Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2016 3:14 am
Berserker,
Necros are treated as golden, while retreading an old idea is seen as tedious.
Necros are treated as golden, while retreading an old idea is seen as tedious.
I see two basic requirements:
1. Hasbro has to be willing to throw some money at the D&D brand. Not at the TTRPG specifically - though they do need to gestate a new edition and have it ready - but as some sort of major production in other media to restart the brand. Cartoons is an option, but I think video games are the best choice, since D&D has had success there and has real pedigree (I mean, they released an expansion to Baldur's Gate this year) and there's a niche in the form of party-based RPGs. Plunking down the millions to create a legitimate cross-platform production is needed. The Forgotten Realms is the obvious setting, but Planescape could also work as the industry has very fond memories of Planescape: Torment.
2. D&D needs a viable strategy to fight Pathfinder head on and win. This is tricky as the D&D game does not have a good history of winning fights with rivals, having lost out to VtM in the 90s and having lost steam to the OGL which eventually became Pathfinder. Beating Pathfinder is tricky, launching 3.75e isn't going to do it, and really any particular variability in rules probably isn't going to be effective.
It's a tough challenge, especially since the current team has dug itself a hole by dumping writing talent that (for better or worse) is respected in the field and not supporting their current edition in a viable way. The seeming indifference of management to D&D as a major product also doesn't help. It's really dependent upon someone who cares throwing a bunch of money at the brand in order to seed potential success, but given the decline in the TTRPG hobby as a whole it's hard to see anyone wanting to do that.