Quote from: David Johansen on October 28, 2024, 12:07:47 AMAs ever, release Rolemaster Standard System under the D&D brand name, scuttle all other editions and remove them from Drivethru Rpg.  Watch the fans go to war the "the name D&D makes it sacred/The Company Is Always Right" crowd might even revolt a little.

Isn't that what kinda happened with 3rd Edition? It was made mostly by a Rolemaster guy. The skill system, the painful math, the hit point inflation, the critical hits were all borrowed from Rolemaster

Set up a group of upper to middle managers to take responsibility of the day to day running of the creative department.
Collect a paycheck while doing as little work as possible.

If things go well, I attribute it to my excellent managerial skills.
If thing go badly, I blame it on my staff.

I would probably not be a good choice to take the job.

remove all wokeness

make a new version of dnd that enables you to configure power levels. i.e: one game can have a down to earth feel, the other involves planetary destruction left and right

Enforce non-Christian non-Western morality embedded into the framework of every world. For instance, slavery could be good in every world. As a start.

Shut down the TTRPG entirely and turn it into a line of toys, board/card/mobile games and plushie monsters. Also license it out to Netflix/Amazon/Disney for an animated series or five.

The actual TTRPG hobby would be vastly improved without the blue whale (it's too big to be a gorilla or even an elephant) first mover that is D&D crushing it. The D&D brand would be more profitable if it didn't have to cater to the superfans of TTRPGs. Make them go their separate ways.

1. fire all the activists and hire game developers

2. do a more stripped down version of 5e that has a lot less feature bloat and power creep

3. go through the catalogue for games to revive, hire authors to do novels

4. direct a team to make adventure modules of 20-30 pages

5. pursue a policy of joint projects and cooperation with indi developers and publishers

6. invest in/build gaming stores akin to GW stores

7. produce and market player/GM aids

8. hold DM training classes to onboard new DMs

Quote from: Ruprecht on October 27, 2024, 04:47:25 PMI would recreate a basic version of the game that covers levels 1- 10 , stripped of all the clutter and feats and garbage that made it complicated.

Pretty much.  I was going to suggest a true rules light version of the 5.5e core rules as the basis for a component comprehensive starter set.  If fans can strip down the rules and other smaller companies can make affordable starters with all the parts/components you can want for a campaign, why not WOTC?  I'd keep it going as an old school style (artisitically speaking as it would still use the 5.x rules as a base and not OSR) product line alternative if sales warranted.

I'd also creative commons any settings that they have no real intention of supporting in any way that does the originals justice due to their now engrained extremist ideology (Dark Sun, I'm looking at you!) so that they can't take it back.  I have no delusions that I'd be able to stem the tide of blue haired cowcatcher pierced weirdos in RPGs permanently in my brief tenure before being fired but I'd at least allow the community to support whatever however they wanted.

I would revive the various other non-D&D IPs from the 80s, 90s, and 00s under a connected brand that covers post-medieval genres where guns exist, with revivals of Urban Arcana, Gamma World, Dark Matter and Star Drive as poster children. The rules would be compatible with D&D and it would be possible for D&D characters to visit these settings using portals in Sigil.

Make a Neverwinter Nights 3 that allows you to create custom modules and stuff, then use that as the foundation for various premium modules exploring various D&D campaign worlds, including the settings with guns.

The Urban Arcana module would be handed over to ex-Troika devs like Brian Mitsoda to cash in on his association with Vampire Bloodlines. The plot would involve the PC starting off as a muggle who becomes aware of the Shadowkind, is recruited by Department-7, and is free to develop one of the different class options.

The Gamma World module would be handed over to them too since they worked on Fallout 1 and would be able to bring their characteristic humor, which fits perfectly with GW's over the top setting. The cryptic alliances would serve a similar role to the factions in Fallout New Vegas. The background would be a combination of the previous editions, featuring radiation, alien mutagens, and nanomachines as contributing to the apocalypse.

Same for the Dark Matter module, because the premise is inherently silly and it would be wrong not to; also, the conspiracies would be updated for recent events, with the World Economic Forum being the latest incarnation of the New World Order (own nothing, eat bugs, live in pods!) and most other politicians being in the pocket of the Final Church like that movie with Samara Weaving. The PC would be an employee of the Hoffman institute, with the structure starting off as investigating monster of the week events before an overarching plot starts.

The Star Drive game would probably be handed to ex-Bioware devs and channel some Mass Effect energy; the protagonist would be a Concord Administrator doing peacekeeping in the Verge after the Second Galactic War and encountering the vanguard forces of the Exeat.

Alien races from other games like Star Frontiers and Galactos Barrier would probably be folded into Star Drive until expenses could be justified on games just for those.

Maybe animated pilots could be made and posted to youtube in order to advertise and gauge interest.

Is there a D&D setting that actually is 'canon' for Magic the gathering?  Seems like that would be a natural.  Add a class that actually uses MTG cards in-game so you can sell to both groups.  Yes, you can buy powerful cards, but you would actually have to play the RPG to level up so you can use them.  Maybe lean into that Ars Magica vibe.

Create a kids friendly D&D universe, don't care if adults play in it, look into animation for it on streaming.

Create a dark/gritty adult D&D universe (not Dark Suns but will have a Dark Suns source book), look into animation with an indie developer/studio.

Make GM-less / solo a part of the system so that the 'GM strangle hold' is broken.  Perhaps create an 'Advanced Dungeon' board game that is expandable ala Talisman that can integrate the RPG into structured game play with quests and board game play.

Mad science moment, create a hocky puck device with AI connectivity.  Literally a combination of magic 8-ball and GM in a box using voice recognition and speech as its interface.  Probably would have to be online, might need a modest subscription to justify the cost of use and/or pair it with a powerful enough PC for local operations.

Quote from: zircher on October 28, 2024, 10:53:21 AMIs there a D&D setting that actually is 'canon' for Magic the gathering?

Ravnica is a MtG setting that had it's own D&D setting book for 5e.

1st) Implement a neutral media policy.  There will be no positive or negative discussion on race from the real world in game or any communication.

2nd) Merit based hiring for all projects and removal of DEI. 

3rd) Work with Hasbro to get the American First lawsuit against Hasbro for racist hiring practices addressed, apologized and follow the policies set by the

4th) Set up two tracks of games, Basic being aimed at children with more whimsical children content like prom and barrista AND Advanced being aimed at adults with adult content.

5th) Work on culture, the culture of WotC is toxic.  Move offices to the Midwest in a mid-sized city, like Ft Wayne IN or Cincinnati OH.  The amount of race marxist staff that will quit, will fix a lot of problems

6th) Redesign XP advancement to lengthen earlier leveling.  In 5E the designers increased monster XP by about 20% to 33% awarded compared to prior editions and decreased XP to advance, especially in the early game by 50%.  It makes it very hard to run a starter campaign when by 20 hours everyone is level 4 if not 5.  It should go to the the 30hr to 40 hr range to give players time to learn the basic rules of the game and their character.

7th) Release content for DM's, like good world building builds and then support with a full campaign from 1 to 12 for each released world.

None of this will take place, they are going to do everything they can to complicate the rules and remove world building ideas and dungeon creation to try to get customers to think they can only run their content, watch.

Quote from: zircher on October 28, 2024, 10:53:21 AMIs there a D&D setting that actually is 'canon' for Magic the gathering?  Seems like that would be a natural.  Add a class that actually uses MTG cards in-game so you can sell to both groups.  Yes, you can buy powerful cards, but you would actually have to play the RPG to level up so you can use them.  Maybe lean into that Ars Magica vibe

On a personal level, an official Dominaria setting is something I've wanted for years, though I'd rather they did it back during the 3.x era when they were still publishing proper gazetteers for their settings. On a business level, I suspect the reason WOTC wouldn't do it is for the same reason they wouldn't invest much into Mystara or Greyhawk. No matter how different they are in detail, the general audience is going to look at them as redundant next to Forgotten Realms. It's probably easier to sell a setting with an obvious gimmick.

A true Basic game line, with a large box set, and foldout maps.  Such maps should show areas outside the included pre-written adventures; and encourage players to expand out, and create their own further adventures.

Quote from: BadApple on October 28, 2024, 08:32:02 AM8. hold DM training classes to onboard new DMs

Oh, fucking Hell, no!

Even with a sweeping staff change, I would not trust WotC to train new DMs.

I had a nice big long post for this interesting question then I realized I had to get past my "fan dreams".

The fact is the continued existence of WotC as an entity is against my personal interests. As long as WotC is part of Hasbro, it will never have the needs of the RPG hobby in its interests (nor should it). It will forever be seeking novelty on an annual basis for the purposes of seeking profit through "synergy" and everything that is unimportant for making the game good for its core audience. It's already happened. It helps that WotC no longer knows or cares who its core audience was, it's invented in their own mind - or conditioned them through adjacent media to accept the current drivel that forces this fun question to be asked in the first place.

I think a better question would be: WotC implodes and Hasbro decides to license the D&D brand and you get it.

If someone is as follish as given to me, free reign on the D&D IP, I would perform the following evil deeds :

- Offer a sum of money, large enough, to convinced Kevin Siembieda to reveal all the mysteries of his Palladium world, and make it the official default game universe of D&D, to the end of times ;

- Only hire women who are native French speakers (they would be, of course, gnerously compensated, in euros, not dollars) and only produce D&D books in French, and bans its translatation in any other language, except Japanese, Esperanto, Ancient Greek and Hebrew ;

- Make alignements great again, and reintroduce alignement language and making sure that everyone know that English is the language of the chaotic and the evil ;

- Make sure that the rules of the game are forever free to use, for anyone to use, for profit or not ;

- Give myself a generous monetary compensation, for I need my own James Bond villain island, and more, to gloat at the chaos I would unleashed by doing something that bring joy to me.