Let us grant that Elon Musk does, indeed, purchase Hasbro (or at least gains command of D&D in some capacity). Further, let us grant Pundit is made supreme overlord of D&D and has carte blanche to do as he pleases. I have two requests: 1) just turn off all the online shit. All of it. Refund people's money, mail them physical copies of everything they purchased, and just turn it off. 2) Take AD&D and all the notes that were half-assed turned into Unearthed Arcana, clean it all up with real editors and playtesters and no cocaine, release that as Dungeons & Dragons: The Penultimate Edition. Then evergreen that shit until the cows come home.

"When is the next version coming out?"
"Soon, it's still in development. Here is a badass supplement in the meantime."

Quote from: Brad on December 10, 2024, 10:39:56 PMLet us grant that Elon Musk does, indeed, purchase Hasbro (or at least gains command of D&D in some capacity). Further, let us grant Pundit is made supreme overlord of D&D and has carte blanche to do as he pleases. I have two requests: 1) just turn off all the online shit. All of it. Refund people's money, mail them physical copies of everything they purchased, and just turn it off. 2) Take AD&D and all the notes that were half-assed turned into Unearthed Arcana, clean it all up with real editors and playtesters and no cocaine, release that as Dungeons & Dragons: The Penultimate Edition. Then evergreen that shit until the cows come home.

"When is the next version coming out?"
"Soon, it's still in development. Here is a badass supplement in the meantime."

The thing is that there is a market for the "online shit"; if it's done right, it is a source of profit for D&D. So no, I wouldn't kill it, of course I would kill any notion of going purely online like their current VTT plan suggests.

Second, I said in the video I'd do a classic reprint(s). But no, that wouldn't take the place of a new edition.

Quote from: Brad on December 10, 2024, 10:39:56 PMThe Penultimate Edition

I do not think that word means what you think it means ...

Quote from: RPGPundit on December 11, 2024, 04:52:32 AMThe thing is that there is a market for the "online shit"; if it's done right, it is a source of profit for D&D. So no, I wouldn't kill it, of course I would kill any notion of going purely online like their current VTT plan suggests.

Second, I said in the video I'd do a classic reprint(s). But no, that wouldn't take the place of a new edition.

Just because there's a market for fentanyl doesn't mean you should continue to sell it. VTT is garbage and needs to be eradicated. I say this as someone who has been forced to play online most of the time now due to all my buddies living in different locations. If it's not in person, it is not the same thing.

Quote from: Zalman on December 11, 2024, 06:42:19 AM

Quote from: Brad on December 10, 2024, 10:39:56 PMThe Penultimate Edition

I do not think that word means what you think it means ...

It means exactly what I meant it to mean.

Quote from: Brad on December 11, 2024, 09:09:08 AMJust because there's a market for fentanyl doesn't mean you should continue to sell it.

Wrong. So very wrong. You don't stop producing and selling something that has a need just because some people misuse it.

Quote from: Brad on December 11, 2024, 09:09:08 AMVTT is garbage and needs to be eradicated. I say this as someone who has been forced to play online most of the time now due to all my buddies living in different locations. If it's not in person, it is not the same thing.

I disagree. I'm in the same situation. The VTT is bit more work, but its far better than not playing or using Zoom. Of course I'm talking about a regular VTT, not the WotC VTT which will have animations and trash for cash that I don't want or need. I do think Wizards should leave that playing field to others.

Quote from: zircher on December 09, 2024, 11:21:37 AMAppendix N is the soul of D&D.  Without it, you get the rot that we have.  Not sure what the fix would be.  Add short story snippets from the masters and include them in chapter headers with sources so that people new to them would get a teaser?  Popular quotes from media that embrace the swords and sorcery feel?  Elon levels of money and influence might get the kind of rights needed for that.

At some point, D&D stopped being ways to replicate/play out or imagine new ways of playing things out that happened in fiction, and then new fiction was written about D&D and it started to be its own self-referential thing.  Then with some prestige, things like pulp fantasy which could have taken a chance because less likely.

I feel like D&D fiction could have/should have been more willing to take risks on smaller pulp novels that had the freedom to take risks on different kinds of sword and sorcery stories.

In some ways... Strixenhaven shouldn't be a surprise, if you think of harry potter as being the kind of "appendix N" thing that influenced it. On the other hand, it is a total mismatch for all the previous things that might have been associated with D&D.

There isn't much pulp fantasy of the appendix N type that has been made in the last 20 years, so it isn't really that surprising that the influence of those on D&D has waned.

I have given a lot of thought about what I would do if I were in charge of, or a part of D&D's development. And I gotta say, I think my engineering job is something I would rather do at this point in my life. At one point I had more ideas about what to do for D&D, but now I feel so disconnected that I don't really know what would be best for the game.
I still have a few ideas about what I would do with the older products that exist now, and some ideas about what I'd do for deals with artists.

Old products: I would set up an internal department to take all the older D&D products and upload/update them in newer layout software. Keep all the old art, work out deals for royalties, and then make them for sale as PDF bundles, and as print on demand.  I know a lot of these are available on DTRPG but many are just scans without any new layouts or format updating which would be really nice. I'd do this for all editions, original D&D, 1e, 2e, 3e, 4e, 5e.  There's fans of all of these and you shouldn't have to search through secondary market just to get stuff, not with today's technology.

Artists & Designers: There needs to be real art used in products, I hate the stuff that looks like it was photoshopped. The game needs art that looks like Frank Frazetta would have made. Real paintings. I feel like many artists have been screwed over by TSR and WoTC.  I would make sure that artists get shared rights with their artwork, and could sell reproductions of any official art that gets used in D&D, the only real restriction being that they couldn't let other game companies use the art without permission. 
For designers too, I would give people who came up with monsters shared rights to those monsters.

I would have an open contract kind of approach for settings material.  For instance, as far as I'm aware, Dark Sun had material for 2nd edition and 4th edition.  If someone wanted to write a Dark Sun setting book that was compatible for an edition of D&D that hadn't been published yet, people would be free to write one up, and it would still need to be reviewed, but if it makes the grade then it would be approved and allowed to be published. So I'd let people do this for setting material for all of the settings that exist for D&D, for all editions of D&D.

Less monster books.   My own personal opinion is that you should have some basic rules for making stats for monsters in the DM's material, but that something like a monster manual isn't needed.  I know its tradition but i would drop it.  I personally feel like you only really need monster information included in adventures you publish, or in setting books. Because monsters exist in dungeons, adventures, and in settings, just having a big monster book outside of the context of the places you'd use the monsters feels too bloated and frankly a waste of a book.

Fewer spells.  Likewise I feel like books with extra spells are not needed.  I don't know how many spells get used, but I bet there's many spells that exist that never get used.  You should have some rules to lay out how players can research/create their own spells, and leave it at that with a trimmed down list of spells.

Fewer classes.  I think there's 12 classes in 5e PHB?  Some others that have been added. I feel like it should be paired down to 6 classes, that way advancement/branching options can feel more substantial.

I dunno, I feel like I could help do statistical analysis for setting up systems and core rules, adventures and product lines I might not have that good of any ideas.

Quote from: Banjo Destructo on December 11, 2024, 02:22:37 PM

Quote from: zircher on December 09, 2024, 11:21:37 AMAppendix N is the soul of D&D.  Without it, you get the rot that we have.  Not sure what the fix would be.  Add short story snippets from the masters and include them in chapter headers with sources so that people new to them would get a teaser?  Popular quotes from media that embrace the swords and sorcery feel?  Elon levels of money and influence might get the kind of rights needed for that.

At some point, D&D stopped being ways to replicate/play out or imagine new ways of playing things out that happened in fiction, and then new fiction was written about D&D and it started to be its own self-referential thing.  Then with some prestige, things like pulp fantasy which could have taken a chance because less likely.

I feel like D&D fiction could have/should have been more willing to take risks on smaller pulp novels that had the freedom to take risks on different kinds of sword and sorcery stories.

In some ways... Strixenhaven shouldn't be a surprise, if you think of harry potter as being the kind of "appendix N" thing that influenced it. On the other hand, it is a total mismatch for all the previous things that might have been associated with D&D.

There isn't much pulp fantasy of the appendix N type that has been made in the last 20 years, so it isn't really that surprising that the influence of those on D&D has waned.

You're not wrong as such. But the point is that WotC at present has veered massively away from the Heroic Fantasy genre. Bringing it back to that form will rectify most of the problem. I don't think D&D should be inspired by itself, it should be inspired by the aeons old tradition of heroic fantasy.

Harry Potter is largely a pastiche of A Wizard of Earthsea, which I think fits squarely in the heroic fantasy tradition. Games about playing (edit) hot mess barristas in Fantasy Seattle do not. I got the impression Strixhaven is more the latter.

Quote from: S'mon on December 12, 2024, 10:58:09 AMHarry Potter is largely a pastiche of A Wizard of Earthsea, which I think fits squarely in the heroic fantasy tradition. Games about playing hit mess barristas in Fantasy Seattle do not. I got the impression Strixhaven is more the latter.

Correct. Strixhaven is not really 'harry potter' except in the most superficial sense. It's actually a postmodern sexual degenerate soap opera.

I'm here for a product request - please bring back those cool boxes with maps and books.

Would the new CEO bring back any of the old campaign worlds? If you wan't my input (you don't) - bring back Mystara!

Quote from: dvar on December 12, 2024, 04:34:35 PMI'm here for a product request - please bring back those cool boxes with maps and books.

Would the new CEO bring back any of the old campaign worlds? If you wan't my input (you don't) - bring back Mystara!

Box sets have a lot more logistical challenges. Any box set would be likely to be quite expensive.

Quote from: RPGPundit on December 12, 2024, 07:37:29 PM

Quote from: dvar on December 12, 2024, 04:34:35 PMI'm here for a product request - please bring back those cool boxes with maps and books.

Would the new CEO bring back any of the old campaign worlds? If you wan't my input (you don't) - bring back Mystara!

Box sets have a lot more logistical challenges. Any box set would be likely to be quite expensive.

Hopefully not in the WFRP 3e $100-box range.

Quote from: RPGPundit on December 12, 2024, 07:37:29 PM

Quote from: dvar on December 12, 2024, 04:34:35 PMI'm here for a product request - please bring back those cool boxes with maps and books.

Would the new CEO bring back any of the old campaign worlds? If you wan't my input (you don't) - bring back Mystara!

Box sets have a lot more logistical challenges. Any box set would be likely to be quite expensive.

Here in UK we get hit by 20% tax on boxes, whereas books are 0%. There are some great box sets out there but I think they are often near-loss-leaders for the publishers. I have no idea how Free League can do the Dragonbane or Forbidden Lands full rules box sets at the prices I paid for them. They recently had a sale with the DB box for 20 pounds. WoTC do box starter sets by really skimping on paper quality etc, & sell a *lot*, so it's more understandable.