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Hasbro may be hurling D&D towards a digital future but we already have everything we need to enjoy this game for the rest of our lives.
Hasbro is super-excited for a digital D&D future. They're tired of selling us, as Penny Arcade perfectly describes, a single hamburger we can share with our friends every week for thirty years. Hasbro wants subscription revenue from every player every month – not just the single purchase of a book you can keep and use for the rest of your life. They don't want to sell us a product. They want us to pay rent.
Chris Cocks, Hasbro's president and former president of Wizards of the Coast, is pushing hard for a digital future. He already said they're running experiments with artificial intelligence saying "D&D has 50 years of content that we can mine". The new head of WOTC is a former Blizzard executive who replaced a former Amazon and Microsoft executive. They put up a new D&D product architect job listing with a clear focus on a push for digital gaming and a new "monetization designer" which is as close to "professional enshittifier" as they're willing to come to in a job requisition.
So yeah, WOTC is really excited to charge monthly fees and microtransactions you never want to stop paying for.
But I have good news for you. It doesn't matter.
The big worry is that WOTC is going to stop producing physical books – some pundits say in two years. I seriously doubt they'll stop making books, but let's pretend that's true. I still say it doesn't matter.
Here are five reasons why:
- The three D&D core books are the only D&D books that really matter and they're already physical books.
- WOTC almost certainly plans to release a physical D&D Starter Set for their new rules so they can put it on the shelves of Target and Walmart.
- WOTC promised to release a new 5.2 System Reference Document of the D&D 2024 rules into the Creative Commons so anyone can build off of core D&D 2024 rules in any format they desire.
- We have 50 years of previous versions of D&D we can play, multiple 5e variants from other publishers, and hundreds of other RPGs we can enjoy.
- You can play D&D on several digital platforms other than D&D Beyond.
Let's look at these reasons one at a time in case the list alone doesn't convince you.
The D&D Core Books are Physical and They're All That Matters
We know the D&D 2024 core books are going to be physical. People already have the D&D 2024 Player's Handbook in hand and the Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual are coming out in the next six months. Once we purchase them, they're ours forever. These books aren't hobbled products that require some monthly subscription to keep using. You can whip up a character on a piece of paper in 30 minutes and play for a couple of years.
The core books vastly outsell other WOTC-published D&D books. Once people have the core books, they don't need much else. Big crunchy character option books like Xanathar's Guide to Everything and Tashas's Cauldron of Everything are popular and change the game in fundamental ways, but they're not necessary. Other publishers also publish crunchy character books. WOTC doesn't have a monopoly on 5e character options.
WOTC owns the IP to worlds like the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Planescape, Spelljammer, and Dragonlance but they don't seem interested in publishing more than a single big adventure for these settings. WOTC not publishing more campaign settings doesn't seem to hurt the hobby. Roughly half of DMs I surveyed prefer their own campaign world anyway and there are other fantastic worlds being published by other publishers.
Once the physical core books are out, it doesn't matter if WOTC tries to digitize the rest of D&D. We have our books. They can't take them away.
WOTC Will Produce a New Starter Set
One worry is that WOTC will funnel new players straight to D&D Beyond and all those juicy monthly fees. Maybe. But they're still going to release a physical D&D Starter Set so they can get a box on the shelves of Target, Walmart, and other big-box stores. Those starter sets are likely critical to bringing new players to the game. Sure, they'll still push new players to join D&D Beyond with special offers and coupons but the old ones did too. That's nothing new.
WOTC Promised a New 5.2 SRD based on D&D 2024
In May 2024, WOTC promised to release the core rules of D&D 2024 into a new 5.2 SRD at the end of February 2025. This system reference document would open the updated D&D 2024 rules to other publishers who can fill in any gaps left behind as WOTC focuses on digital revenue. It means people can make alternative character builders, VTTs with integrated rulesets, new character option books, and so on. The only limitation is what people are willing to produce and whether they can get customers to support it. There's no WOTC monopoly at that point. WOTC isn't in the way.
We Already Have Old Versions of D&D and Tons of Fantastic RPGs
On my shelf and hard-drive, I have six older versions of D&D, all of which people still play in one form or another. My friend Chris is running a 2nd Edition D&D game in Dark Sun, for example.
There are millions of copies of the 2014 D&D Player's Handbook out there and ways to purchase all five previous versions of D&D as well. All these versions of D&D brought the same sort of fun to the table we enjoy today and all are still fully playable. It doesn't matter if WOTC wants to stop selling us a 30 year hamburger. We already have a stack of them.
Outside of D&D we have Tales of the Valiant and Level Up Advanced 5e which offer excellent updates to 2014 D&D. Shadowdark took 5e and stripped it down to the old-school feel of D&D from the 70s and 80s. There are tons of other excellent RPGs out there that aren't 5e-based like Dragonbane, Shadow of the Weird Wizard, 13th Age, Knave and more.
We have plenty of other systems to try. WOTC is trying to build a moat in the middle of an ocean.
You Can Play D&D on Several Digital Platforms
Hasbro is super-excited to get you to pay for D&D on D&D Beyond but it's not the only platform for this game. 2024 D&D will be available on Foundry, Fantasy Grounds, and Roll20 as well. Other 5e variants are already available on those VTTs and Shard Tabletop as well. EN World Publishing is building a free character builder for Level Up Advanced 5e. You can also play with physical books, real dice, and rules-independent VTTs like Owlbear Rodeo. With so many rulesets available under Creative Commons licenses, WOTC isn't in the way of people building tools other people want to use when they play.
It Only Matters to You And Your Group
Regardless of what's going on in the rest of the industry, the game itself is just you and a few friends sitting at a table (virtually or physically) to play. If you can convince your players to play a different RPG, it doesn't matter how popular that RPG is to anyone else – it's working for you. If six people anywhere in the world are playing a particular RPG, that RPG is still alive.
Finding good reliable players for RPGs is hard – likely the hardest part of this hobby. I don't think WOTC is making it easier or harder. It's hard to find reliable players. It can also be hard to convince those players to step away from the most popular RPG to play one they've never heard of.
But if your group trusts you, if they enjoy the stories you share, you can talk to them about trying other systems once in a while. It can take some work but WOTC's not in the way. Getting great players to your table regularly who are open to trying other systems isn't easy but we can get there. This is the main problem we should be working to solve.
And, of course, we can always play D&D. We can use our physical books and a resilient stack of software to play D&D however we want and no one can stop us.
We can't fix WOTC. We can't change their direction away from further attempts to monetize D&D. Like Penny Arcade says, we're not rattling sabers, we're rattling those little plastic swords used to hold sandwiches together.
We can only strengthen our own hold on the hobby. More than any other form of entertainment, the RPG hobby is incredibly resilient to the types of moat-building WOTC attempts as they move to their digital future.
The future of the RPG hobby is ours.
More Sly Flourish Stuff
Last week I posted a couple of YouTube videos on Why Open RPG Licenses Matter to GMs and The Forgotten God – Shadowdark Gloaming Session 38 Lazy GM Prep.
Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics
Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video:
- City of Arches Kickstarter Next Week!
- Lots of D&D 2024 Info Next Week
- Solodark Solo-play Video by Kelsey Dionne
- When We Were Wizards Podcast
- Nimble 5e
- City of Arches Obsidian Skull Walkthrough
- Handling Questions of Morality in TTRPGs
Patreon Questions and Answers
Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers:
RPG Tips
Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:
- Give character-focused options for downtime activities. Alert them before the session begins so they can think of what they want to do.
- Ask players to talk about what new features they got when they level up.
- Mix multiple random encounters together.
- Use a table-less oracle die for distance, attitude, morale, weather severity, and more. The lower the number, the less extreme.
- Draw quick maps on paper or dry-erase boards or mats to help players understand the situation.
- Add backgrounds and details to quest-giving NPCs like names, intentions, etc.
- Write down notes during the game to keep track of important information for your next session's prep – NPC names, where the game ended, and other details to help you prepare the next session.
Related Articles
- D&D Beyond, Wizards of the Coast, 5e, and You
- What Is 5e?
- What 5e in the Creative Commons Means to You
Get More from Sly Flourish
Buy Sly Flourish's Books
- Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
- Lazy DM's Companion
- Lazy DM's Workbook
- Forge of Foes
- Fantastic Lairs
- Ruins of the Grendleroot
- Fantastic Adventures
- Fantastic Locations
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