What if the D&D brand had gone dark?

[ShinHakkaider]

There would be no 4e and, therefore, no current edition wars making several sites more friendly. Also, third party products for 3e would most likely still remain in print after the end of the year, because there would be no GSL forcing third party publishers to abandon the d20STL and destroy products bearing the d20 logo.

In other words, thing would be good (well, until they brought out a new edition that was as drastically different as 4e). YMMV.

Pretty much what I was going to say, right here.

This for me would have actually been the dream scenario.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

I think D&D would have diminished, but probably wouldn't have died altogether. The fans who like it would have kept playing and tinkering with it. Several years (or less) down the road we would have seen 3e retro-clones. Meanwhile others would have branched out and discovered other games. New games would have been created.

I got in a bit after 3.5 was released, and left before 4e. To me D&D is not the be-all-end-all of pen&paper RPGs and had it died I would still have games.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

None of the above.

 

[Delta]

Here's my answer: I honestly don't know. I'm curious about that, too. There's some stuff in life that's easy to call, but that's not one of them.

My current prediction is for D&D to cease publication in 2019. So that's a ways off, but I'm also interested in what happens afterwards. I don't think the market is purely dead if the D&D brand exits PnP publishing. Could be (a) a whole bunch of bush companies take over the slack, could be (b) one other company becomes the market leader. My curiousity has me sort of interested in finding out.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

What if WOTC/Hasbro decided to just stop publishing new D&D materials in 2008 (instead of bringing out 4E)? What if they just held the brand and maybe out out minis, tiles, etc?

Net effect on me: zero.

My D&D gaming is completely divorced from WotC and what it does. I don't run the current edition and I have no need for WotC's D&D products. My favored edition is receiving support from enthusiasts (either via "fair use" or via the OGL). I don't rely on a pool of "pick up" players, and I've always been able to find players, so that's not an issue, for me.

What if after a 2 year (or so) absence they then brought a the New and Improved Version of D&D?

Assuming I heard about it, I'd look at it and see if it was for me. Considering my tastes and the direction of the past few editions, I rather doubt that it would be.

 

[thedungeondelver]

Absolutely no effect on me whatsoever. Effectively, for me, the D&D brand has gone dark - the kind I like to play has, anyway, from a "corporate support" standpoint. But I think I've said my piece regarding that.

 

[jdrakeh]

The success of D&D is largely dependent on visibility. Commerce being what it is, if D&D ceased to be, another system would supplant it as King of the Hill and regaining the momentum necessary to reclaim that top spot would be difficult — if not impossible — depending upon what game usurped the throne and how it was handled by its publisher.

 

[Wik]

Simple. Some other game would take the "main RPG" slot, and would become rather popular. Then, it'd get a lot of word of mouth, as people who always thought D&D was too "nerdy" were suddenly interested in this brand new idea of "Role-playing Games". People would talk about this new game, like it was something crazy-new, and it'd soon find a home in many houses throughout the world.

Even the cool kids, who always throught "dungeons and dragons" was only for nerds, would adopt this super-cool game. After all, it has a shiny cover.

And then some enlightened spiritualists would see the devil in that shiny cover, and go on a witchhunt. The media would pick up on the story, and there would be some "oh, won't someone think of the CHILDREN!?" moments. Then, some guy would randomly die in some random accident, and this new shiny-covered RPG would be to blame. There would be a huge public backlash, and players of this new game would have to defend themselves and their hobby - at work, at school, and at home.

Then, someone would discover the old copies of D&D, and start suggesting we play that as an alternative to this crazy new RPG. Shiny covers just can't be trusted.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

It wouldn't change much. D&D will always be able to comeback with a new edition, it doesn't matter how long you wait.

Of course, that's assuming the new edition will offer some changes and is still well designed - it might never be to the taste of everyone, but if it's AD&D redux or 3E redux, it won't be a big success - but it won't kill D&D, either.

The OGL will never be able to replace a new, official D&D. It just lacks the official brand sign, and that will always count for something. Even if we would have 3 lackluster editions or 10 years without a new one, the brand itself will always attract enough people so that a good edition will get a large and strong audience.

 

[delericho]

I suspect that it would be the end of the game.

If WotC went dark with D&D, they'd have to lay off pretty much everyone involved in the game. But then, if everyone's gone, who's left with the passion to ensure that the game is revived? After all, it's not significant enough a property for Hasbro to even notice it, and if all the people who worked on it are now gone or re-assigned...?

With D&D gone, most people who currently play would continue to play, but very little new blood would come into the hobby. Over time, attrition would lead to the hobby shrinking, and eventually dying.

(There is another scenario I can see playing out - it goes dark for ten years, and then someone at Hasbro who happens to be a keen ex-gamer sees that they own the rights, decides to push for a new edition, and it suddenly has a huge revival. But that's very unlikely, I think.)