I’ve realized that I need to vent some steam.
It’s been an eventful week for Hasbro/Wizards of Coast/Dungeons & Dragons Studios. Fourth Quarter earnings are out and it’s looking pretty grim for Hasbro. All sources point to more layoffs at Hasbro/WotC. Yes, I feel bad for people losing their jobs. But, Hasbro can’t say they didn’t see it coming.
Why do I care? I’ve got three major beefs with the company who holds our beloved D&D. First, they only seem to acknowledge editions prior to Third when they want to steal older materials and mangle them in 5E. My other ongoing beef is the Open Game License Debacle of 2023. Last, and not least, are the YouTube shills that are still adamant about supporting WotC no matter what dumb shit they do.
Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.
It’s the 50th Anniversary of the creation of Dungeons & Dragons.
Did WotC make a video to thank the creators for their contribution? Nope, no word about Gygax or Arneson. Did they thank any of the many writers and editors since? Nope. Did they thank the fans in general? (You know, all the players and Dungeon Masters.) No love for them.
WotC made a video to thank their “community.” Yeah, that was a halfway well crafted statement aimed at the D&D Beyond subscribers and die hard WotC D&D simps (IMO.) WotC really only appears to be concerned with the people who can put more profits in their pockets. I think they’re trying to create some fear of missing out.
What’s worse is someone at WotC went through and scrubbed all of the “Where are Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax?” comments from the chat. Who does that? What a major slap in the face to all of the people they were claiming to be so grateful for. Proof that people in that company don’t know what the Hell they’re doing again.
The OGL Debacle could have already happened again, and we’d never know.
Lin Codega- fiercely unemployed and doing their own thing. Glicker/Roll for Combat- discredited after a false news report generated by an AI program fed him his own story. Indestructoboy- discredited by an AI art accusation turned out to be a real human artist. Will Shorts? Disinterested and working on his own projects. Ginny Di? Back to her normal content. Other big name YouTubers involved in the breaking news? Back to shilling for WotC.
Then there’s what may well be going on behind the scenes at WotC. Foundry VTT got a really nice deal and some promotion from WotC. Dungeon Dudes, Ghostfire Gaming, and Darrington Press all have really sweet deals on D&D Beyond. That’s quite a step up from the DMsGuild. It’s almost like they had a successful project WotC could scoop up and profit from. Does anyone else see a possible connection to a closed game license and a lot of NDAs?
Speaking of shills…
I’m frustrated with the YouTube TTRPG community especially. WotC has gone out of their way to grease the palms of as many of these people as possible with free copies of every new release. It seems obvious to me that WotC is buying goodwill with free product. And Hasbro wonders how D&D is losing money. Between that and the stuff on clearance at Ollie’s, who knows why WotC is bleeding cash?
But that’s okay, because we have plenty of YouTube channels overjoyed to tell us how great WotC/D&D 5E is doing. I’ve watched channels pop up in the last few months that must be getting free product because they’re sure loving it. The sad, sad part is some of the books they’re showing off are in the bargain bins and on discount. I’m not kidding, I saw Bigby’s Glorious Fist of the Giants (or whatever) on sale for around 70% off.
This whole sad YouTube scene reminds me of the scene from Animal House where Kevin Bacon’s character is running around screaming “All is well!” while all chaos has erupted at the end during the parade. I mean, do all of these YouTube personalities think their audience is as stupid as WotC clearly seems to think the fan base is? I’m not going to name anyone specific, but even people I truly respected a year ago after the OGL Debacle have gone right back to pimping WotC merch.
D&D turns 50, and we get the absolutely worst sh*tshow imaginable to celebrate it.
Even five years ago, I would never have guessed any company would screw up marketing D&D’s anniversary year as bad as WotC has. If I were in charge? That’s all you’d be hearing one release after another all year long. I’d put a big 5-0 dork stamp on everything and anything digital or in print. Even the casual fans would be wondering if we were going overboard.
What does WotC do instead? “Well, hem haw… hmmm. Okay, it’s February. Here’s our incredibly quiet release schedule of “game” products. We’ll release a compilation title that’s basically a compilation book like Journey to the Radiant Citadel that happens to include the old Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth module.”
The new/not-new Player’s Handbook doesn’t drop until September. The Dungeon Master’s Guide is in November. WTF?!? The bloody Monster Manual is coming in February of 2025??? That’s the only book in the set I was mildly interested in. Come on!
This whole thing is like watching my favorite football team fumble on the first play of the biggest game of the year. Then they follow it up by dropping the ball in their own end zone, getting repeatedly sacked, and missing easy field goals. Where’s the WotC team that gave us D&D 3.0/3.5?
The new Vecna thing is the nearest on the agenda in May. In my honest opinion, it looks like a sleezy cash grab to hang onto a bunch of old trademark IP by trying to keep some of the classics relevant. I notice they slipped Greyhawk in there, which has sat untouched since 3E. I guess there’s some sort of making of anniversary book coming. Honestly, I’m waiting for it to get cancelled or postponed. Maybe Jeremy Crawford will come out and tell us D&D didn’t exist before WotC bought it in 1999.
What else do we get from the mindless twits at the top of WotC? Pop Tarts, Legos, and shoes? Okay, guys. Seriously? Where are the Dragon Magazine compilations, new adventure modules, and maybe a little more fanfare for the new books that you’ve supposedly poured so much of your creative energy into? (The last part of that line was hard to type.) Where are the adventures for the new books to get us excited? What is WotC/D&D Studios doing? (Aside from being creatively bankrupt and having major editing issues.)
Where’s the pride in the product? Where’s the pomp and circumstance? Does anybody associated with Dungeons & Dragons even care anymore? Or is there just no one left who still cares?
Maybe it’s just a paycheck for Brink, Crawford, Perkins, De Armas, etc. Maybe that’s all it is for the YouTuber shills, too. I just don’t know anymore. Why are the DMsGuild/DriveThruRPG creators so much better at what they do than the official product. Why do we have to keep fixing official D&D adventures and supplements with 3PP stuff that’s 100x better?
I used to be one of the biggest D&D nerds you’d ever meet.
Now? I can barely stand to say, “Dungeons & Dragons” or “D&D.” I used to buy almost everything that came out for the game without question. Being unemployed and some other life circumstances caused me to skip a few years since 2014, but I still have a pretty nice collection of 5E.
It just hurts like Hell because I used to want to be one of those guys. I used to look up to Gygax all the way through Mike Merls, Bruce Cordell, and James Wyatt. (Scandals notwithstanding.) I didn’t even question my love for the game until some corporate scumbags tried to lock three quarters of the industry down in a greasy contract. That stunt was followed by halfhearted apologies and a corporate executive telling us, “guys like me can’t leave soon enough for this hobby.” (Hey, look who probably still has a job as far as we know.)
I would love to have a successful YouTube channel and publishing franchise like The DMs Lair or even Ginny Di (for as much as I gave her grief I do admire her. I’m still really sorry about that misunderstanding.) I’d swap places with Professor Dungeon Master tomorrow if I could. That guy is awesome! The only major difference is Deathbringer doesn’t hang out with me and the good professor has more official writing credits on real D&D products.
I’m chronically stubborn. (Some just call me “arsehole” and that’s okay, too.) I will not support official D&D again until the current regime is gone and/or the D&D IP changes over to more responsible hands. Until then, there are dozens of other game licenses I can write for and third party publishers to support.
I say it a lot.
Do what works best for you and your group. It’s okay to disagree on this one more than anything. Please, do your own research. (*Yikes! I just gave the Flat Earther mating call.) Seriously, look into everything for yourself and use your own discernment. I will never tell you what not to support. My path is clear to me.
Then again, it’s Friday. We might find out another 1,000 layoffs suddenly occurred, or some other corporate shenanigans went down. Who knows?
Thank you for being here. I really wanted to write about necromancy today. We’ll reincarnate that topic later. I appreciate you. Please go out and embrace that which brings the most joy today.
Jeff's Game Box 