D&D (2024) Speculation Welcome: What's Next for D&D?

[payn]

I seem to recall 3e with Cook and the other developers all being great for making the edition and then left the company by various ways. Everyone was thinking that D&D was crazy. Heinsoo and the others with 4e, now Mearls with 5e. I'm guessing that they will find new titans to continue with some new books and eventually a new edition in several more years.

I thought Mearls had been off D&D for awhile now. Wasn't he working on Magic?

I can also see the continued push for online gaming and this may be from both the player/DM end and the Wizards end. It is like streaming platforms all going to an ad-based system, the lure of gold is too strong.

Folks like playing online.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

WotC is madly seeking a way to get away from the OGL that market research groups approve. They'll probably even push back to 2025, depending on those precious approval percentage points... although 2025 ending in 5 doesn't exactly help getting away from "5e."

I wouldn't expect less content per year - that doesn't support their pay-to-play dreams.

I’m predicting that this general view will not be supported at all by what actually happens.

They’ll add 2024 core books changes to the OGL and CC SRDs, and unless the updated 5e core books don’t sell at all, we won’t see anything like a new edition any time before 2030.

 

[Remathilis]

So, we are still waiting for the release date of the new-not-new edition, and some of Wizards of the Coast staff have been cut.

For those of you dice rollers who've taken more than my thirty-odd trips around the sun, what does this mean for the health of the game moving forward? Should we expect less content? Less yearly content releases? Less 3rd party publishers willing to use the OGL?

Doom. Gloom. Conspiracy theories. Personal preference stated as fact. A few attempts to shill alternative systems. Click bait and engagement farming. That's my 2024 prediction at least.

Aside from that I suspect the new books will be fine, D&D Beyond will be WotC's D&D hub, and a lot of rememberberry products coming out this year.

 

[Remathilis]

...since that could mean they will sell off D&D to someone that lives and breathes tabletop.

Which will never happen. If D&D falters, it will go into the vault and will be used to brand cheap mobile games and coffee mugs.

 

[payn]

Which will never happen. If D&D falters, it will go into the vault and will be used to brand cheap mobile games and coffee mugs.

Like the Stanley model? Its nuts, I just found out folks are paying 50 bucks a pop for mugs that say Stanley on them.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

WotC is madly seeking a way to get away from the OGL that market research groups approve. They'll probably even push back to 2025, depending on those precious approval percentage points... although 2025 ending in 5 doesn't exactly help getting away from "5e."

I wouldn't expect less content per year - that doesn't support their pay-to-play dreams.

Wizards got their butts swatted after their OGL shenanigans last year and they know it. Remember that it was not the entire company driving the change, only a small faction of high-ups. The designers and other teams were against it. I think there would be too much internal pushback for the company to try and backpedal on last year's promises.

I predict that the new 2024 rules will be released into the Creative Commons around time of the PHB release. The same will happen with each of the other 2 core books when they come out. While some may say that the new SRD should go live early so 3rd party companies can prepare and release compatible products sooner, I don't think that will happen. This isn't a new game, like 3E was back in the day. Existing 5E products will still be compatible.

However, as for adding older editions into the Creative Commons, I think that is still up in the air. They are focusing on their tight deadlines for 5E 2024 release, but after that release, the community will really need to push hard if they really want older editions to be added to the Creative Commons. There would need to be demand for them to invest in that effort.

I don't think Old School fans really want to make products for actual older editions of D&D. After all, the Old School movement wants to support the old school-style 3rd party games they've already made (which fix the proud nails they don't like from older editions). Of course, I could be wrong. I'm not an Old School fanatic.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Business as usual, some of which includes Suits not listening to Those In The Trenches and making instructions that cause the company to fall flat on its face. Other things that work out fine. I just hope that there's not too much of the former.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

My impression is, so far, the longterm strategies of WotC have been focusing on corporate branding, and licensing their IP (intellectual property) of D&D.

This IP promotion led to the production of the Honor Among Thieves, which is a good D&D movie. There are other shows in the works as well. These expand the mainstream recognizability of the D&D game and its many features.

Sometimes the focus on IP interferes with other aspect of the D&D game, especially the attempt to destroy the OGL (open gaming license) recently. But also the IP interference shows up in game design itself, such as pressuring the use of IP, for example the WotC-owned "gods", rather than allowing the Cleric player to decide the "sacred" character concept. In this sense, the IP focus even lacks reallife cultural sensitivity.

WotC decisively ended its tone-deaf assault against the OGL. In hindsight, at least influencial deciders within the corporation better appreciate the practical benefits of promoting the OGL, for a "rising tide lifts all boats" business strategy. At its time, the innovation of OGL was a paradigm shift, a social experiment. But its wisdom proved itself.

As far as I can tell, the DMs Guild turns out to be successful. It too started as an innovative experiment. Generally, the OGL (or now also the CC) allows D&D players to invent and sell products for the D&D game, with access to most of the core rules for D&D, as long as they stay away from proprietary IP that the OGL cannot access. But if selling the independent products thru the Guild, they can even create products using the proprietary IP. The DMs Guild steers which items of the IP become available, depending on which official products WotC wants to promote − which indies can enhance. Then the indy products sold thru the Guild gain a profit for both the indy creator and the WotC corporation. There is a goodwill feeling that this approach is "fair" and smart.

The Guild has a bewildering variety of indy products, of various quality. Some of them are very high quality, such as products for official D&D settings by the inventors themselves of those settings. Even then, it is difficult to decide where to begin when wanting to peruse and purchase a product.

There are plans for DnDBeyond, the official digital venue for D&D, to make it easier to incorporate gaming data from the indy products, including those in the Guild.

These plans to make indy products more accessible promotes the OGL. It also benefits D&D players generally, when they can find more products to meet niche needs. Famously, D&D 5e designers only create "popular" content with high percentage of the approval rating, that appeal to the public generally. Of course this is a good business strategy for selling products. But this approach of the "lowest common denominator" can leave unmet the various specific niche needs that most D&D players have. When the indy products meet these needs, it helps many players to commit to the D&D game engine, because they can find a way for it to do what they need it to do. Of course, the difficulty is to find these products.

I expect future WotC plans to figure out how to navigate and utilize DMs Guild products and other 5e indy products via DnDBeyond. Likewise, to use DnDBeyond to purchase physical products for use at a physical table top.

That's optimistic, but it really would be the best plan. I hope that they try this.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I thought Mearls had been off D&D for awhile now. Wasn't he working on Magic?

He was. But when you no longer work for WotC, you can still make D&D. It would be really, really hard to keep making Magic when you don't work at WotC.

 

[payn]

He was. But when you no longer work for WotC, you can still make D&D. It would be really, really hard to keep making Magic when you don't work at WotC.

Well, the point was "designer kicked off the edition intimates a new edition is on the horizon" that I was asking about.