Well, there’s already been lots of chatter on this so I might as well throw out some of my own thoughts and predictions and see how much hate I get. The best nickname I’ve seen so far is D&Done.

Let me start with that I’ve got nothing against a company making money. That’s cool. But I see in the future a lot of folks getting thrown under the bus. And I’m going to throw this little bit of politics out there. There’s a big swath of the 5E and RPG community that leans pretty strong to the left. You’ve probably seen the “capitalism bad” and “corporations are evil” type rants and posts. But there’s a bit of double think going on out there where some of those very same folks are going to throw cash at Hasbro.

So who remembers back to release original release announcements for 5E? You know where they looked at older editions for inspiration on what worked. They wanted to bring together a fractured fan base. When 5E first came out there was still a feel of some old school or even gritter play but that’s going to go away. It’s hard to find those old posts and articles. WOTC scrubbed their archives. But I did find this old Wired article and here’s one from Bleeding Cool. That mindset is gone. I don’t think they want certain kinds of fans. Oh. I know some of you may be saying old man screaming at clouds. But it’s not about age, it’s about taste and play preferences. Even Matt Colville, the popular Youtuber, has said that D&D isn’t one game. It’s thousands. Each table, each group is their own game. But WOTC wants only one D&D. Yeah, that may be an overreaction on my part but wait there’s more.

I’ve already commented elsewhere that the whole One D&D thing is like renting a house in gated community with an HOA ran by mob of Karens. There’s plenty of folks who claim that gatekeeping is bad then turn around and gate keep. If you aren’t the kind of person that will jump on the group think train then be prepared for even more toxicity. Heck, Ill even go out on a limb to say that their “public” play test is being conducted in an echo chamber.

Now here’s where things are going to get interesting. Hey, OGL. Well, that I bet is going to be unrecognizable. All you third party publishers. Come on over to the curated community or screw you. DM’s Guild/OBS. Screw you. Roll20 or other VTT’s. Well, screw you. FLGS. Screw you. Any other various content creators. Screw you. I don’t think that WOTC is out to get the little guy. They don’t have time for that. But the little guy is just inconsequential collateral damage in pursuit of market share. You don’t matter.

I’m not against WOTC making money. I’m just putting out a warning signal based on my opinion. Let’s face it. They basically have a monopoly in the RPG sphere. I know many say that a rising tide lifts all ships. But also, name any time when a monopoly benefited the consumer.

Sure Hasbro owns the D&D IP. But the real heart and soul of D&D is a bunch of friends around a table (even a virtual one), rolling dice, having fun, and doing their own thing. No matter how hard they try, they can never own that. No matter how big a community, they can never actually control that. They may want to. But don’t let them even think that they can.

So. Now and in the future, it’s important to go out there and support all those little independent creators. This is where imagination, ingenuity, and creativity will live. Let’s face it. They already have to fight against internet algorithms, corporate shill sites, and face a corporate marketing budgets bigger than their gross profits. As I have said before we need to start looking at those small publishers as the garage bands, punk rockers, underground comics, and local diners. They are small and quirky places with actual personality.

I’m not telling you who to support. That’s up to.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programing.