What if. . .WotC never bought TSR?

[wingsandsword]

I've been wondering.

In the realm of "Alternate History" scenarios, "What if's" and wondering about the way things could have been, for all the revival of D&D that has happened in the last 5 years, for all that has happened to gaming with the advent of d20, for all that's happened, it came so close to never happening.

What if WotC never bought TSR? What if Ryan Dancey's visit to the TSR offices ended with him realizing that the copyrights and trademarks to D&D were effectively unsalvageably tied up, that TSR's finances were beyond any shadow of repair, or that WotC didn't have the money to fix the problems?

What if TSR collapsed circa 1998, went out-of-buisness, and was broken up and liquidated in bankruptcy? What would have happened to gaming, what would have happened to D&D?

Would another gaming company stepped in and picked up some of the pieces in the liquidation, buying the rights for cheap? Would Anti-D&D critics buy them to bury them? Would they be picked up by some large corporation and essentially forgotten, languishing until the trademark expired and some utterly unrelated game came out years later with the same name but only vaguely similar rules? Would many of the "Big Names" of TSR stayed in the industry at other companies and created new games to fill the niche?

How would the gaming industry cope? How much would gaming decline? How long and strong would D&D last without any active support or publishing? What company would step into the gap? What games would have become popular in the vaccum?

I'm interested in seeing what people think would have happened here.

 

[diaglo]

i'd still be playing OD&D(1974). i would just have more money in my pocket now.

 

[Squire James]

I think RPG's would still hang around, but remain at the low popularity level they had in the mid-1990's at best. The RPG game companies probably all go under, and fans would essentially be making their own games. Those who lack the energy and/or time to make their own games would find some other hobby.

 

[Kuld]

Nothing. We would still be trying to hit armor class 0.

 

[Buttercup]

Someone else would have bought the rights. Perhaps they would have created a new edition, or perhaps not. But the D&D IP is too valuable for it to have languished forever. And if you doubt how valuable it is, consider the potential of the computer game market. D&D as a tabletop game might even have died, but the name and probably a MMORPG would eventually have risen from the ashes.

I know that people love to hate WotC, but I think D&D's fate would probably have been far worse in anyone else's hands. The few other game companies out there who could have ponied up the case to buy it, like White Wolf or AEG, don't have the international clout and market that WotC/Hasbro does.

 

[francisca]

i'd still be playing OD&D(1974). i would just have more money in my pocket now.

Nearly the same here, substitute 1e or B/X instead of the '74 edition.

Actually, I hardly play 3e much at all anymore, so for me, about the same it is now.

 

[diaglo]

Nearly the same here, substitute 1e or B/X instead of the '74 edition.

Actually, I hardly play 3e much at all anymore, so for me, about the same it is now.

and lovin' every minute of it...


which reminds me... next session is this sunday. high noon at my place.

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

Someone would have picked up the rights to it and probably screwed it up. We'd all be playing OD&D, AD&D 1E or 2E and D&D B/X. EBay sales of old rulebooks would keep those interested supplied but I doubt many new players would ever discover the game. I know a lot of you love to beat up on WOTC, but they saved our game and with the OGL and d20 made it into something TSR never would have. I still play OD&D even though I am a die hard d20 fan, so the way I see it is we got the best of both worlds.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Somebody would have scooped up those rights. White Wolf or Steve Jackson Games most likely. My personal tastes don't run toward the way WW handles their games and I think they'd be more intervesionist with the IP. From what I've seen of Steve Jackson Games, they'd be more hands off and I don't think they'd have messed with the rules much.

 

[Mystery Man]

We'd all be playing Hackmaster most likely....