You own D&D

[Sacrosanct]

Let's say you won that 1.5 billion lottery and bought D&D. What do you do with it?

 

[Scribe]

Let's say you won that 1.5 billion lottery and bought D&D. What do you do with it?

1. What I had been doing for the last 10 years.
2. Looking into how I could add value to the brand name.
3. Rebuild the actual D&D settings, bring their canon forward, instead of disowning it.
4. Leverage multi-media to then present those settings as "D&D".

That way, I have more than a name to bank on.

 

[TolkienThePiss]

Make Greyhawk the default setting again!

Then probably piss off all the Greyhawk fans by making sweeping poorly thought out changes to the lore!

 

[kenada]

Let's say you won that 1.5 billion lottery and bought D&D. What do you do with it?

Declare 5e end-of-life and reprint B/X. Also put the Realms in a vault never to be seen again.

 

[Sacrosanct]

For me, I know I'm an old school guy with fondness for those old games, but I also know that if I own D&D, the brand is important, and so is growing the player base. That means I need to really pay attention to what new gamers are doing and what they like.

The first thing I'd do is keep the core team in place. Give them job security, and they've done a great job. Then I'd have one-on-ones with some of the folks who have been in WoTC for a long time even if they aren't currently employees: Jeremy, Chris, Lisa, etc and get their input on who should be running it. One thing I learned years ago in the military, and again as a manager in the corporate world, is listen to the folks who are in the trenches. They will be much more efficient and happy workers if you make them feel invested in the product, and and if they feel like their input matters.

I'd hire personalities like Ginny D as actual employees (with employee benefits) to keep doing what they do. Not only keep their revenue for their own streaming stuff, but pay them extra to act as an ambassador for the game. A two-way ambassador. Give players feedback from the company, and give the company feedback from the people.

Have a full time crew for live streaming focusing on teaching the game and answering questions from fans.

Hire experts with proven track records on growing the brand digitally and on forward thinking platforms.

VTT would have robust player support and 3PP marketplace. NO microtransactions.

If you buy the book, free pdf.

 

[Vaalingrade]

First, pay back the 7.5 billion dollar loan I had to take out.

Second, 4e is back, has an OGL SRD and we're doing like 5 animated series.

 

[Clint_L]

Oh god...what a disaster. I'm pretty sure I would totally mismanage it because I don't know anything about running a business. So probably I would hire someone I barely knew to take care of day to day operations while I went to LA to be in charge of the entertainment division. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Let's say you won that 1.5 billion lottery and bought D&D. What do you do with it?

I put out 6e. MY 6e will be based on 4e but with a bunch of fixes. The HPs would go WAY down... like every class gets 3HD at level 1 and then only 1 more every odd level, and each HD goes down a die code (so d4 d6 and d8 with barbarian if it exsists being a d10) no bonus hp from a high con (but still when you spend hd to heal)
all the classes will look like a mix between 4e D&D and the 5e artificer and warlock

prestige classes back like 3e, and epic destinies like 4e.

weapons lots more weapons

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Second, 4e is back, has an OGL SRD and we're doing like 5 animated series.

sounds amazing

 

[Minigiant]

The official setting is Fantasy New York City Tri State Area.

 

[Vaalingrade]

And to talk about making money:

A line of D&D themed choose your own adventure books and a phone app that does the same.

A new flagship setting with a book line and actual support like in the good old days. Full setting book and everything.

D&D comics on webtoonz.

Dungeon and Dragon magazines back as apps.

DM Advice App with curated advice on recruiting players, Session 0, dealing with interpersonal group issues, advice on running and adjudicating edge cases, fun activities to do when the group os down people instead o pitching a fit.

Also promotional stunts with Mountain Dew and GFuel.

And because I own them now -- bring back old school plainswalkers. Not D&D, but you asked what I'd do.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

And to talk about making money:

A line of D&D themed choose your own adventure books and a phone app that does the same.

A new flagship setting with a book line and actual support like in the good old days. Full setting book and everything.

D&D comics on webtoonz.

Dungeon and Dragon magazines back as apps.

DM Advice App with curated advice on recruiting players, Session 0, dealing with interpersonal group issues, advice on running and adjudicating edge cases, fun activities to do when the group os down people instead o pitching a fit.

Also promotional stunts with Mountain Dew and GFuel.

And because I own them now -- bring back old school plainswalkers. Not D&D, but you asked what I'd do.

DUDE... that sounds like you would print money....

 

[Voadam]

1 Put out a revision to the OGL that is the old OGL with added verbiage to make it explicitly irrevocable so future IP holders cannot take it away and OGL creators can rely upon it as a safe harbor again.

2 Put out more fuller srds, with content from each edition. OD&D to 5th. All spells. All Monsters. All class options.

3 Delegate to someone else to run stuff from there. I didn't buy it to run it day to day.

4 Maybe sell and cash out.

 

[Jolly Ruby]

- Solve the license mess, wada wada, you know how and my lawyers would know too.

- Reboot Forgotten Realms to 1358 and publish a remastered Grey Box + Savage Frontier book, with better organization, modern sensibilities, and compatible with the current ruleset. Maybe it can have tieflings and dragonborns, but I'm not sure about it. I would let Ed have more creative control of FR, for good or for whores worse.

- Make beholder public domain, as they should be.

- Animations, a lot of animations.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

- Reboot Forgotten Realms to 1358 and publish a remastered Grey Box + Savage Frontier book, with better organization, modern sensibilities, and compatible with the current ruleset. Maybe it can have tieflings and dragonborns, but I'm not sure about it. I would let Ed have more creative control of FR, for good or for whores worse.

Oh god I would kill for a redo from grey box...

 

[Lanefan]

Let's say you won that 1.5 billion lottery and bought D&D. What do you do with it?

Funny, I was thinking about this just last night. Very vague 5-year plan, with neither intent nor expectation of turning a profit:

1. Stop 5.5e in its tracks, carry on with 5e for now as is, and leave the OGL alone.

2. Take a few years to develop and release in parallel three different versions of the game - one a 5e variant, one a 3e-4e mashup variant, and one a 0e-1e-BX variant; for simplicity I'd just call them 5, 3, and 1 but they'd all be called D&D. There would be elements common to all three e.g. initiative rules, magic item values, the six core stats, etc. yet each would play quite differently at the table and (ideally) appeal to different types of players and DMs. The general themes would be:

--- 5 is the entry-level relatively-simple version but still has more than enough heft that many tables might never need anything else
--- 3 is the tactical more gamist-leaning version with lots of rules, considerably harder to play (well) than 5
--- 1 is the grittier more simulationist-leaning version, considerably harder on the characters than 5

Were I in charge I'd probably want to do a fair bit of the design for '1' myself, and get others (including some from these forums if they were willing) to do most of the design for '3' and '5'. Monsters and adventures would each be statted for all three versions to avoid forcing duplicate purchases.

Each version would have three books of its own: a PH, a DMG, and a book of DM-side optional extras. There'd be one overarching (but probably multi-volume) MM.

3. Develop and release a couple of new settings in tandem with the new games while retiring some legacy settings. Nothing new for FR, Greyhawk, etc. The new settings could be used with any version of the game and intentionally would not be version-specific. Adventures, however, would in some cases be setting-specific.

4. Make all three rules versions irrevocably open-source while retaining IP rights to the settings.

5. Go into non-exclusive partnership with an existing-at-the-time VTT operator to provide a preferably-zero-cost virtual-play option for all three versions.

6. Using something like Game of Thrones and the '1' rules system as a starting point, explore ideas for movie/TV tie-ins.

 

[gamerprinter]

If I'd won $1.5 billion, I wouldn't buy D&D, I'd start my own game, hire all the big guns, try to make a product that at least breaks even, and proliferate it with as many books, and online support possible. Someday it could be profitable, but that wouldn't be my initial goal, rather get out there everywhere, and create continuous content for it: maps, settings, adventures, etc. D&D has too much baggage.

 

[Blue]

There was a web comic a decade or two ago called Angst Technology. It was about a game studio, and the owner was independently wealthy and a game aficionado. THIS is what I want the stewards of D&D to be like:

 

[payn]

Immediately launch Buck Rogers 2E.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I think, I'd start 6e and only have a single class: the bard. All other classes will be subclasses of said bard.
I'd also replace the OGL with a version that is irrevocable and disallows creating any other class. And you need to publicly sign that the bard class is your favourite.