Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
With the whole fiasco we've been dealing with recently we've had a number of people who have questioned the dominant position of D&D, and more generally, WoTC/Hasbro, within the TTRPG (hereafter, "RPG") industry. While I have previously written (and written, and written) thoughts about why D&D has this kind of privileged position within the industry, I was intrigued by the people who, on occasion, would predict that the recent brouhaha would cause some big player to swoop in and use its own IP to dominate the industry.
That, combined with the recent thread on licensed IPs you wish had been made into RPGs but hadn't, made me start thinking about the issue more closely. Why don't we see everyone playing Lord of the Rings? Marvel Super Heroes? The Fast & Furious Family? The Greater Pixar Animated Galaxy? The Rowlings-free Potterverse? Barbie's Magical Mansion? James Bond's World of Drinkin' and Killin'?
I think that there is a reason that we don't see the dominance of established IP brands within the RPG community. And it's worth looking at why we don't see them. Which .... wait for it ... wait for it ... wait for it ... requires a little history! YES!
1. The Early History of RPGs
In the beginning, there was D&D. Now, I don't think it's particularly helpful to unpack how influential Tolkien was on D&D- whether you think it was a little, or a lot, it was certainly part of it. But D&D was not a Tolkien simulator (something I will address in more detail later).
After D&D, we began to see other games take form. Boot Hill. Tunnels & Trolls. Metamorphosis Alpha. Superhero: 2044. Gamma World. RuneQuest. Traveller. Notably, the vast majority of games were inspired by genre and genre tropes (Fantasy, Space Opera, Post Apocalypse, Super Heroes, Westerns, etc.) but relatively few were directly based on a sole specific work of intellectual property. The 1970s were, for the most part, devoid of a lot a lot of licensed material for RPGs. That doesn't mean that there weren't any RPGs- for example, one of the very first RPGs was Bunnies & Burrows (what is it with alliteration in RPGs?), released in 1976, and heavily inspired by Watership Down.
There are different ways to look at this, but the simplest way is that the RPG market in the 1970s was very much a hobbyist market, and that IP and licensing just wasn't as developed as we expect it today. There was a lot of "borrowing" of IP that often went unchecked or was incorporated into games, and occasionally would result in some action (such as when the original Deities & Demigods had sections for the mythos of Moorcock and H.P Lovecraft, but were withdrawn because while TSR had received permission for that, Chaosium had entered into licensing agreements for same).
Over time, of course, more licensed properties began to appear in the RPG world. Notable appearances were Star Trek in 1978 (not the later, more famous one, in 1982), Call of Cthulhu in 1981, MERP (Middle Earth Role Playing) in 1982, Marvel Super Heroes in 1984, DC Heroes in 1985, and Star Wars in 1987. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg- the 1980s saw an explosion of licensed RPGs, when everything from Ghostbusters to James Bond to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Doctor Who to Conan saw their own RPGs released.
...and yet, none of them took over the market. None of them became dominant forces in the way that D&D and its various clones have. Looking through the games and thinking back through the history, I am sure that people will note one game that is both fondly remembered from that time and still quite prevalent today (Call of Cthulhu) which we will return to later. But, for the most part, the licensed IP is mostly forgotten, even if fondly remembered (RIP, Marvel FASERIP). Why? In the same community that can argue endlessly about the best Star Trek captain, or how true to canon Rings of Power is, or whether Order 66 was justified by Jedi child abuse ... how is it that that these games that would let you play in these worlds have remained in the minority?
2. The Gandalf Problem
One of the interesting (for various definitions of "interesting") debates in early D&D was how to stat up Gandalf. See, for example, the article in Dragon #5- Gandalf Was Only A Fifth Level Magic-User. This was just another salvo in the continuing debate about Gandalf specifically, and fictional character generally- how do you translate the awesome character you read about into D&D rules? Or, put another way, why does every Legolas you make seem lame, Chad?
At a very fundamental level, these debates within D&D were simply a small version of the issue that we would later see in game design - the tension between RPGs as a game and RPGs as an emergent story. Without getting too far sidetracked, it's been long recognized that games are required to follow rules- in addition, most RPGs have concerns about things like "balance," or "sharing the spotlight," or "niche protection," or "advancement" (or just some type of reward loop). Finally, and most importantly, most RPGs have some degree of player agency within the game.
This is in contrast to fiction- while there is certainly a desire for internal consistency in fiction, there are no hard-and-fast mechanical rules. Everything is in service to the needs of the author (using the term loosely- the director, the creative force behind the work). How powerful is Gandalf? As powerful as he needs to be. How did he survive the fall? Because um ... um mumbo jumbo reward for sacrifice mumbo jumbo. And so on. On the other hand, as soon as you tie a particular character down to any ruleset, even flexible rulesets that play to narrative concerns, you immediately lose the flexibility of a completely fictional character that isn't in a game.
And that's one of the major issues with licensed properties. At their best, they let you play in a world you love- the world of Star Trek, or Star Wars, or Marvel. But to the extent you are comparing yourself to the fiction that the IP is based on, it will always fall short. The needs of the game ensure that you will not be Captain Kirk, you cannot faithfully re-created the heroes' journey of Luke Skywalker, and that it will be kinda sorta lame to be Hawkeye when your friend is Thor.
....okay, that last example is true to the IP. But you get the point. RPGs, which are great for allowing you to play within worlds, are generally bad at recreating specific characters from previously-known IP.
3. The Cthulhu Counter
If you've read this far, you're probably already thinking about Cthulhu. Honestly, we're all thinking about Cthulhu, all the time, allowing the words to seep into our conscious thoughts every minute of every day until the very thought becomes unbearable and Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn ....
HA! Of course you haven't read this far. You already made a comment about how I didn't consider Cthulhu. Arguably, Chaosium's Cthulhu, both the first game (a revelation in 1981) continuing on through the popular 7th Edition, is the example that proves the rule. It is the IP-based RPG that keeps on truckin', and remains incredibly popular to this day.
But why did I write that it is the exception that proves the rule? So here's the thing- first, unlike more mainstream IPs like Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek, Cthulhu and the Lovecraftian universe wasn't very character driven. It was always more of a genre- cosmic horror. While there were protagonists in the various short stories ... spoiler ... they don't really get repeat performances. Importantly (perhaps for purposed of the ongoing OGL debacle) the prominence of Lovecraft skyrocketed in the 70s and later first as August Derleth (and Arkham House) licensed anything and everything they could, and then later as it was realized that a good deal of Lovecraft's work was in the public domain. If you ever want to read something that is both comical and also puts the recent contretemps regarding Hasbro's statements to shame, I suggest reading this one from Chaosium.
Due to this confluence of events and impeccable timing, CoC became more than a mere vessel for IP, but instead became a standard-bearer for horror within RPGs.
4. Commercial Considerations
Another issue that came up during the recent OGL fiasco was the idea that a licensing fee from WoTC was terrible, as the margins for many 3PPs are already so low. And from there, most people will recognize another issue with licensed IPs. Yes, it is true that the best way to make a small fortune in RPGs is to start with a large fortune- but the already slim margins are even more difficult if you have to pay the rights holder for the use of their intellectual property. For that reason, you often see the rights bounce around.
You can see this licensing issue with some of the big properties- Star Wars went from WEG to WoTC to FFG (now to Edge).
Star Trek has gone from Heritage Models to FASA to Last Unicorn to Decipher to Modiphus .... and I know I'm missing some.
And so on. Yes, D&D (5e) has managed to make a decent amount of money. But the market is relatively small potatoes for a lot of the these companies ... certainly in terms of investing the money to enter the market themselves. So we see perioding licensing of their IP, sometimes with decent games as a result (again, RIP FASERIP). Fundamentally, though, there is always the same problem with the licensed IP such as this - rights-holders will not license their IP indefinitely, and they will demand money, and there is always the possibility that even if it is successful it might get "yanked back."
5. Conclusion
This hobby is a strange one; D&D might be a big fish (or even a Blue Whale) in terms of the RPG market, but it's a minnow when it comes to branded IP. For various reasons, both historical and commercial, major properties such as Star Wars, Star Trek, and the DC/Marvel universes have always been a present, but small, part of the market. In addition, the nature of RPGs have always meant that the things that are most valuable about these commercial properties - the characters - often make them ill-suited for RPGs. Whether the converse is true, and D&D is ill-suited for expansion into other media, in an open question that we will likely see resolved with the release of the new movie and upcoming TV shows.
That, combined with the recent thread on licensed IPs you wish had been made into RPGs but hadn't, made me start thinking about the issue more closely. Why don't we see everyone playing Lord of the Rings? Marvel Super Heroes? The Fast & Furious Family? The Greater Pixar Animated Galaxy? The Rowlings-free Potterverse? Barbie's Magical Mansion? James Bond's World of Drinkin' and Killin'?
I think that there is a reason that we don't see the dominance of established IP brands within the RPG community. And it's worth looking at why we don't see them. Which .... wait for it ... wait for it ... wait for it ... requires a little history! YES!
1. The Early History of RPGs
In the beginning, there was D&D. Now, I don't think it's particularly helpful to unpack how influential Tolkien was on D&D- whether you think it was a little, or a lot, it was certainly part of it. But D&D was not a Tolkien simulator (something I will address in more detail later).
After D&D, we began to see other games take form. Boot Hill. Tunnels & Trolls. Metamorphosis Alpha. Superhero: 2044. Gamma World. RuneQuest. Traveller. Notably, the vast majority of games were inspired by genre and genre tropes (Fantasy, Space Opera, Post Apocalypse, Super Heroes, Westerns, etc.) but relatively few were directly based on a sole specific work of intellectual property. The 1970s were, for the most part, devoid of a lot a lot of licensed material for RPGs. That doesn't mean that there weren't any RPGs- for example, one of the very first RPGs was Bunnies & Burrows (what is it with alliteration in RPGs?), released in 1976, and heavily inspired by Watership Down.
There are different ways to look at this, but the simplest way is that the RPG market in the 1970s was very much a hobbyist market, and that IP and licensing just wasn't as developed as we expect it today. There was a lot of "borrowing" of IP that often went unchecked or was incorporated into games, and occasionally would result in some action (such as when the original Deities & Demigods had sections for the mythos of Moorcock and H.P Lovecraft, but were withdrawn because while TSR had received permission for that, Chaosium had entered into licensing agreements for same).
Over time, of course, more licensed properties began to appear in the RPG world. Notable appearances were Star Trek in 1978 (not the later, more famous one, in 1982), Call of Cthulhu in 1981, MERP (Middle Earth Role Playing) in 1982, Marvel Super Heroes in 1984, DC Heroes in 1985, and Star Wars in 1987. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg- the 1980s saw an explosion of licensed RPGs, when everything from Ghostbusters to James Bond to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Doctor Who to Conan saw their own RPGs released.
...and yet, none of them took over the market. None of them became dominant forces in the way that D&D and its various clones have. Looking through the games and thinking back through the history, I am sure that people will note one game that is both fondly remembered from that time and still quite prevalent today (Call of Cthulhu) which we will return to later. But, for the most part, the licensed IP is mostly forgotten, even if fondly remembered (RIP, Marvel FASERIP). Why? In the same community that can argue endlessly about the best Star Trek captain, or how true to canon Rings of Power is, or whether Order 66 was justified by Jedi child abuse ... how is it that that these games that would let you play in these worlds have remained in the minority?
2. The Gandalf Problem
One of the interesting (for various definitions of "interesting") debates in early D&D was how to stat up Gandalf. See, for example, the article in Dragon #5- Gandalf Was Only A Fifth Level Magic-User. This was just another salvo in the continuing debate about Gandalf specifically, and fictional character generally- how do you translate the awesome character you read about into D&D rules? Or, put another way, why does every Legolas you make seem lame, Chad?
At a very fundamental level, these debates within D&D were simply a small version of the issue that we would later see in game design - the tension between RPGs as a game and RPGs as an emergent story. Without getting too far sidetracked, it's been long recognized that games are required to follow rules- in addition, most RPGs have concerns about things like "balance," or "sharing the spotlight," or "niche protection," or "advancement" (or just some type of reward loop). Finally, and most importantly, most RPGs have some degree of player agency within the game.
This is in contrast to fiction- while there is certainly a desire for internal consistency in fiction, there are no hard-and-fast mechanical rules. Everything is in service to the needs of the author (using the term loosely- the director, the creative force behind the work). How powerful is Gandalf? As powerful as he needs to be. How did he survive the fall? Because um ... um mumbo jumbo reward for sacrifice mumbo jumbo. And so on. On the other hand, as soon as you tie a particular character down to any ruleset, even flexible rulesets that play to narrative concerns, you immediately lose the flexibility of a completely fictional character that isn't in a game.
And that's one of the major issues with licensed properties. At their best, they let you play in a world you love- the world of Star Trek, or Star Wars, or Marvel. But to the extent you are comparing yourself to the fiction that the IP is based on, it will always fall short. The needs of the game ensure that you will not be Captain Kirk, you cannot faithfully re-created the heroes' journey of Luke Skywalker, and that it will be kinda sorta lame to be Hawkeye when your friend is Thor.
....okay, that last example is true to the IP. But you get the point. RPGs, which are great for allowing you to play within worlds, are generally bad at recreating specific characters from previously-known IP.
3. The Cthulhu Counter
If you've read this far, you're probably already thinking about Cthulhu. Honestly, we're all thinking about Cthulhu, all the time, allowing the words to seep into our conscious thoughts every minute of every day until the very thought becomes unbearable and Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn ....
HA! Of course you haven't read this far. You already made a comment about how I didn't consider Cthulhu. Arguably, Chaosium's Cthulhu, both the first game (a revelation in 1981) continuing on through the popular 7th Edition, is the example that proves the rule. It is the IP-based RPG that keeps on truckin', and remains incredibly popular to this day.
But why did I write that it is the exception that proves the rule? So here's the thing- first, unlike more mainstream IPs like Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek, Cthulhu and the Lovecraftian universe wasn't very character driven. It was always more of a genre- cosmic horror. While there were protagonists in the various short stories ... spoiler ... they don't really get repeat performances. Importantly (perhaps for purposed of the ongoing OGL debacle) the prominence of Lovecraft skyrocketed in the 70s and later first as August Derleth (and Arkham House) licensed anything and everything they could, and then later as it was realized that a good deal of Lovecraft's work was in the public domain. If you ever want to read something that is both comical and also puts the recent contretemps regarding Hasbro's statements to shame, I suggest reading this one from Chaosium.
Due to this confluence of events and impeccable timing, CoC became more than a mere vessel for IP, but instead became a standard-bearer for horror within RPGs.
4. Commercial Considerations
Another issue that came up during the recent OGL fiasco was the idea that a licensing fee from WoTC was terrible, as the margins for many 3PPs are already so low. And from there, most people will recognize another issue with licensed IPs. Yes, it is true that the best way to make a small fortune in RPGs is to start with a large fortune- but the already slim margins are even more difficult if you have to pay the rights holder for the use of their intellectual property. For that reason, you often see the rights bounce around.
You can see this licensing issue with some of the big properties- Star Wars went from WEG to WoTC to FFG (now to Edge).
Star Trek has gone from Heritage Models to FASA to Last Unicorn to Decipher to Modiphus .... and I know I'm missing some.
And so on. Yes, D&D (5e) has managed to make a decent amount of money. But the market is relatively small potatoes for a lot of the these companies ... certainly in terms of investing the money to enter the market themselves. So we see perioding licensing of their IP, sometimes with decent games as a result (again, RIP FASERIP). Fundamentally, though, there is always the same problem with the licensed IP such as this - rights-holders will not license their IP indefinitely, and they will demand money, and there is always the possibility that even if it is successful it might get "yanked back."
5. Conclusion
This hobby is a strange one; D&D might be a big fish (or even a Blue Whale) in terms of the RPG market, but it's a minnow when it comes to branded IP. For various reasons, both historical and commercial, major properties such as Star Wars, Star Trek, and the DC/Marvel universes have always been a present, but small, part of the market. In addition, the nature of RPGs have always meant that the things that are most valuable about these commercial properties - the characters - often make them ill-suited for RPGs. Whether the converse is true, and D&D is ill-suited for expansion into other media, in an open question that we will likely see resolved with the release of the new movie and upcoming TV shows.
