WotCs early days, and saving D&D

[TerraDave]

Thought this was interesting. And it seems like we will be getting more:

Oaths and Fates: Wizards: To Rescue Dungeons & Dragons

 

[TerraDave]

And we do:

Oaths and Fates

Basically doing a history of Wizards early days. (you know the drill, scroll down and read up to be in order...)

EDIT: The start is actually here (probably should have read the blog before making the first post...which I got from Jonathan Tweet's Facebook page)

http://oathsandfates.blogspot.com/2011/07/wizards-of-coast-new-series.html#links

 

[Celtavian]

I remember this. Put D&D into the hands of a company that cared about it, which is the only way the game has ever flourished. Now Hasbro has it. Doubtful they'll ever treat it like something special.

 

[Dausuul]

Reading that first link, it sound like he's saying the point of the OGL was to remove D&D from ever being at the mercy of corporate neglect or mismanagement again.

(Let us now assume that 50 pages of edition warring follow, in which the following claims are made, rebutted, re-rebutted, and argued at interminable length: Pathfinder is the true heir to D&D, the OGL was a business mistake that Hasbro is now determined to correct, 4E is the true heir to D&D, Hasbro is a soul-sucking evil entity that evilly sucks souls, people who play any given edition including Pathfinder are having badwrongfun, AD&D is the true heir to D&D, 4E is going out of business, 4E is doing just fine, 5E is right around the corner, 5E is on the horizon, 5E will never happen, and the true heir to D&D is the Chainmail wargame from whence it came. Okay? Good. Glad we got that out of the way.)

Admittedly I'm reading a lot into a short sentence, but we'll get the details eventually.

 

[TerraDave]

I think that's exactly what he is saying.

 

[Tuft]

Shows how the OGL was an incredible way to prove your love of the game.

 

[AeroDm]

Great read so far. One of those things I wish I hadn't discovered until he told the whole story. I hate waiting.

 

[Reynard]

Great link. Thanks!

 

[jmucchiello]

If Peter had really cared about the D&D brand, he would never have sold out to Hasbro. Hasbro will never relinquish the D&D trademark. It is locked away forever. If Hasbro shuts down the D&D publishing group at Wizards, D&D effectively disappears from the market. Sure, the "game" would live on as Pathfinder and Mutants and Masterminds and Spycraft and a dozen clones and retroclones. But D&D itself would go away. So I can't wait to see part two of this blog post.

 

[Reynard]

If Peter had really cared about the D&D brand, he would never have sold out to Hasbro. Hasbro will never relinquish the D&D trademark. It is locked away forever. If Hasbro shuts down the D&D publishing group at Wizards, D&D effectively disappears from the market. Sure, the "game" would live on as Pathfinder and Mutants and Masterminds and Spycraft and a dozen clones and retroclones. But D&D itself would go away. So I can't wait to see part two of this blog post.

But if the game lives on, the brand is irrelevant.