The Populist

Let’s talk about role playing games; specifically Dungeons and Dragons – okay, perhaps the title of this post isn’t completely fair. I’ll leave that up to you to decide. So, Wizards of the Coast, owner of the popular Dungeons and Dragons franchise, has recently announced the release of Dungeons and Dragons, version 4.0. This marks the third version of D&D since 2000, if you include version 3.5 (which I will here because of the full range of rule books required for that version). To put that into perspective, there had only been two versions of D&D released in the 25 years previous. As a long time D&D player, I’ve also seen the transition from a few core rulebooks for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons circa 1978 (version 1) to the absolute deluge of supplementary guides, class handbooks, setting books, battle maps, plastic figurines, and seemingly endless errata to said texts that have accompanied versions 3.0 and 3.5. Friends of mine estimate they’ve spent $1000 or more just to collect most of the 3.0 and 3.5 products. Now, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has seen fit to produce a fourth edition. WotC claims that there will be fewer supplementary products and a system setup for online play. That might be a great service to me, as I no longer live near the other geeks with whom I used to game. Unfortunately, that online play comes with a monthly fee. It appears they’ve found a passive revenue stream so that they can take a break from constantly pushing out new products. I suppose some of the writers at WotC will be happy about that.

So here are a couple of questions. At what point is a beloved game simply fleecing its loyal patrons, preying on the fears of game geeks everywhere, telling them they won’t have the newest skills, feats, rules, powers, and setting updates for their games unless they shell out $35 a pop for each new rulebook? Is this simply good capitalism, providing a product to those who demand it, or are we being strung along by an army of writers and marketeers just trying to push out product after product to raise their bottom line? More importantly, at what point do these products become so watered down that it would be better if we just all wrote our own material and traded it around to other gamers under the open gaming license? I realize other companies such as Sword & Sorcery games have taken advantage of the open gaming license and produced several products including the Eberron game setting. So I don’t want to demonize WotC – though it probably sounds like I’m doing exactly that – but would it be so wrong for long-time gamers to get a couple of months off from new D&D products so that we might settle into the ones we already have? Is WotC afraid of shrinking revenues or short attention spans that might quickly bore of products that are more than a few months old? Perhaps, WotC could continue growing into sci-fi and/or horror games, you know, work a different niche for awhile. Trust me, I have no problem at all making a buck. I’d like to be a real writer, myself, someday. I’m just tired. Honestly, I was tired after 3.5 and the endless “splat” books (class/supplementary handbooks) were released. In fact, I haven’t purchased a D&D product since late 2003. I can’t really afford it. I just mooch off my good friends who I can rely on to support WotC’s bottom line. Here’s to you, guys! You know you’ll always have my thanks.

Of course the simple answer is that if we stop buying, they’ll stop producing. But then what will happen to our beloved game. Maybe we could go underground, and the gamers could write all their own material and share it like some sick socialist system? My former gaming group already shares books and materials already. My god, man, what’s next? Universal health care?

So, what do you think?