D&D 5E Hypothetical: WotC goes under and Hasbro vaults D&D. Now What?

[Misanthrope Prime]

Isn't D&D creative commons now?

I'd imagine there'd be an immediate gold rush to try and do what paizo did with pathfinder at the end of 3.5e, take the open parts of D&D and try to make a semi-proprietary spinoff, though in this case you're not competing against WotC but a bunch of other small presses to try and be the last man standing. Realistically, it might just be Paizo who whips up a 5e-alike and reigns as the biggest fish in the small pond since they have a lot more infrastructure and brand awareness than many other indie TTRPG publishers.

Another wildcard might be that a video game company who already have some infrastructure in place manages to publish a 5e-alike of their IP and that ends up sucking up market share as well.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Now what? What does "D&D never dying" look like under this scenario?

I think there will be a bunch of abortive attempts by various parties to get people to "unify" behind a specific D&D-like game, which will start out very polite and well-meaning, as everyone is used to playing distant second fiddle to D&D, but will likely end up just causing "console wars"-style shenanigans between people who support this or that version.

Despite the acrimony, this may well be good for the industry and indeed for the longer-term survival of TTRPGs as a hobby, because I think without WotC pushing the D&D IP and merch, and putting out new books, a lot of people and groups will actually drift to other RPGs.

Now, some will say "Why would they?!?!?!?! They've got years or even infinity D&D materials!!!!" but that's not how humans behave, or at least not how modern consumers behave. A lot of people want new content, new horizons, they want the sense that some new is being provided to them, and various companies will try to provide that.

I think we'll also get a rush of settings which attempt to replicate older D&D settings now there's no chance of WotC doing it - i.e. Planescape, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, etc. - these already exist but we'd see a lot more of them.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

One of the things that is said a lot with regards to the OGL and related discussions is that D&D being Open (and especially now that it is in CC) means it can never go away. There will always be "D&D" regardless of what happens to the company owning it.

So this thread is meant to be a discussion about what that might look like. What if by some series of unfortunate events D&D is no longer published or even licensed out? Let's even presume that Hasbro gets real litigious about any trademark violations, but doesn't bother doing anything about people using either SRD under CC.

Now what? What does "D&D never dying" look like under this scenario?

My first question would be how does this apply to the DMs Guild? I assume all of that goes away in your scenario, but I am not sure what that license says.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

You either play with what youve got or play something else. There are so many options now that WotC dropping out of the market wouldnt be much of a gap

Yep, and I think any non-IP gaps would be quickly filled.

 

[Reynard]

My first question would be how does this apply to the DMs Guild? I assume all of that goes away in your scenario, but I am not sure what that license says.

You can't sell that stuff anywhere else (as a stipulation of the license) and therefore if Hasbro shuts it down, it is gone.

 

[Zardnaar]

You can't sell that stuff anywhere else (as a stipulation of the license) and therefore if Hasbro shuts it down, it is gone.

You can still do Gothic horror or post apocalyptic though.

 

[Reynard]

You can still do Gothic horror or post apocalyptic though.

That wasn't the question. That DMsGuild stuff, if it is tied to D&D IP is dead.

 

[kayakingpoodle]

My first question would be how does this apply to the DMs Guild? I assume all of that goes away in your scenario, but I am not sure what that license says.

I'd miss DM's Guild more than WotC.

As for WotC going belly up and D&D getting closeted, 5e would do just fine, maybe even better. Wizbro owns the IP not the game, which is why it wouldn't change much, just pick a ruleset and go the 3pp stuff will be there.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

none, there would not be a dominant game, which also means the influencer market dries up

That may be the best reason I have heard for WotC closing

 

[Remathilis]

A hundred clones all spawn and capture a fraction of D&D's player base, balkanizing the hobby even more than it is.