D&D General WotC Has Owned D&D Longer Than TSR Did

As Matt Forbeck pointed out on Twitter, WotC has owned D&D for 24 years since it purchased TSR in 1997. TSR created D&D in 1974, 23 years before WotC bought it.

 

[Parmandur]

STOP BEING YOUNG

Working on it.

 

[reelo]

Several of my gaming friends even say they couldn't ever play 1E again because of the limitations in character customization.

Character customization and optimization is actually my least favourite part of the recent edition(s).
I much rather prefer PCs be "archetypes". In BX, two level 1 magic-users are all rather similar, but at name-level, they can be completely different. All through "organic growth" during play.

 

[Marc_C]

Two of those Hasbro licensed to Renegade Games. They're working on Transformers RPG using a 5e framework and GI Joe (which is essentially super&modern mashup).

Renegade has a solid 5e setting called Wardlings already if you want to see their work. It's the same designer, who joined RG full time due to the licensed games.

Interesting. Do we have an ETA for those?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

A new edition of d20 Modern not only has to allow an easy adaptation of famous franchises set in modern-age but also to be used by the videogame studios for their own IPs. Hasbro's dream is to create the ultimate d20 Modern to be the "Fortnite" of the modern-age RPGs.

Renegade Games has been licenced four franchises: Transformers, G.I.Joe, My Little Pony and Power Rangers (this has got a board game, but not a d20 TTRPG yet). Wardlings is potentially a future cash-cow kid-frienly franchise. If they would produce a cartoon...the things may very different.


Sometimes I think Epic Games and other videogame developers would like to create the ultimate RPG system for all their videogames. The future of the videogame industry is the "game platforms" as Little Big Planet, Playstation's Dreams, Mantis Game's Core, Roblox and Fortnite: Creative Mode, or the quest creators from other titles. What is the advantage? When you sell the skins and other cosmetic things, and a title fails and it is closed, all you have bought still can be used in other titles of the same platforms. Maybe it sounds as a fool idea and I can't explain it better, but the d20 system could change the subgenre of RPGs in the videogame industry after Baldur's Gate III.

 

[TheSword]

Finally we can put to bed this idea that WOC isn’t a roleplaying game company, that regularly gets trotted out every time someone speculates on a sale of D&D.

 

[GreyLord]

Interesting. Do we have an ETA for those?

Transformers - Sept. 14, 2014....

Sorry...couldn't resist...the Decepticons deceived me.

Crystal Ball says...uncertain...could be a TCG...could be...something else...probably somewhere in 2022...

But Crystal Balls are extremely unreliable.

Screenrant article

The next franchise to be explored by Renegade Game Studios will be G.I. Joe. The franchise began simply as a line of toys designed by Hasbro that, due to the popularity of the toys, evolved further and further into other forms of entertainment. It has not been confirmed yet whether the G.I. Joe production will be a tabletop RPG or deck-building card game; however, it’s not difficult to speculate the possibilities that could come from the studio. With a movie in production revolving around G.I. Joe's Snake Eyes, the game’s timing could sync up with the release of the movie.


The Transformers franchise will also be explored, but Renegade Game Studios is still remaining rather vague on the products of this expansion. Transformers is yet another franchise that began as a set of toys and spiraled into the massive multi-media franchise it is today. The Autobots and Decepticons haven’t seen much in the way of tabletop roleplaying games (not officially licensed ones, at least), but they aren’t strangers to the world of board games and could branch into new territory.

 

[jayoungr]

I would like a D20 modern or a D20 Urban Arcana

Check out Ultramodern: Ultramodern5 (5th Edition) - Dias Ex Machina Games | DriveThruRPG.com

Amazing Adventures is another take on the idea:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

I didn't know about Ultramodern--will have to check that out!

 

[fearsomepirate]

Yeah, video games that seemed unfathomably ancient in, say, 1990, like Pong (1972) are less old than games I remember as "modern" now (like Hostile Waters: Anataeus Rising (2001)). Similar things happened with late '80s movies that I saw in the early 1990s. I mean, hell, Fellowship of the Ring is 2001, so 20 years old. When I was say 13, that would be like a movie from 1971.

It's not just you. It's that every new thing follows a trend more or less like this:

Initial improvements make a world of difference, because the ideas and technologies are so new and unrefined. As the low-hanging fruit gets cleared, additional improvements do not make as big an impact on consumer perceptions even if they are "objectively" just as big by some engineering metric. Gran Turismo 3 is 20 years old this year. It holds up a lot better than Pole Position did in 2001.

 

[Stormonu]

You forget the half-way bell-curved drop followed by a sudden spike and steady, slow decline at the end of the graph.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Sigh.

It's always weird to me how folks like to push the idea that something popular and enjoyed by many folks, just simply can't be quality, all those sheep are missing out on what us few elite know to be real quality . . . .

Exhibit A: 50 Shades of Grey