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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scrivener of Doom" data-source="post: 5947613" data-attributes="member: 87576">D&D was run for a long time by a non-profit and it didn't work out: TSR, I'm looking at you. OK, there is a difference between a non-profit and not making a profit, but I digress....Hasbro needs a big win with D&D. It's not going to get it from the tabletop RPG - tabletop RPGs are a largely niche hobby. It needs a Transformers-scale movie that is successful. That's the real value of the brand and it will be the eventual billion dollar payoff when they find the right screenwriter (John Rogers?) and director. I mention that just to separate out the value of the brand against the value of D&D the tabletop RPG.As a niche hobby, I think (IMO/YMMV, and all that) that D&D the game would be better off in a private company where it was the proverbial big fish, rather than something with less value that Tickle Me Elmo. If I was Hasbro I would be looking for the next Paizo and licence out the tabletop rights while retaining the rights to toys, movies and video/computer games (and any board games that could be tied into a movie). Of course, that next Paizo is going to need some capital plus enough cashflow and profit to pay Hasbro its licence fee.I still think D&D has enormous big-ticket potential a la Transformers but the tabletop RPG does not seem to belong in a large organisation. It doesn't make a large amount of money and it requires a lot of people to constantly manage AND innovate; D&D is simply not an evergreen product. The nature of the game requires constant design and development.I do believe that if D&D Next is not an enormous success then Hasbro will look for some sort of exit whether that means "parking" the entire brand or licensing the RPG while retaining the big-ticket rights.And I also think it would be good for the D&D creative team to have a bit more job security. After all, WotC lays off staff twice a year and that's not good. To lose your job simply because of a particular school of thinking that demands twice yearly layoffs is offensive to fair-minded capitalist pigs like myself. A profitable private company is less likely to do this.</blockquote>

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