D&D 5E Where We've Been and Where We Might Be Going (or, What I Think WotC Is Doing)

[Malmuria]

WSJ News Exclusive | Dungeons & Dragons Gets a Bigger Role at Hasbro

Toy maker Hasbro is reorganizing to capitalize on a pandemic-fueled boom in old-school tabletop games, creating a separate division around the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering.

www.wsj.com

Hasbro hopes the reorganization will allow it to replicate Wizards of the Coast’s success in digital games and licensing in other parts of the company and boost other properties like G.I. Joe, Ouija and Transformers, according to a person familiar with the matter. According to Hasbro Chief Executive Brian Goldner, the Wizards unit is on track to double revenue from 2018 to 2023.

Perhaps the Transformers rpg license is an attempt of other sections of Hasbro to emulate wotc? In any case, licensing the ip across various media seems to be the business strategy and probably drives wotc's editorial decisions to some, perhaps a greater, degree (descent into avernus for example). If they can create a good digital ecosystem (some combination of dndbeyond, dms guild, and a vtt) that would further allow them to increase revenue; in that case, they could maybe release soemthing like a Dark Sun adventure anthology, but only in an online format (I guess they could do this with the way things are set up now but I feel like dms guild is not the best platform for marketing a product).

In any case, Hasbro will inevitably keep pressuring wotc to product profit at an unsustainable rate, leading to bad/risky decisions and some sort of self-inflicted decline collapse.

 

[Umbran]

I don't know if other Hasbro RPG offerings would have the power to stop WotC if they did want to go in to the sci-fi space (not that I think they will). WotC brings the big bucks, and if they say to Hasbro, we want to sell Sci-Fi, I could see Hasbro letting them, even if it steps on the toes of smaller RPG offerings.

This isn't about "power". There's every sign that Hasbro is trying to approach this with good business sense, rather than heavy-handed muscle.

WotC does good stuff, and at the moment have a pretty good name. You don't sully that name with heavy experimentation. You hand that to some other, mostly unknown people. If they do a good job, you buy them, and bring them into the fold.

 

[Bolares]

This isn't about "power". There's every sign that Hasbro is trying to approach this with good business sense, rather than heavy-handed muscle.

WotC does good stuff, and at the moment have a pretty good name. You don't sully that name with heavy experimentation. You hand that to some other, mostly unknown people. If they do a good job, you buy them, and bring them into the fold.

I don't disagree with you. I doubt WotC would do that. But I think if they did, Hasbro would let them.

 

[darjr]

Huh, WotC getting competition from other sections of Hasbro. I think it's happened before so why not.

 

[Mercurius]

Right. So, my thought is that you should not expect to see any serious work done with Gamma World in the near future. You might see "D&D after the Rain of Colorless Fire" or Darksun, but they aren't sci-fi.

After we see if the Transformers et al. flop, maybe you'll see WotC branch out. I still think it unlikely, but you might see it.

Yeah, I agree with that, for the most part. But "fantasy" is a pretty wide umbrella, with D&D being mostly a relatively narrow swath. There are realms in-between fantasy and SF that could be explored within a D&D context.

For instance, a setting built upon the ruins of a fallen high-tech civilization, which would require equipment and even rules, perhaps with mutations and such (sort of "fantasy Gamma World").

Of course all that could still just be D&D, just branching out further.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

This is backed up by Hasbro going to someone other than WotC to do RPGs for Transformers, G.I. Joe, and such. Don't expect WotC to stretch into that space and have Hasbro effectively competing with itself.

I've been pondering why WotC isn't doing the Transformers and GI Joe RPGs. I suspect it might be simply because the Transformers/GI Joe business units have their own P&L, and any collaboration muddies that accounting. There might not be some master plan (or even discussion) between that business unit, WotC, and the Hasbro mothership. That would reflect my own experience in the corporate world. I mean, it took literally 20 years for two brands owned by WotC (D&D and Magic) to have a crossover--imagine how much more institutional resistance there is between WotC and another subsidiary of Hasbro.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Exactly - I don't foresee WotC going into the sci-fi space any time soon, because that would compete with Hasbro's other RPG offerings. But Spelljammer isn't sci-fi, so that's okay.

I think there is a low likelihood that anyone at Hasbro is worried that Gamma World might cannibalize market share from Transformers or GI Joe in the TTRPG space. It's a stretch that anyone at Hasbro is micromanaging the brands in that way. And even if they were, the risk of actual cannibalization is low. And even if there were cannibalization, how much money are we talking about? A few thousand bucks?

That said, there might be other reasons related to the overall vision for the D&D brand where WotC decides on its own not to go into sci-fi.

But that would make me sad.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I don't know if other Hasbro RPG offerings would have the power to stop WotC if they did want to go in to the sci-fi space (not that I think they will). WotC brings the big bucks, and if they say to Hasbro, we want to sell Sci-Fi, I could see Hasbro letting them, even if it steps on the toes of smaller RPG offerings.

This.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Spelljammer and Starfinder are space fantasy, and Shadowrun is cyberpunk+urban fantasy.

About G.I.Joe today war toys have got a bad reputation, and after the actions of Bin Laden Cobra has become too ridiculous as terrorist group, and more with those anti-camouflage uniforms. And the age of action movies of one-man-army like Rambo and company ended decades ago, and more when we are too used to shooter videogames where we learn the enemy doesn't fail when they are shooting.

Power Rangers is popular, but too simple for middle-grade audence who starts to wonder why an alien would create zords, machines with the shape of prehistoric beasts.

Gamma World could be interesting to test new ideas or to recover old titles, for example a Mad-Max version of M.A.S.K.

 

[Stormonu]

Don't forget the media blitz that has been going on since around 4E. We've had D&D show up in The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Big Bang Theory, Dexter's Laboratory, Stranger Things, Community, and a host of other TV shows and other media, as well as the rise of Critical Role and other "entertainment RPG shows" throwing a lot of light on the game and drawing both old and new to check out the game.

The pandemic has also helped a lot; people suddenly finding a lot of time on their hands and the likes of VTT's, Discord and other platforms making remote play possible.

As for where the game is going, WotC has suddenly found itself with a very large and diverse crowd; they started with a bit of a "hardcore" carryover (those who'd stuck out 4E, and some returns from 3E/Pathfinder), but a large chunk of their demographic wasn't even old enough to play in 3E days and they want something that fits with the fantasy they've grown up with - the LotR movies (and likely moreso the Hobbit), Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Game of Thrones, various animes and the like. The carry-over from 1E/2E/BX/BECM is a smaller and smaller crowd, and the cry for carrying over old content is probably being replaced with calls for new content to bring the game into the 21st century.

Expect to see D&D revisions designed to make it "easier" to get on board and quicker to play at the table. We'll see some more nostalgia throwbacks/easter eggs to keep the old timers buying (and pique the interest of newbies who are curious what was so "good" about that stuff), but I believe we will see a rise in new, never-before-seen content as the designers align the game to modern media.[/I]