Please stop shilling for a company that does not care about Dungeons & Dragons.

I saw something on Instagram that just makes my blood boil and I want to discuss it. I won’t name and shame the guy or his organization because that’s not what I do hear. However, I did take issue with his message in a recent post and the overall attitude presented.

Yes, it’s his social media account to do with as he chooses and that’s fine. But, for the love of the Universe and all that is holy, stop doing Wizards of the Coast any favors. Good grief. They do not need the promotion. Again, it’s his organization to do whatever with, but don’t let him convince you it’s the only way to go.

If you’re a GM and you want to teach players your favorite indie game- Just do it!

Don’t let some clown (who maybe wants to work for Hasbro) tell you that Dungeons & Dragons is the only roleplaying game you should teach. Just because this guy teaches people D&D doesn’t mean it’s the only gateway game out there. I can name a handful of other games that aren’t D&D off the top of my head that are easier to teach, learn, and deserve promotion well before that thing WotC makes.

YouTubers, Content Creators, Social Media Influencers and WotC shills are fast to forget that about a year ago Wizards of the Coast tried to cancel the Open Game License 1.0 and effectively shut down every third party producer out there. Please remember that Hasbro laid off 1,100 employees over Christmas in 2023. This is not a company I would be proud to do promotional work for.

The whole defense for D&D is that 5E is the most well-known, popular, recognizable TTRPG out there. It’s usually followed by, “if you don’t like it, go start your own club, company, or gaming group.” Some shills seem to think “TTRPG” is synonymous with “D&D” and vice versa. It’s okay if they want to believe that, but I think we can teach people to use their discernment and remain open minded when it comes to TTRPGs.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but 5E isn’t going to be around much longer.

Or at least D&D 5E as we know it will be going away soon. We could see the digital publication of the new 2024 D&D as soon as March if they really want to push the date up. I think Hasbro wants those big D&D sales numbers sooner rather than later; print books be damned.

All that nonsense about compatibility with previously published 5E material? Wave goodbye as it goes sailing right out the window. Hasbro/WotC wants to get people locked into their digital playground. They don’t want books on player’s shelves nearly as much as they want subscriptions and microtransactions.

I truly feel sorry for the Third Party Publishers that are still putting out new 5E material. I said last year this is a good time to abandon 5E and start working on games for other systems/open licenses. The brain trust at Hasbro/WotC already attempted to dominate the industry by less than scrupulous maneuvering once. I still don’t think we’ve seen the end of it.

We know WotC “promised” to update the SRD in Creative Commons once the new not-new edition comes out. Personally, I think we’re looking at another 4th Edition GSL situation where WotC will say we can produce whatever we want for old 2014 5E, but… Anything that comes out for 2024 “5E” and beyond has to go through WotC. Remember Jeremy Crawford has already said that the new official rules will always take precedence over the old rules.

I think a major fracture in the D&D fanbase is coming.

I think there is going to come a day when even the 5E purists and shills are going to have their misbegotten loyalties tested. Sometime later this year the old 5E fans are going to have to choose between the 2014 edition and the shiny new VTT 2024 walled garden subscription based D&D overpriced corporate abomination. [Insert Change My Mind meme here.] I think it’s going to get quite ugly all the way around before it’s all over.

People who recently got into  the game because of Baldur’s Gate 3 and Critical Role will just want to play. All this funky edition change stuff will be a non-issue for them. Anyone who’s been into D&D for any length of time beyond a year is going to be debating between 2014 5E and 2024 “5E” OR something completely different such as Pathfinder, Shadowdark, Dungeon Crawl Classics, MCDM, Tales of the Valiant, etc. Honestly, the confusion caused by the edition shift might drive off more fans than The Great OGL Debacle of 2023.

Then there comes this problem of introducing people to TTRPGs that started this beef in the first place brought up. See, it’s not “all just D&D.” I hate to say it, but 5E is actually kind of a clunky, chunky, crunchy ruleset to be teaching new players. Maybe a stripped down version of the rules would work better to teach the game, but “professional” DMs wouldn’t necessarily want to bother with that.

If WotC had been smart, they’d introduce a red box starter set with Peril in Pinebrook that has a pamphlet rulebook, pamphlet DM’s booklet, and the adventure along with a full set of dice. Where have I heard that before? It’s almost like three entire decades worth of players learned on a similar base set. (*cough* BECMI *cough.* Moldvay B/X *cough.* Who said that?) Good thing WotC/D&D Studios doesn’t listen to rank amateurs like me, huh?

Professional Dungeon Masters teaching new players about TTRPGs.

So, this guy that set me off was talking about “Don’t come to me with some game that isn’t D&D.”

I suspect if Hasbro/WotC has their way, teaching D&D is going to look like a link to D&D Beyond or the new VTT. News Flash: The executives all think it’s a damn video game! That’s what they’re going for. They don’t want “Professional” Dungeon Masters horning in on their profit margins. The days of being a professional DM is going to go the route of the Old School, 2014 5E, or some other game system. We’re not going to be introducing players to anything on the new VTT unless we’re programming for WotC.

The sooner the “professionals” who are charging upwards of $20 per hour/session figure out there are better games than D&D out there, the more likely they are to retain that livelihood (*if there really is such a thing.) Unless you are working directly with Hasbro/WotC/D&D Studios, there isn’t going to be a future in running D&D.

The writing is already on the Jumbotron at WotC/D&D Studios for a bunch of the employees that were running any kind of organized play events for D&D or Magic: the Gathering. If long time employees might be getting the axe soon, what the Hell makes anybody want to shill for that company? What makes anyone aspire to want to work for these corporate McA$$hats? Yes, I’m perturbed.

Slightly different approach here.

Let’s set our sails on a course for prosperity. Let’s roll the dice (literally) with all those wonderful Third Party Publishers and other game companies who are trying to get established in the world. We want to welcome people into the game, into the hobby, and to our tables wherever they are. “Professional” Game Masters want to attract new clients. We need fresh players to make that happen.

Is it better to throw in with a large corporation who laid off 1,100 people during the holiday season or a small company that’s just getting started? Personally, I love it when a small company has a Discord server where I can talk to the lead designer for a game 1-on-1 in some cases. Why chase people away for not liking something besides D&D? That is actually gatekeeping behavior.

I do like D&D 5E as it is today; warts and all. I love TTRPGs and I want to get people in the door any way I possibly can. The more players, the better. I’m not going to turn someone away because they want to teach Cypher System or Pathfinder. I’m not going to tell a fellow GM, “If you don’t like it, go start your own professional DM organization.”

Oh, this new potential player has heard of D&D? Cool. Let me show you a game that’s very similar called Shadowdark. I can show you actual D&D 5E if you’d rather try that. Whichever way you want to learn is fine. I’ll be happy to teach you how roleplaying games work using any system you’d like to see.

While I’m on the subject.

Plenty of people have learned how to play TTRPGs with Champions, GURPS, Traveller, Vampire: the Masquerade, Marvel Superheroes, Call of Cthulhu, or any other number of games not made by Wizards of the freakin Coast. It disgusts me to think that just because D&D is a well known brand someone would have the gall to treat it like there’s only one way to learn TTRPGs. There are so many other gateways into the hobby it’s not even funny.

A very long time ago, there was this kid who was really into comic books. He’d seen ads for BattleDroids and this Dungeons & Dragons things in comics and thought it might be cool to learn. This kid was talking about Marvel comics to his best friend one day and the friend said, “Hey, wanna check out this cool game that’s based on Marvel with me?” That game was the original Marvel Superheroes RPG and that’s how I learned to roleplay for the first time.

My friend put these funny looking dice in my hands and had me declare which one went first. (This was back in the old days before double digit percentile.) I rolled up my first character and away we went. I was completely hooked from day one. Not only did I learn to play, but I learned to be a Judge (*Old school Marvel GMs were called Judges.) Not only did I want to learn to run games, I wanted to make my own RPG. (*back before personal computing was a thing. I had a typewriter.)

My point is: It doesn’t have to be D&D.  If someone was really into comics, I’d teach them ICONS superhero roleplaying because it takes about five minutes to make a character and I can teach the system in less than 20 minutes if the player knows much of anything about superhero comics. ICONS is so simple it’s ridiculous. It’s a ton of fun, too.

Any way you can get someone introduced to the TTRPG hobby is a good way. If it’s D&D, great. If it’s any number of hundreds of games, fine. Let’s just get new players to the table and keep the hobby alive.

There was a lot to cover here.

Now that I’ve calmed down a little bit, I’ve realized there was a lot to cover in one article. This is a bit like my take on toxic positivity. Yeah, I think a lot of the WotC shills are guilty of an extreme degree of toxic positivity, too.

I want to bring people into the TTRPG hobby. It’s not for the money, or because I love designing games. It’s because I love being a GM! I want more players. I want more people who can relate. If it’s D&D, that’s great. If it’s something else, that’s even better. Just get me the players and I’ll make it work. Heck, I’d settle for someone just to talk to about TTRPGs sometimes.

There’s a lot more to discuss when it comes to “professional” GMs. (Can you hear me gag every time I say “professional?”) I also want to talk more about gatekeepers in the TTRPG hobby. There’s more joy to gaming than just D&D. I want to spread that joy far and wide every freaking day.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I love you, #ttrpgfamily even if we don’t always agree. I appreciate you being here. Keep on gaming no mater what the system. Please embrace the things that bring you joy.