D&D General Why Enworld should liberate D&D from Hasbro

[MichaelSomething]

Like everything else, it varies by group, but I believe the intended playstyle was avoidance when possible. Getting the treasure/xp without getting killed was optimal by my reading.

Who plays by the intended playstyle???

D&D 5E (2024) Thread 'Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily'

Oct 8, 2025

Mearls helped design 5e and he crunches the numbers.

Interesting that Johnathan Tweet chime in about timing with rests changes the balance which is out of the designers hands. Why not make a control part of the design? Like in the One Ring?

https://bsky.app/profile/mearls.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3m2pjmp526c2h

• darjr
• Replies: 1,568
• Forum: *Dungeons & Dragons

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[Gradine]

One of the last groups I DMed for was composed 50% or so of people in the LGBTQ community.

I used to think I was the token straight in my D&D group for a long time. Little did I know!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Honest? Marketers? You're a funny man, Micah.

 

[Umbran]

Are the products in question supposed to be "grown out of"?

Not "supposed to grow out of". But most folks who play D&D don't do so for life. It's less that we are going to grow out of it, more that they expect players to move on - maybe to other games, maybe to a new job that takes them from their group, maybe to having kids, and so on.

I mean, if nothing else... people die, Micah. And then they stop buying products. So, WotC can't count on selling to folks who picked up the game in 1974 forever. They have to constantly find new players. And those new players come from a new time, different media cultures, and have different tastes.

 

[Umbran]

While I see this as pretty hyperbolic if you're referring to my behavior, it sounds very much like you're telling me to stop expressing my feelings.

We all should, with any piece we put out into the world, consider what we want, and what we expect, to get out of it, and whether what we are putting out will actually get us what we want.

Say you hate pepperoni. You walk into a pizza place where loads of people are seeming to enjoy pepperoni pizza. What do you want to get out of telling them how much you dislike pepperoni? What do you expect their response to be the first time you do it? The tenth? The hundredth?

 

[Zardnaar]

Here's the thing about fandom. You either go with it or you bow out. I was a huge Star Wars fan but the sequel trilogy left a bitter enough taste in my mouth that when it was said and done, I had less interest in following the new projects with the gusto I had a decade ago. I accept that the new stuff isn't my cup of tea and while I don't hate some of the new stuff like the Mandelorian, I don't engage with it the way I did before.

What I don't do is go on every Star Wars based social media or discussion group and lament how Star Wars fired me as a fan, refuse to cater to the diehard OT fans, changed canon to remove much of the old Expanded Universe and openly wish every future project fails so that Disney sells the property to some fans who will return it to it's glory days.

Tbf to Disney they've made some great content since the ST.

ST stuff eh. Key thing is not to go 100% for kids or grogs etc.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Tbf to Disney they've made some great content since the ST.

ST stuff eh. Key thing is not to go 100% for kids or grogs etc.

This is what I'm trying to say. You don't have to abandon one demographic to go after another.

 

[Zardnaar]

This is what I'm trying to say. You don't have to abandon one demographic to go after another.

Yeah doing the occasional mature product wouldn't hurt.

Themselves some sorta eg CoS.

Average age group iirc is more 18-26 going by WotC data.

Things like starter sets should be aimed a bot more at kids imho. Range of products for everyone else.

Left about 10-15 of the adventures on the shelf mostly because of low quality.

 

[Charlaquin]

This is what I don't understand: WotC posted a picture of a very gay, very light-hearted D&D scene (I'm sure you've all seen this by now). Are they trying to appeal to people for whom queer representation is important Or was it rage-bait to drive up engagement? Or both? Neither? What was the goal of that post?
Zero snark intended here. I am legitimately confuzzled.

I don’t know which picture you’re referring to, but it’s almost certainly trying to appeal to LGBTQIA+ folks and allies. There are a lot of us, we’re a market worth appealing to.

(Also, I know 'queer' is now okay to respectfully say, but man! It feels weird to write after growing up thinking of it as a bad word).

This tends to be a generational thing. In my experience it’s gen X and some older millennial LGBTQ folks who the hardest time with the term. It was already a reclaimed slur before the AIDS epidemic, but a lot of progress was lost in the 80s and 90s. It has since been reclaimed again and most young LGBTQ folks as well as most older ones are perfectly comfortable with it, but there’s a significant gap there of folks for whom it still really stings to hear.

 

[Thomas Shey]

This is what I'm trying to say. You don't have to abandon one demographic to go after another.

The question is, whether the other demographic is worth the trouble.