That wasn’t a victory in January.
It was a peace offering. The OGL Debacle of 2023 nearly put several companies out of business. It nearly cost many people their jobs. We didn’t “all win,” guys. Sorry to have to say it.
That’s okay because a bunch of the shills and would-be shills got invited to Seattle for the big meeting where Wizards of the Coast tried desperately to win back the loyalty and good faith of the #DnDCommunity. Some say WotC failed. I say, really?
But it gets worse from there. How many YouTubers and other content creators are getting free product every time there’s a new release in exchange for some heavy shilling? Some people ran back to WotC the day after the OGL debacle ended and others the day after Seattle.
No, I’m not calling out any specific creators. I don’t think they can all be bought off with a few shiny trinkets. I think a few content creators did sell out for a trip to Seattle and a few boxes of shiny trinkets, though. (Not naming any names.)
Okay, Tinfoil Hat time.
WotC is all about cheap tactics. I swear they get more desperate every day. Maybe that’s what they want us to think. It’s very possible that they want the print portion of WotC to look incompetent.
I think this latest botch with the Book/Deck of Many Things wasn’t really an accident. What better ammunition is there than to go back to the community and say, “Print is failing. Go digital” than a screwed up $100 gift set with cards. It’s just speculation on my part, but reality can be stranger than fiction.
Maybe Cynthia Williams is just like Cobra Commander in that her minions just can’t get the job done right. It could also be a sign of the times that D&D has been given to the wrong caregivers and that a major change in staff is becoming necessary. Maybe Mr Brink really can’t flee WotC fast enough.
Hasbro earnings are down, and I don’t feel sorry for them.
With a little luck we’re finally seeing the fruits of our January efforts and D&D Beyond subscriptions have finally dropped off. I don’t think we should have stopped with the 5.1 SRD going into Creative Commons. I think we should have kept hounding WotC until major staff changes were announced.
Here’s a company with the industry leading RPG, Dungeons & Dragons, which everyone from noobs off the street all the way up through 50 year game vets talk about daily. They’re practically printing money up through Strixhaven. 2023 rolls around and suddenly they can’t seem to get anything right? Seems “sus” as the kids like to say.
According to the Q3 Hasbro earnings, WotC should be leaning more heavily on digital IPs. Print books become collector’s items in 2024 and even then only the three core books. Everyone is more or less forced back into the D&D Beyond circus or sucking into the new VTT walled garden. More D&D video games hit the market than ever and everyone at WotC/Hasbro walks away happy. At least that’s the idea.
I’m still not going back.
Maybe if Williams, Cao, Brink, Crawford, and Perkins all leave Wizards in the next three months, I’ll give the new D&D a try. More likely I’m sticking to the OSR and adjacent fantasy games instead of official D&D for the foreseeable future. I’m even avoiding Paizo’s Pathfinder 2E Remaster but for different reasons. (We’ll be discussing that soon enough.)
Honestly, if I had my druthers, WotC would roll over almost their entire writing and editing staff for D&D and start over from scratch. There’s a serious lack of original ideas, creative talent, and editing prowess on the D&D team as we’ve been seeing for the last couple of years. (More on that in another article.)
My solution would be to put the new D&D core books back to 2025 to get the VTT in line and iron out the flaws with the new rulebooks. Rip Forgotten Realms out by the roots and either make a setting agnostic game or pick one of the lesser known settings. Go completely silent in terms of surveys and playtest packets. Test everything in house or with small, trusted groups. Their first release after the core rulebooks would be an ALL NEW setting sourcebook.
I guess I can dream, anyway. Thanks for stopping in. More tomorrow. I appreciate you!
Jeff's Game Box 