Filing this one under “Silly TTRPG Arguments” going forward.

I watched this video recently by Esper the Bard where he details what he would do if he were put in charge of D&D. I find it interesting because he touched on some key points that I’ve stated multiple times in the past, most recently in this article from way back in July 2025. (*Okay, not as recently as I thought.)

I think the image from earlier this month has people questioning the Wizards of the Coast leadership and staff. Regardless of the political hubbub around the image, it says volumes when we’re busy talking about some stupid piece of artwork instead of the latest module, campaign setting, or sourcebook. I’m glad Esper touched on some of my points because we’re all thinking it now if I had to guess.

I’ll touch on his points a bit and add in my own weird take on some things.

First, getting into the proper mindset. I feel I’ve done this in my ongoing (New Age) spiritual journey. Yes, it’s a big responsibility if you want to think of it as such. Yes, I would probably meditate two or three times per day with that job just to keep myself focused and sane.

Second is what Esper called “Rebuilding Trust.” Sh*t homie, we don’t need to rebuild trust; we need to rebuild pretty much everything that ain’t nailed down at this point. If the product is solid, the fans will follow. I want to focus on a concerted effort to make money. Yes, that means we stop all the sociopolitical nonsense and start fighting the good fight again in terms of making game content.

Yes, right now the older fans and even some of the newer ones are starting to distrust or dislike the brand because of all the extra baggage WotC has heaped on themselves. It’s a simple fix: Stop doing the stupid stunts on social media for outrage value and just make games! That’s what a game company should be invested in.

We’ll talk more about it on the fourth item, but I think if D&D became a product that the majority of the target audience (Dungeon Masters and Players) could be proud of, the trust will come back. I don’t think most of us out here in consumer land care what anyone’s opinion on religion, sex, or politics is when we’re at the gaming table together. We want wizards chucking fireballs and clerics healing people. We want backstabby thieves and musclebound fighters chopping things to tiny bits with magic swords. The trust comes when we play together. (I love solo play, so as long as you’re having fun, period.)

Third, Esper mentioned a NEW campaign setting. How long have I been harping on this point? I remember this article, but I’m pretty sure I mentioned it as far back as 2022 or 2021. Wizards of the Coast is not known for creating new campaign worlds, and they’ve been flogging old Sword Coast, especially Waterdeep so hard you wouldn’t know there’s anything else to the Forgotten Realms.

I’m not even a fan of the worlds they’re bringing back at this point. I’ve begged them not to bring back Dark Sun, Birthright, Al Qadim, or Oriental Adventures. Not because of the cultural implications of any of them, but because I have zero faith in their “design team” not to absolutely butcher everything they touch. Look what happened with Dragonlance, Spelljammer, and Planescape. The only positive reviews any of them received were from the DungeonTuber shills (barf.) Even then, most everyone panned Spelljammer for varying reasons from #hadozee to the lack of ship combat rules. I don’t think most of us want to see Dark Sun come back as an absolute travesty only to be forgotten entirely the next day.

WotC could hire any number of incredibly talented artists, map makers, and writers to put out an entirely new campaign setting and player’s supplement that would run circles around everything they’ve done in the last 10 years, and they just won’t do it! I firmly place the blame on their management and creative teams for this. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of settings out there in the world on DMsGuild, DriveThruRPG, Itch.IO and ironically D&D Beyond that are better than the canned official crap WotC has been putting out.

Fourth, and last of Esper’s points is community building. Here’s where his opinion and mine diverge a bit. If rebuilding trust involves getting the customers back on board with the brand after all the damage done by politicking on social media, then rebuilding the community involves getting back out in the world and doing conventions, Adventurer’s League, etc. What I think he forgot was WotC already has Critical Role, Stranger Things, and most of YouTube in its back pocket. I recently learned there’s a talent agency that now controls a majority of the well-known DungeonTuber shills. (Yeah… that’s a separate article sometime. Holy sh*t.)

 My first response to the point Esper made is, “What community?”

There hasn’t been a unified D&D community for quite some time now. I know a bunch of people are going to try to point out how that’s not true because some DungeonTuber got a bunch of people together for one cause which was lovely for about a week or two.

Sure Gen Con pulls down massive ticket numbers but remember WotC sees all those people as wallets they need to get into. Thank you, Cynthia Williams. Gen Con is not D&D and WotC has separated themselves almost entirely from     the regular convention crowd for years now.

As far as I’m aware, Adventurer’s Guild, formerly known as The RPGA, has been dwindling down and dying since about 2023. If I recall correctly official support died in 2024 with the release of the new 5E.2024 rules. I might be wrong about this, but I can say that I don’t see much evidence of any serious Guild anything where I live.

Sure, the DungeonTuber crowd will tell us everything is fine and that these programs still exist, WotC has a panel or two at every major convention (that said DungeonTubers are paid to attend.) Am I buying into any of this in my highly conspiratorial mind? Nope. Follow the money and the free product. They are well compensated shills who will say about anything as long as it follows the company line.

How I would approach all the changes today.

First, I’d make abso-friggin-lutely sure some Hasbro “team” of executives wasn’t going to intervene in what I have planned, because it’s a shakedown of epic proportions. After the formalities are out of the way, my first official act is to pretty much fire the entire creative staff and start from scratch. That includes artists and editors to some extent. If they had a hand in WotC D&D business over the last five years, they are gone. No apologies. Maybe a nice corporate severance package. Sorry y’all.

Then, we go about a lot of hiring. We place ads for artists, layout specialists and some of the writing staff. We recruit as much as possible from DMsGuild, DriveThruRPG, and maybe a couple of DungeonTubers that I think would be solid picks. Once we get a few people in the right positions, we’re off to the races.

Second, we start pumping out new products. The first rule becomes every physical purchase comes with a product code for D&D Beyond. There will be two guaranteed adventures every month: one on D&D Beyond and one print as well as D&D Beyond. There will be at least one official sourcebook every month.

Books I would insist on making:

The Dungeon Master’s Guide to Adventure and Campaign Creation.
Monster Manual 2 – 5.
Fiend Folio.
Unearthed Arcana (not to be confused with that playtest nonsense which is gone.)
Tome of Magic.
Player’s Handbook 2 (to fix 5E.2024 and apologize.)
Guide to Arms and Armor.
Character Class Guide for each individual class.
Draconomicon.
Guide to Artifacts.
Dungeoneer’s Guide.
Wilderness Survival Guide.
Best of Dragon (Revised for the newest rules.)
Best of Dungeon (With the new rules.)
New Basic Set (Levels 1-5 in seven different classes)

There are plenty more where that came from. We could even print them as Print on Demand or softcover splat books. The idea here is that D&D doesn’t need one target demographic to include anyone because the books are aimed at Dungeon Masters or Players. Period. We want to sell as many copies as possible to anyone who will buy them.

Third thing, which goes along with what Esper said. There will be a new campaign setting. The campaign books will be released quarterly on top of the other releases. Adventures on the months of campaign releases will be geared toward the new setting. This might also coincide with new Magic: the Gathering core sets. Each year the setting will change. Player’s Guide, World Book or boxed set, DM’s Guide and adventures, Monster Manual. Rinse and repeat.

Again, the advertising is simple. Here’s the book. It has X, Y, and Zed features about the new world. If it appeals, it’s great. If it flops, there will be plenty of other adventures out there and tons of advice on creating new worlds/campaigns.

Fourth, get ready to cry foul oh ye of DungeonTuber fame. No. More. Freebies. That’s right. If the DungeonTuber crowd believes in the product enough, they can buy it in PDF or print and review it honestly. If my team and I did our jobs well, it gets a good review. If it flopped, we do better next time.

The money that was previously thrown at DungeonTuber shills gets put toward conventions, supporting local game shops play programs, and a special online program. (Or possibly buy out Start Playing altogether.) Reopen forums on the main D&D website with strict moderation. Create a couple of official D&D YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, and TikTok channels and hire new faces for each who talk about/promote D&D: everything from basic character and adventure creation, how to run a game, how to make/run monsters, how to build worlds, etc. Monitor feedback on all social media closely.

We are bringing the Guild back from Member number one on up. Everyone gets a Guild ID to participate in League events. There’s a monthly e-mail newsletter, D&D Beyond perks, a discount on products, surveys available, a forum for just the guild, and for the love of the Universe, we’re bringing back Living City and/or other Living type events. Conventions and local events with official DM support will also get packets with adventures, freebies (stickers, patches, dice, mini figs, etc.) and feedback from anyone involved will be welcome on the app or by email.

Anyone wanting to work with officially sponsored D&D programs for their shop, convention, school, library, church, etc needs to fill out an online form and be willing to post some feedback and/or links to their game footage to prove they’re doing the thing they signed up for. After a year or so, the official support *should* start catching on as people realize we’re serious.

There will also be an ambassador program for conventions. ANY convention can get a Wizards rep to speak at their convention, buy a booth, have an official table, and whatever else WotC cares to provide as long as budget allows. I think that’s a better investment than throwing free stuff at DungeonTubers.

Fifth, a hard and fast rule that will be known from Day One: Absolutely no real world politics, religion, counterculture, sexual preference, gender debates, or anything else goes out through official channels. Ever. Period. First offense gets an employee warning, apology, and retraction. Second offense is followed by immediate termination, an apology, and a retraction. We’re going to stick to talking about D&D on ALL official social media.

If employees want to do that stuff on their own time, great. It’s no different than any other company in the United States. Do NOT associate yourself with official D&D or WotC in doing so or HR will be notified, and the employee will be asked to remove or change said profile, content, etc. Again, if it’s official, talk gaming. If it’s unofficial, don’t get arrested and have fun. It’s none of any company’s business what you do in your free time so long as the company is not listed on it.

Our Public Relations people should not have to chase people down to fix their mistakes. If an employee marches in a Pride parade, attends a protest rally, or performs at a Burlesque nightclub that’s their business. It stays at home, with them, out of the game, and out of the press related to the company. Don’t advertise your gender identity, sexual preferences, politics or anything else in the office the same way every other company doesn’t allow it. Nothing new to most people.

Charity support will not change or cease. Special promotions that benefit said charities will continue, BUT the ads will be clearly and distinctly obvious as such. If there is a Pride crossover between D&D and Magic, you better believe all the socials promoting it will be clearly labeled and links to the charities provided up front every time. Again, we’re advertising a product crossover and not a political stance.

Everyone is welcome. Everyone is invited to enjoy D&D. Don’t be a turd and don’t make anything political. Keep the real life controversy out of the game. Diversity and inclusion are highly, highly encouraged at all times across all platforms as long as the players, DMs, and event organizers are keeping things civil. Be nice. Have proper manners and have fun. Easy stuff when you think about it.

Sixth, and finally, I want to innovate a couple of new programs through D&D Beyond, DMsGuild, and maybe elsewhere if they’ll have it. First is the open communications program. Here’s what we’re working on with live artists, writers, and editors. No generative AI art or writing. (Hasbro can afford live human beings.) This is the game content we’re developing. We’d like your honest feedback, and we might make changes accordingly.

Second, the return of Dragon Magazine as an online publication/blog. If I can do an article or two per day, WotC should be able to hire someone to knock this out of the park. Cherry pick old articles from Dragon, talk about how-to run various games, new magic items, monsters, races, etc. (Yes, we’re going back to races or maybe ancestries.) Optimally there would be some fiction, artwork, maybe a weekly comic or column. A cheap official source online that really digs into the game and communicates it clearly across multiple platforms.

Then we do the same thing with Dungeon. We pick writers from the DMsGuild and offer to buy the rights to their adventures or ask them to submit one. We have fan based adventure submissions. We publish annuals or best-of compilations. Let’s get DMs involved again in a way that works for them. We might even find some new talent to hire this way.

Last, there will be a designated contact person for people to reach out to from social media, especially YouTube. I didn’t say we’d forget the DungeonTubers, but we’re taking the spotlight off of the unofficial ones. DungeonTubers are now just like anyone submitting content to DMsGuild. Do your thing, stay in the guidelines, and still profit from D&D content without getting sued. Content creators still have a voice, but they’re not being paid for 100% good reviews every time that are dead obviously purchased.

Why go through all of this again?

Well, I’m barking into the void as usual. Someone asked me what it would take to get me back into D&D again. Above is the long answer. The short answer is, “Stop dicking around on social media and focus on making good game content.”

It’s obvious to me that WotC is falling off on the upper levels again. If they want me back as a customer/fan again, they’re going to have to change a great deal. They’re tired of losing money. There are dozens upon dozens of other fantasy TTRPGs out there and more appearing almost daily. If they wanted to support D&D the game again, I’d get interested.

The D&D “community” is so fractured between editions, new school vs old school, new players vs old players, conservative right wingnuts vs “woke” anti-fascists, and on and on. Collectively we can’t screw in a lightbulb without somebody taking issue with how its being done. The only real fix has to come from WotC in the form of making a quality product and supporting the DMs or Players again.

I care about D&D. I would truly love to see it become the signature name brand of the TTRPG industry. Right now, I’m ashamed of what it has turned into. I’m ashamed of the way they treat some content creators in favor of others on YouTube and social media. I hate that DMsGuild, and Adventurer’s League are dying. It bugs me that official product release dates are so sporadic, overpromised and underdelivered. I’m sick of watching DungeonTubers spew the corporate pablum like it’s gospel.

WotC should go back to being a game company first and whatever the hell they’re doing now never. Offensive or not, get away from all the old baggage from years gone by like Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk. Let it live on in the reprints. Start encouraging DMs and writers to create adventures, campaigns and worlds again. Start getting the kids to put down the phone for five minutes and try this tabletop thing.

Yes, I care. I wish WotC could say the same. I would love to have that conversation with them. Will it ever happen? Signs point to “No” but I can dream.

@Wizards_DnD, @DnDBeyond, , &D, . I would love to chat with you.

Thank you for being here with me today. I appreciate you. Keep it real, but please strive for positivity, too. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy in your life.