Dungeons & Dragons Historian Ben Riggs’ Open Letter to WOTC

Ben Riggs is a D&D historian and creator of the e-book Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons.

Pricey Wizards of the Coast,

Hello! I wrote a history of your company again when it was known as TSR. I additionally educate seventh and eighth grade, so for the previous 15 years, I’ve watched yr after yr as children uncover, and go ga-ga for, D&D.

I’m scripting this letter as a result of I would like you to succeed. Frankly, I feel all true-hearted D&D followers wish to see your organization do properly and produce improbable merchandise which are worthwhile. So I eagerly watched your media occasions these previous few weeks, specifically D&D Direct and the content material creator summit. There are some good concepts there, however I wish to be sincere with you. Generally, I’d fee them as meh. I feel D&D has room for exponential development, and none of these concepts are going to gasoline that type of enhance.

TTRPGs are literally a titanically tough product to make some huge cash on. Drop $150 on rulebooks and campaigns and you’ll play for years with out ever making one other buy. Bizarre, proper? We D&D followers truly don’t have any have to ever buy something from you ever once more. (But practically all of us wish to!)

I perceive you’re attempting to get more cash from gamers. Once more, that’s nice by me! I can’t await a stunning Atlas of Neverwinter and Edgin the Bard socks. I hope your VTT is so improbable that I wish to use it on a regular basis and twice on Sunday. Nonetheless, will any of that actually develop the sport’s participant base exponentially? In all probability not. I perceive quite a lot of you’ve backgrounds in video video games, which is smart. Nevertheless, I’d warning you right here as properly. D&D will not be a online game. The VTT is not going to make it a online game.

You must reframe your considering. Don’t consider D&D as merchandise. Don’t even consider it as a model. Undoubtedly don’t consider it as a online game.

D&D is the primary and most well-known tabletop role-playing sport, and tabletop role-playing video games are an unique and radical medium. A TTRPG is one thing new to do with paper, pencils, and the human thoughts that was invented in 1974. Think about performing was invented in 1974, and that we’re a mere 50 years into seeing how performing will change tradition. That’s the potential of the TTRPG revolution.

One of the crucial wonderful options of the TTRPG is that it’s infinite. If one began a D&D marketing campaign in 1974 with the primary guidelines launch, one may nonetheless be taking part in that very same sport immediately, which is to say telling that very same story immediately. Most video video games, in contrast, will be completed and as soon as full require a brand new buy. Video video games are finite. TTRPGs aren’t. They’re a bottomless bottle of vodka, or a automobile that by no means breaks down and doesn’t even want fuel.

So how do you generate income off a brand new medium which, after an preliminary buy, by no means requires one other? It’s tough, however it may be performed. Probably the most profitable fashions are sports activities and faith. (I wish to be clear right here I’m not denigrating religions, nor am I making some type of reality declare for D&D.) And the important thing to unlocking a much bigger, brighter, and extra worthwhile future for D&D will not be at Wizards, not at Hasbro, and satirically it isn’t with the gamers, no.

It’s the Dungeon Masters.

Internationally, lots of of 1000’s if not hundreds of thousands of Dungeon Masters ask individuals to strive D&D for the primary time. They clarify the foundations. They setup D&D nights. They work out who’s bringing the chips, and who’s bringing the dip. They actually promote your product for you, and so they do it without cost. Contemplate this straightforward math. If there have been solely 10 Dungeon Masters in the entire world, however yearly, every DM satisfied one different particular person to grow to be a DM, inside 20 years, you’ve over 20 million Dungeon Masters.

You will generate income by radically growing the quantity of people that play D&D. And you will do this by making the lives of these hundreds of thousands of Dungeon Masters a lot, a lot simpler than they’re now.

As it’s possible you’ll know, there’s a Dungeon Grasp scarcity. Individuals are intimidated to DM. They fear about understanding the foundations. They fear about mastering the journey, or writing their very own. That places a brake, even perhaps a ceiling, on D&D development. Somebody could also be a Essential Position fanatic, but when they’ll’t discover a D&D sport to play in, they might by no means grow to be a D&D fan.

So how do you make a DM’s life simpler?

First, you’re presently producing one of the best model of D&D that has ever been in existence. Moreover, having watched dozens of 12-year-olds play by the Starter Set, I can even let you know that product does a nice job of educating the sport. That stated, it’s best to produce a ten to twenty web page pamphlet that may be out there free in your web site of a very powerful D&D guidelines. Proceed utilizing the web and YouTube to create content material explaining D&D and your merchandise. Perhaps even type of audio journey summaries so as an alternative of studying, a DM might pay attention to arrange? Perhaps learn by an current D&D celeb?

However exterior the Starter Set, your different adventures and campaigns are a wildly combined bag. I do know that numerous droves of D&D followers will purchase your books regardless of the standard or content material, however making lifelong followers requires producing improbable adventures. A superb marketing campaign each conjures up DMs to run it and makes their lives simpler. I don’t understand how your books are produced, however primarily based on the ultimate merchandise I’ve seen, it’s best to do the next:

Campaigns ought to have one to a few authors. Add extra with solely nice warning…

Campaigns ought to be pitched by authors & designers.

You must pay your sport designers like they’re engaged on video video games, and it’s best to give writers royalties.

There ought to be a constant format for campaigns that carries over from e-book to e-book.

Time for playtesting ought to be included in your manufacturing cycle. It ought to be measured in months.

Your books have to be shorter! Incorporate twenty first century RPG format & design.

Return to the boxed set! Create handouts, maps, character portraits, in-game journals, & clues to go together with the sport. (Additionally make PDFs of these goodies out there.)

What else are you able to do? Are you able to make a type of Dungeon Mastering graduate college, with maybe particular merchandise solely out there for buy by graduates? Are you able to run DM contests at gaming conventions? Winners get swag, journeys to Renton, honor, glory, and many others. Are you able to create some type of Academy Awards for DMs? There’s an awards ceremony, with celeb presenters.

That each one could appear absurd. And the way does it result in earnings? Effectively think about in a world with 20 million Dungeon Masters, you in all probability have 100 million gamers. 113 million individuals watched the Tremendous Bowl in 2023. If D&D is a sport with a fan base on par with that of the NFL, think about the earnings from t-shirt gross sales alone. Moreover, think about that these strategies aren’t about changing what you’re doing now. Slightly, such a re-focusing on the DM will increase your present efforts. Extra DMs and extra gamers make your VTT extra helpful and extra worthwhile, for instance.

In order that’s the way in which it seems from the place I sit. I want you one of the best of luck. The film was superior!

Sincerely,

Ben Riggs

D&D Historian Extraordinaire


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