WotC WotC will do what you say for 5 years. What are your instructions?

[Lanefan]

Provide Modularity

Good.

Make Grognards cry

Not good.

Intentionally trying to aggravate potential customers seems rather self-defeating to me, as I (if I'm in charge of WotC) would realize on even a brief historical look at the 4e rollout, how it was (mis)handled, and what it later led to.

 

[Lanefan]

If we're going to support all major version can we please include Moldvay B/X as separate from BECMI, They are different games on so many levels.

Sure.

Rightly or wrongly, I tend to lump Moldvay B-X in with OD&D when thinking about such things.

 

[Blue]

1. Keep their current release schedule. Slow and steady keeps production values high, production costs controlled, and long term recurring sales.

2. Not spend resources on 6e except to keep notes of what fans feel that 5e can't accomplish and other pain points.

3. TSR had a lot of financial issues caused by splitting settings, but a lot of fans want other settings. So work out a realistic and moderately profitable way for third party work. Probably a combonation of licensing the IP for some existing settings to 3rd party (which is still a long term win if they were going to make their own, as well as the brand win), and perhaps at a sedate pace releasing an bible and allowing use of that IP on DMsguild (only).

3a. Have another setting search like was with Eberron - a year long visible process to get players involved with where to go next. Take advantage of the marketing aspects to keep D&D in the gamer news cycle, especially with PF2 coming out.

4. Figure out a strategy for updating published mechanics (not typos). 4e would errata whole subsystems and fans didn't (?) in general like it, but the "oh well, Four Elements Monk (or Beastmaster Ranger) misses the mark mechanically, too bad" isn't good either. How do we fix this?

5. Look for additional income producting tie-ins to the D&D brand. One area they don't seem to have a lot in is the free + whales that a lot of video games trade in - where they give away a lot for free but some people are willing to spend LOTS on their bennies.

6. Determine if there is a need for a electronic publishing dimension outside the existing like DnDBeyond and the like. While players might like PDFs (I personaly would), it may be that the market is already saturated and more would just be a glut.

7. I beleive there are some lags internationally due to translation issues. Deal with those. D&D is a global game, need to act like it.

8. Avoid the traditional "Christmas layoffs". Gamers identify individually with the small team, and an institutionalized-feeling regular lay off, especially as such a time, burns a lot of good will towards the company.

 

[Count_Zero]

Over the next 5 years, one adventure and one setting & rules book for 5 settings, opening each setting up on DM's Guild in the process. In no particular order.

1) Birthright (with the setting book having kingdom management rules)

2) Spelljammer (with a more expanded setting)

3) Dark Sun (with psionics and advice on doing Swords & Sandal campaigns)

4) Mystara

5) Planescape

Each provides a very different style of play, and hopefully some unique mechanics to the table from what we've gotten so far. Further, unlike in the 2nd Edition days, DM's Guild provides a way to provide support for these settings at a reduced cost to WotC.

 

[schneeland]

Well, I have LOTS of ideas. But I guess most of them would destroy the D&D brand and I assume that's not what they would hire me for, so I guess I should be a bit more conservative

Most of the things that I would do were I in that position have already been mentioned. To a large extent, I specifically agree with what @Blue wrote. So my main direction would be:

1. As a pre-requisite for all that follows: build on what's good about 5e , but make it more modular, so that not new subclasses, races, spells and monsters can be added, but also some mechanics can be replaced or added
2. As part of (1):
   1. Try to cut more fat from the D&D body and remove redundancies in the current design
   2. Try to cater to more play styles ranging from gritty low/dark fantasy, over sword&sorcery to high fantasy, high magic
   3. Judiciously add new (or revised old) mechanics to support these play styles better
3. Figure out a viable model for 3rd party publishing of well known settings from the past that balances brand cohesion and creative freedom for those who would take them up
4. For the settings that are kept in house (probably FR + 1), spend some effort on consolidating and pruning setting material from previous editions into campaign setting books
5. Publish some stand-alone adventures for these settings that can be fit into homebrew campaigns
6. Bring back the translation quality from previous editions and reduce the number of non-translated words to a necessary minimum

Also, just to cater for my personal tastes:

1. Have Ed Greenwood work on a consolidated "Grognard edition" of the Forgotten Realms pre spellplague.
2. Publish PDF versions of the source books.

From a timeline perspective, most of that would start next year, but efforts would only pick up towards 2022/2023, gearing towards the release, or at least the start of the public playtest of D&D6 in 2024 for birthday celebration reasons.

 

[GreyLord]

Unpopular opinion...

I would let those who know what they are doing currently keep doing what they are doing.

If I took over I'd kill the franchise by forcing AD&D and BECMI to become the only products being serviced...and that would be BAD for business these days.

So, I'm wise enough to know what I want, and what makes good business sense are two different things and let those who know how to best cater to the modern audiences...do exactly that...cater to the modern gamer.

They are already doing a stellar job, don't see how anything I could truly do would actually be better than what they are doing already.

I DO fully agree with the Essentials Kit...I think that was a great idea. But, that might also be my foolishness in regards to thinking that those types of products are awesome. Overall, I think they are doing the best that can be done with the current game market and the plans for expanding the D&D franchise are moving along in the right directions at this point.

Nothing more that I would be able to do better.

 

[Maxperson]

Put out one extra book a year with character options. Races, feats, sub-classes, classes, etc.

 

[TarionzCousin]

3a. Have another setting search like was with Eberron - a year long visible process to get players involved with where to go next. Take advantage of the marketing aspects to keep D&D in the gamer news cycle, especially with PF2 coming out.

This sounds good to me.

 

[Wiseblood]

Get to work on a d&d and setting where pc’s don’t get magic, spells or darkvision.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I forgot: immediately playtest the following options, and get them in the pipeline when they’re ready.

*Gnolls- lean into hyena folklore and give them mimicry, but otherwise look to 4e Gnolls and Eberron Znir Pact Gnolls for inspiration.

*Satyrs- can be male or female. Call them fauns if you must, I don’t care. Goat legged and horned humanoids that like music and athleticism and hunting.

*Fairies- review MM sprites and pixies. Keep it simple and let them have flight, reduced carry and lift capacity, and go from there.

*Dryads and/or treantish folk- tree people. Magical tree people. Full stop.

*New race of small arboreal humanoids with +2 strength, Athletics/climb speed, and ability to brachiate using climb speed or something like that. Not ape-folk, something new. I’d compromise for a +1 Strength Halfling or Gnome subrace.

*Regional adaptation feats. Coastal gets ya Athletics, ability to hold breath for longer, swimming doesn’t cost extra movement, +1 con. High Mountain gets you acclimation to high altitudes and cold weather, ability to ignore disadvantage on perception due to some weather, and ignore difficult terrain caused by snow or steep inclines and rocky terrain? Experiment.