. As for hateful content creators, they don't like Hasbro's game because they already don't like the politics in the books they've published. They pretty universally seem to reject D&D, and instead choose to play D&D-adjacent games.</p><p></p><p>Games Workshop has a much bigger problem with Warhammer 40K and Age of Sigmar because the default narratives for those games... no longer feel like the over-the-top satire they were originally meant to be. A frightening example of Poe's Law in action. I won't say anything more about it, though. This feels too close to forum rules on politics.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bacon Bits, post: 8937563, member: 6777737"] They are just so paranoid about losing total control of the brand. It really shows just how much they [I]don't[/I] understand the hobby that D&D was built for. Matt Colville talked on stream a few weeks ago about working on Decipher's Star Trek RPG (2002). At one of the meetings with the Star Trek owners, they were explaining that each player uses the rules in the book to make their own character in Star Trek. "Do we have to do that?" "What?" "Let them make their own characters. Can't we supply the characters for them?" "Uh... why would we want to do that?" "Well, they might make the wrong kind of character. Something that we wouldn't approve of." This is how corporate execs that manage IPs think. They want total control and ownership over [I]everything[/I] associated with the brand. They don't get that RPG rules are meant to be toolkits, not board game experiences where everything is out-of-the-box or commercial-off-the-shelf. That's why they keep bringing up the nothingburger that is The Book of Erotic Fantasy and the specter of extreme right-wing D&D. Those are two things that their customers might broadly agree would be better off not associated with D&D, and [I]not coincidentally[/I] they would need the same level of dominant control over the brand that would also all Of course, neither one is really an issue. The BoEF could exist totally independent of D&D and still use D&D compatible rules. As for hateful content creators, they don't like Hasbro's game because they already don't like the politics in the books they've published. They pretty universally seem to reject D&D, and instead choose to play D&D-adjacent games. Games Workshop has a much bigger problem with Warhammer 40K and Age of Sigmar because the default narratives for those games... no longer feel like the over-the-top satire they were originally meant to be. A frightening example of Poe's Law in action. I won't say anything more about it, though. This feels too close to forum rules on politics. [/QUOTE]
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