RPG Evolution: The Dragons Come Home to Roost

D&D has long striven to be more than a game, but a brand. Thanks to the game's surge in popularity, those plans are coming to fruition.

Hasbro’s Strategy​

Hasbro’s association with the movie industry has long been a mutually beneficial relationship, in which toy sales surge with each new movie. Star Wars and Transformers are both examples of how Hasbro’s bottom line is impacted by the release of the latest film. Unfortunately, this strategy means Hasbro is reliant on third party schedules to produce revenue, and the pandemic highlighted just how much can go wrong with the complicated process of releasing a movie. No wonder the company wants its own intellectual property that it can monetize for movies and streaming.

This is why Hasbro's strategy has moved well beyond just producing toys and games. Hasbro divides their new approach into four quadrants: Toys & Games, Digital Gaming, Licensed Consumer Products, and Media (TV, Film, Digital Shorts, Emerging Media). Hasbro previously announced plans to execute on this four quadrant strategy with all of its licenses, including My Little Pony, Transformers, Magic: The Gathering, and Dungeons & Dragons. Some of those Media plans have been easier to execute than others, with Transformer movies running out of steam, the My Little Pony series winding down, and a Magic: The Gathering series yet to launch on streaming. That leaves D&D.

WOTC’s Strategy​

Wizards of the Coast has always struggled to justify its revenue goals for Dungeons & Dragons amidst high revenue brands like Magic: The Gathering. At one point, each division was given a goal of $100 million in annual sales, a number that was not reachable through tabletop gaming channels.

The solution was digital gaming. D&D tried several times to mimic the Massive Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) space, which it inadvertently spawned dating all the way back to Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) and Interactive Fiction (IF). The idea was that if the company could own a slice of that digital engagement dedicated to off-brand D&D, they could reach at least $50 million.

It didn’t work. WOTC never had enough resources, the right partners, or the technical know-how to effectively launch a digital ecosystem that would last longer than a few years. Then something surprising happened: D&D became more popular than all the other Hasbro brands combined.

The Dragons Take Over​

The passing of the previous Hasbro CEO created a power vacuum quickly filled by the staff shepherding D&D into the new age. The twin factors of the pandemic and streaming made D&D uniquely suited to a much wider audience, and it didn’t take long before WOTC was responsible for 72% of Hasbro’s total operating profit. In a very short period of time, WOTC went from a barely-mentioned division on Hasbro investor calls to the darling of the company, with CEO Chris Cocks taking the reins as Hasbro’s CEO in February 2022.

So what’s next? Sure enough, WOTC is executing on Hasbro's four quadrant plan for D&D. Let’s break it down:

• Media: The juggernaut most likely to influence the other three quadrants is the upcoming D&D movie. There have been many attempts at making D&D movies that have all been commercial failures. This time around feels different, if only because there was a legal battle waged through proxies on behalf of movie-making behemoths (Universal Studios vs. Warner Bros.) for D&D’s film rights. It’s clear they think there’s a lot of money to be made with a D&D movie. Unlike other movie launches, Hasbro is supporting the movie with the full force of its license. For an example of what this might look like, see the above picture of the D&D Advent Calendar. Speaking of which...
• Licensed Consumer Products: Advent calendars are interesting products because they can contain just about anything, but that thing has to be small. They also require a lot of creativity to produce, as 25 different items is a lot to put into one package. If the D&D advent calendar is any indication, we’re going to see a lot more of beholders, displacer beasts, mimics, owlbears, and gelatinous cubes. There are stylized, iconic images of each monster repeated across everything that’s in the calendar, including stickers, gift tags, pencils, and ornaments.
• Toys & Games: D&D is a game first and foremost, so the release of the next edition (an edition that requires playtesting but holds out the promise for backwards compatibility) is the obvious prime mover in this space. In addition to the aforementioned licenses, D&D toys are starting to show up in the wild. Egg Embry wrote an overview of just some of the D&D action figures available. We can expect a slew of monster toys too.
• Digital Gaming: The big news here is One D&D, which uses D&D Beyond as its base. With 13 million registered users, WOTC is banking on D&D Beyond as a base for propagating One D&D to the masses. For better or worse, this includes changes to the OGL with the likely plan to defragment any digital content that currently resides on third-party platforms. There has been several failed attempts at establishing a digital home base for D&D, so it’s really important they get this right.

Cocks has never hidden his digital ambitions for D&D, and now with the company’s full resources at his disposal, we’re about to see a four quadrant D&D plan in action. Hasbro and WOTC are all in on this plan, with the future edition of D&D, the D&D movie, and its reinvigorated digital platform all unified in an attempt to make D&D not just a game, but a brand expression.

Will it work? Perhaps the more relevant question for current D&D fans is ... what if it does?

 

[Von Ether]

* = I will note that there's a generational issue where "growing out of" stuff is less of a "thing" for Millennials as compared to Gen Xers, but it remains to be seen if younger Gen Z and beyond follow the same pattern.

Honestly, all of that was a double standard anyway of what was socially approved anyway.

If your childhood things were sports and golf, not only did you never have to "outgrow" them, you were supposed to double down as you aged. You could also keep skiing (both types) without judgement.

And even those 80s "teenager" activities of skateboarding, BMX, ATV, and snowboarding made their way into "mature" sports and even some into the Olympics.

You would think then to get over the hump of the double standard, D&D LARP would have been the key as an outdoor activity. I disagreed.

There's an invisible side of sports, all the revenue it makes for vendors, manufactures and event locations. In fact most season passes aren't held by fans but credit card companies to add value to their membership and corporations who use them for sales and networking.

So when people asked me when D&D would really take off I would say, "When D&D brings in real money." The question is if we have hit that real money level yet.

 

[Von Ether]

Sorry, but the 1E rules were objectively bad. There was a certain legitimate charm to the learning curve and a magic to the purple prose of Gygax and a rush of adrenaline from unknotting some of the more complex and sometimes contradictory rules (whose details were to be found in wildly unlikely and not co-located parts of the rulebooks).

But they were still really terrible rules. Improved by leaps and bounds by each successive edition, and by derivative games. Which is only natural... the first attempt at anything is going to result in a few mistakes. But still, 1E... made ridiculous by the standards of modern game rules.

I think D&D is similar to James Bond, Dr. Who, and now Star Wars in one regard.

The one you grew up with is usually your favorite. Whatever came before was "quaint" and whatever the future holds is a weak candle to the blaze of the glory days when you were a bit shorter and didn't have to cook all of your own meals.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think D&D is similar to James Bond, Dr. Who, and now Star Wars.

The one you grew up with is usually your favorite. Whatever came before was "quaint" and whatever the future holds is a weak candle to the blaze of the glory days when you were a bit shorter and didn't have to cook all of your own meals.

I can acknowledge that, but knowing doesn't change anything for me.

 

[Von Ether]

I can acknowledge that, but knowing doesn't change anything for me.

Agreed, which why I try really hard on social media to be more uplifting and not "Yuck into another's yum."

Every ttRPG (and edition of D&D) has something for someone.

 

[Dausuul]

I think D&D is similar to James Bond, Dr. Who, and now Star Wars in one regard.

The one you grew up with is usually your favorite. Whatever came before was "quaint" and whatever the future holds is a weak candle to the blaze of the glory days when you were a bit shorter and didn't have to cook all of your own meals.

I don't know. I grew up on B/X and 2E, and while I still find much to love about B/X, I'm not inclined to go back. I'll take NuWho over the classic any day -- even Chibnall's version. And while "Empire" remains my all-time favorite Star Wars movie, I find "New Hope" has aged horribly.

 

[payn]

I don't know. I grew up on B/X and 2E, and while I still find much to love about B/X, I'm not inclined to go back. I'll take NuWho over the classic any day -- even Chibnall's version. And while "Empire" remains my all-time favorite Star Wars movie, I find "New Hope" has aged horribly.

 

[Azzy]

I understand what @Vincent55 is getting at, but he's getting at it in a pretty arsehole way.

I think you're being way over-charitable for someone that is engaging in generational warfare and general nastiness (as evidenced by the post that I was responding to). There is no content in his posts that warrant writing a treatise in apologia for.

Theoretically every generation should be getting more intelligent on average, but folks being 50 won't notice that difference at all. That would take a LOT more generations...

What is happening is that D&D (and RPGs in general) have become more mainstream over the decades and companies like WotC/Hasbro have been altering their products to appeal to the masses. In the same way as computer games have done so. What does that result in? A certain level of making it easier to get into RPGs, by lowering thresholds. That means a larger spectrum of people can play D&D (RPGs), which is great. That means that less intelligent people can play D&D, RPGs, use computers, and play video games...

But imho intelligence does not a good or bad player make! D&D isn't a difficult game, but in the past it often suffered from writers that are horrible at explaining stuff to others. If you have trouble with explaining D&D to less intelligent players, that is not on them, that is on you. What can be a problem is a certain mindset, that has been prevailant among (but not unique to) the younger generations due to companies pushing that: Instant Gratification. They want their thing now, the way they want it. Or get distracted by other things (like their smartphones)... Is that everyone? Of course not! Many older people have the same issues and lots of younger people don't. But when you open the doors wide, you can expect everyone to walk in.

When us 'old' folks started, D&D was pretty nerdy and similar people flocked together to play it. Nerdy doesn't exactly equal intelligence, but I would say that on average, there were quite a few intelligent people playing D&D in those times for extended periods of time. I think the number of intelligent people playing D&D hasn't decreased at all, just that it's become socially acceptable or even trendy to play D&D for other people. I also never subscribed to random people playing RPGs together, it's a social activity and people need to fit and be compatible within those groups. Sure, one offs with a bunch of random people can be fun, you can meet new people that way, but imho it's quite a different experience from campaigns with an established group of (RPG) friends. RPGs are a group activity, where everyone needs to have fun, both the DM and the players. And together you make a fun experience for everyone. If you think your players are all morons, you're DMing them for the wrong reasons and I'm starting to wonder who the real moron is in that equation...

I'm 46, ~35 years of gaming, and I never really liked the 'classic' D&D puzzles. For me they always were the products of mad wizards minds. I usually participated because either the DM spend a ton of time and effort on them or someone else in the party liked them. If someone overdid it I could always request if in the next sessions they could please tone done the 'Mad wizard puzzles'. ;-)

So if you're pushing your puzzles and things and 'the younger generation' isn't interested or constantly distracted, whose fault is that exactly...

The problem with all of this is that this is a sideshow that's deflecting from the other poster's nastiness. Also, a lot of it falls pretty flat considering that D&D went mainstream before with B/X and again with BECMI to a lesser extent, not to mention the toys and cartoon. Sure, this has now been eclipsed with 5e's popularity, but regular (non-nerdy) children were gobbling up D&D like hotcakes in the early/mid 80s. That's also the time period when many ENWorlders here were getting into D&D. So, without engaging the rose-tinted nostalgia glasses, there's really no difference between our generation and the current one. And we'd do well to remember that.

Sidenote: Getting 'huffy-puffy' about someone being generic to a degree that is unrealistic, like "It's raining all the time!". You really need to ask yourself, just how smart am I or in what emotional state am I in, that I'm getting triggered by this totally unrealistic generic statement? Does that person actually mean what he's saying? If so, is there really fixing 'stupid' (after all they keep making better morons)? ;-) Or is that person lacking in communication skills or just being an arsehole about it... Or does that person have a point that he or she can't express in a better way...

That person certainly had no point to make and was just casting aspersions in the wind. Writing apologia for him seems a bit left field.

 

[Dross]

I think D&D is similar to James Bond, Dr. Who, and now Star Wars in one regard.

The one you grew up with is usually your favorite. Whatever came before was "quaint" and whatever the future holds is a weak candle to the blaze of the glory days when you were a bit shorter and didn't have to cook all of your own meals.

There is also the tendency of people to judge newbies against what they are doing now, instead of at the same time in their (in this case) RPG career.

That is of the same level of fairness in comparing a professional sports person versus someone playing in a social competition.

 

[SkidAce]

I think D&D is similar to James Bond, Dr. Who, and now Star Wars in one regard.

The one you grew up with is usually your favorite. Whatever came before was "quaint" and whatever the future holds is a weak candle to the blaze of the glory days when you were a bit shorter and didn't have to cook all of your own meals.

Maybe there is a bit of that.

Started with the Red Box, however if I ranked my favorites, it would be 5e followed by 2e.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Because I'm 44 and thus ancient,

Oh, my! lol, ancient already eh? Don't speed it along, I was playing D&D before you were born, you ain't seen nothing yet. Just wait until all the gadgets, entertainers, and politicians have strange names you never heard of and work in some goddam nufangled way...

 

[Cergorach]

There is also the tendency of people to judge newbies against what they are doing now, instead of at the same time in their (in this case) RPG career.

That is of the same level of fairness in comparing a professional sports person versus someone playing in a social competition.

If people 'judge' inexperienced people by their own experienced experiences, then they are fools! And I'm sure there are many of those. But often in these situations people are either looking for a certain skill set with 'enough' experience or 'potential'. See it as work, it is foolish to expect someone just out of school to have 5 years of experience in skills xyz (and still people ask for that). And that is why so many young people are feeling prosecuted, as they lack that experience and have no way to get that experience NOW... What you could look for is 'potential' in inexperienced players, a certain 'quality' in players... And both in work and running RPGs, you need to have the skills to draw that potential out, while having a ton of patience. Many DMs/GMs do not have that skill and/or patience to ever do that and that often gets blamed on the inexperienced players, we've all seen those folks here on the forums... What people tend to forget that while you might have experience in playing RPGs (both as a player and DM/GM), you might just be as inexperienced in teaching young people and need to learn as well... Many people are way to proud to recongnize those shortcomings in themselves and would never accept that from a couple of 'no-good' kids (and often not from anyone else either)...

The comparison between professional sports and, what you call social competition, is horribly skewed. As most people have not the build/mind or the talent for professional sports, thus they will never reach that level. While RPGs in general is a sort of social competition. Comparing that to a professional streamer/actor group on Youtube/Twitch would be completely unrealistic, as most of the RPG players will never ever get to that level of acting. Not everyone is created equally, so some will never become 'good' at RPGs, and that can be perfectly alright when everyone is having fun!

 

[Cergorach]

Writing apologia for him seems a bit left field.

You are just as much of a problem as he is, ready to judge/scream and a reading apprehension of 'not much' (if you think I'm writing apologia for him). Maybe put down that lance, get of that high horse and stop angling for those windmills...

 

[haakon1]

Pathfinder 2e felt to me like they were just trying to be 5e (a game I don't like) but somehow did it worse. I was sad I couldn't get into it because I love Pathfinder 1.

Yeah. I liked PF1 stuff - especially earlier stuff that was more compatible with 3.5e for my 3.5e D&D Greyhawk campaigns, running since launch day.

I liked PF1 enough to go to Paizocon several times (I’m local), collect the rules, and buy the first 10 or so adventure paths. But I never actually played PF1 outside of Paizocon, or Pathfinder: Kingmaker on Xbox (which was very good).

With PF2, I said “meh” and bought none of it after hearing here it’s not compatible with PF1 or any D&D version. My thoughts were basically: I’d don’t need an 8th variant on D&D to collect and learn - just as I eventually said “no more“ to 4e and “meh, if someone else runs it, I’ll play“ to 5e, I felt no compulsion to “upgrade” in PF world. (Unlike with 5e, nobody I knew was playing PF2.)

These days Paizo gets none of my money (though I buy PF1 materials by Raging Swan on DriveThruRPG), which I find a bit sad.

New editions are a good way to monetize your existing customers, but also a good way to lose them.

 

[haakon1]

Maybe they'll forget all the lessons they've learned over the past decade or two.

I worry they didn’t learn the lessons of D&D’s bankruptcy in the 2e era. Overextended into new areas, poorly managed their finances and HR. Have they read “Slaying the Dragon”, the business history of that collapse? My guess is creatives like Mearls are well aware, but the business people are not.

 

[billd91]

Yeah. I liked PF1 stuff - especially earlier stuff that was more compatible with 3.5e for my 3.5e D&D Greyhawk campaigns, running since launch day.

I liked PF1 enough to go to Paizocon several times (I’m local), collect the rules, and buy the first 10 or so adventure paths. But I never actually played PF1 outside of Paizocon, or Pathfinder: Kingmaker on Xbox (which was very good).

With PF2, I said “meh” and bought none of it after hearing here it’s not compatible with PF1 or any D&D version. My thoughts were basically: I’d don’t need an 8th variant on D&D to collect and learn - just as I eventually said “no more“ to 4e and “meh, I someone runs it, I’ll play to 5e”, I felt no compulsion to “upgrade” in PF world.

These days Paizo gets none of my money (though I buy PF1 materials by Raging Swan on DriveThruRPG), which I find a bit sad.

New editions are a good way to monetize your existing customers, but also a good way to lose them.

I'm in a similar boat with respect to Paizo, though it seems I played and ran a lot more PF1 in home campaigns than you did (and I played PFS at GenCon, GaryCon, and Gamehole Con rather than Paizocon). PF2 lost me and I prefer 5e to it by far. 4e and PF1 switched me from WotC to Paizo as a customer, PF2 and 5e reversed the switch. I even ended my sub to the APs, which was kind of a painful decision since I had started my sub as a conversion from Dungeon Magazine and maintained it all through the PF1 APs.

 

[payn]

I worry they didn’t learn the lessons of D&D’s bankruptcy in the 2e era. Overextended into new areas, poorly managed their finances and HR. Have they read “Slaying the Dragon”, the business history of that collapse? My guess is creatives like Mearls are well aware, but the business people are not.

The differences in businesses are not even comparable today.

 

[payn]

I'm in a similar boat with respect to Paizo, though it seems I played and ran a lot more PF1 in home campaigns than you did (and I played PFS at GenCon, GaryCon, and Gamehole Con rather than Paizocon). PF2 lost me and I prefer 5e to it by far. 4e and PF1 switched me from WotC to Paizo as a customer, PF2 and 5e reversed the switch. I even ended my sub to the APs, which was kind of a painful decision since I had started my sub as a conversion from Dungeon Magazine and maintained it all through the PF1 APs.

I was sad about that too because I vastly prefer Paizo adventure material. My journey with D&D and PF has been the same.

 

[haakon1]

The one you grew up with is usually your favorite.

Solid theory, but not true for all 5e refuseniks.

I started with AD&D (1e) when I was 13, and my “forever edition” of 3.5e came out when I was 34. I’m still fond of AD&D, and a LOT of what I DM are 1e scenarios, but for actual rules, I mostly don’t use it.

I do still reference AD&D (1e) rules for things like building up manors the PC’s are developing. Reference, but not follow verbatim.

 

[Oofta]

I worry they didn’t learn the lessons of D&D’s bankruptcy in the 2e era. Overextended into new areas, poorly managed their finances and HR. Have they read “Slaying the Dragon”, the business history of that collapse? My guess is creatives like Mearls are well aware, but the business people are not.

The expansion into products other than focusing on the core printed book business is what gives me hope because it takes some of the pressure off of the publish or perish side of things. Time will tell, but the three core books are still selling fairly well and many people are coming around to the idea of the long tail of getting profits with minimal investment. I guess I've just chosen to be an optimist, it's better than assuming gloom and doom all the time.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I think D&D is similar to James Bond, Dr. Who, and now Star Wars in one regard.

The one you grew up with is usually your favorite. Whatever came before was "quaint" and whatever the future holds is a weak candle to the blaze of the glory days when you were a bit shorter and didn't have to cook all of your own meals.

I don't think that's really true.

I mean, maybe me and my players are weird, but no-one really wishes we were still playing 2E, which is what we all started with. The only edition anyone in my group sometimes wants to go back to is 4E, and it's two specific players - who habitually play Rogues and Fighters respectively. Both of them sometimes moan about how 5E isn't as much fun as 4E, and frankly, I can see why - 4E gave both classes a hell of a lot more and more interesting tools in combat, and even slightly more out-of-combat, because of the sheer number of Feats you get, which could easily be used to add skills, ritual magic, and so on (and which had no competition with ASIs).

Personally some of the very best RPGs I've ever seen, I didn't see until I was 40 or older. The state of RPG design now is hugely, insanely better than it was in, say 1989, when I started out. Because of two big factors:

1) We've had 30+ years of learning shown by RPGs succeeding and failing at stuff.

2) We've got the internet to communicate those ideas and discuss RPG design theory, and even when we don't agree, if we listen, we find out stuff.