D&D (2024) You own D&D

[mamba]

Fix the OGL 1.0a, fire whoever had the harebrained idea of revoking it. Turn the whole thing more OSR in the core books, making all the racial adjustments and non-core races clearly optional. Bring back Dark Sun, oh man, there is so much to do

 

[mamba]

I don't think I could get D&D for 1.5 billion. I don't know how you'd get Hasbro to even agree to sell it, much less for that low amount

give them another 4 weeks of what they had the last two, and you get it for less than that

 

[Dausuul]

So, obviously I'd issue OGL 1.0b with "irrevocable" added to the language, and for good measure spelling out that the license cannot be terminated or deauthorized except by the means described therein. Then engage Paizo and my legal team on the ORC; see if we can get to where the ORC can be authorized as the new and hopefully final version of the OGL.

Then what? Then... well, pretty much nothing that isn't on fire or already in the queue, for at least six months. Spend that time calling in people from all over the company and having them tell me how they see things, what their day-to-day is like, where they see problems, where they see opportunities. Record these meetings if the people I'm talking to are okay with it, but be sure to turn off the recorder at the end in case there's something they want to say off the record. Take copious notes. Pay particular attention to people who interact with customers a lot.

Then order up the data from every customer survey for the last three years and pore over it in excruciating detail, keeping in mind all the stuff I heard in my meetings. Get a big heap of financial data too and cross-reference them. Get a couple other really smart people to go over all this information as well.

The goal of all this information-gathering and analysis would be to develop a long-term strategy for D&D, one which prioritizes the health of the game and the community. That means a solid profit for the owner of the game, but not the pursuit of maximal profit. It probably also means refocusing the company on its core competency -- tabletop games -- and consciously avoiding "empire-building" schemes. Recognize that there are things which can and should be left to the community to produce, and where we conclude that that is the case, think about how to help the community do that.

I'd also set aside a small (by corp standards) amount of money for me to make my own heartbreaker and publish it.

Yes, I would definitely do this. Not because I think my heartbreaker would be any kind of hit, but because it would provide a healthy outlet for the impulses that would otherwise have me telling the designers how to do their jobs.

 

[Matt Thomason]

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

I curse myself for getting so drunk last night that I did something so incredibly stupid. Then I sell it right away, because I'm bound to screw up and make it worthless.

 

[Umbran]

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

Realize that one person only has so many good ideas, and hire a bunch of people who know game design, development, and product management better than I do.

My professional skillset is fine for managing a bunch of creative people to get stuff done.

 

[The Stray]

First, affirm that OGL 1.0a is irrevocable, and that all prior content made under it can be used in perpetuity. Then issue a 1.0b with those words actually in the license. The 1.0b would be placed outside of company control. If the ORC is up by then (depending on terms) I'd reissue the existing SRDs under the ORC and the 1.0b.

That cleans up the current mess. to go further, and as a show of good will, I'd issue SRDs (dual-licensed under 1.0b and the ORC) for 1e, 2e, and 4e. I'd revise the license for DM's Guild to be less terrible and predatory with regards to content ownership.

Then I'd hire a bunch of good designers (at much better rates) and restructure the company as a worker-owned co-op. From there, wed work out next steps to maintain the brand and keep customer engagement high. I don't know what the next steps would be...probably a new edition, designed to be as modular as possible to allow for the varied styles of play people want. I'd do what I can to support my preferred style of play, but I want ALL styles to have support.

I'd also like to sponsor some sort of "DMing Camp" for people, with classes for all the things people usually have to learn on their own.

And then I'd buy a pony. Made of diamonds.

 

[Horwath]

Hire someone who will be able to write good mass combat rules.
Should be enough cash for it.

 

[Haplo781]

give them another 4 weeks of what they had the last two, and you get it for less than that

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Huh. A few things, come to think of it…

OGL 1.0b, a copy of 1.0a with whatever language updates are necessary to make it clearly an irrevocable license. Give ownership of that license to the law firm working on the ORC.

Release SRDs for every edition under both OGL 1.0b and ORC (depending on the terms).

Keep 5E core in print but let the community of 3PP take care of the rest. Slight rules revisions over time to fix broken things more than new editions.

Bring everything ever officially printed for D&D up to snuff re: text, layout, etc, i.e. no more bad scans, aka go back and re-typeset the lot. Sell the PDFs of everything and offer them all up as high quality POD. Yes, many are there already but most are bad scans.

Do Kickstarters every year to do print runs of older core books. One Kickstarter a year but cycle through the editions. Don’t leave any behind. OD&D, AD&D, 2E, 3E, 3.5, and 4E. Basic, B/X, BECMI, and RC. If not enough people are interested, it won’t fund, so no problem.

Open all the settings on DMsGuild. Take less of a cut.

Make “ultimate editions” of all of the settings. Gather up all the lore, all the monsters, all the NPCs, all the locations, all the maps, etc from all the editions. Square any contradictions and publish those. That will be easier for some than others. After the initial release, do Kickstarters every few years to keep them in print. Start with Mystara and Hollow World. Next up Dark Sun. Next is Nentir Vale. Go from there.

This is the way to actually close their business soon. If that is your goal, don't hide it.

 

[delericho]

Honestly, I think I'd mostly leave things alone - I've liked most of what they've done with 5e, it's about time for a new version, and the changes seem on balance to be an improvement. Even the things I haven't liked (I disliked Ravenloft, and hated everything I heard about Spelljammer) I would leave alone, since they're done now.

(Though I might be tempted to do a big adventure book for Spelljammer that is basically "Storm King's Thunder" in space - the PCs are the crew of a Firefly-like ship on one of three starting systems, there's an attack by one of the factions of the Big Bad (elves? Vodoni?), the PCs then spend some time travelling the spheres and getting embroiled in the various factions, it then becomes apparent that the Big Bad's command have gone silent and the factions are all jockeying for power, and the PCs then infiltrate that command center and take over.)

Obviously, the big thing is that I believe the OGL is, was, and will be a net benefit to D&D. So I'd issue an OGL 1.0b with "irrevocable" added, and embrace the OGL with OneD&D.

I'd also keep a really close eye on the development of D&D Beyond - my gut feeling is that D&D has probably peaked, so if the project starts getting really late, expenses balloon, there's massive feature bloat, or the D&D bubble in general collapses, I'd very quickly scale back.

I'd open the DM's Guild (only) to materials for all previous editions of D&D. Because why not?

And I'd be strongly tempted to establish an arms-length subsidiary to handle more mature topics - the Star to my Disney+. Then spin off Greyhawk and Dark Sun there - make no bones about the fact that these are very much not for everyone, but provide some support. I'd also reboot Birthright under this imprint, moving it a good bit closer to "Game of Thrones".