Dragonlance Dies...Again!

[Daos]

(I posted this in my LJ, too, but I thought I'd put it here, as well.)

The Jaded DM grows even more jaded. Man, I thought I disliked Wizards of the Coast before today...

For those of you who don't know, WotC, the company that owns the D&D license, has just pulled the plug on my favorite setting, Dragonlance. The article is here.

The Dragonlance RPG License has been a labor of love for me and my staff throughout the term of our agreement with Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. Our goal in creating Dragonlance game product has always been to give the long-time fan quality material that supports our vision for Dragonlance while attracting a new audience to this epic world. Our agreement has come to term and is not being renewed. We will be releasing new Dragonlance RPG product through the end of this year and then will step back from our association with Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro.

That's straight out of Margaret Weis' mouth...er...keyboard. Whatever.

Now I know how all those people who subscribed to Dragon and Dungeon magazines must feel like. Dragonlance is my favorite setting, right up there with Spelljammer.

Why are they doing this? From what I can tell, MWP is making Wizards good money on the Dragonlance franchise. It's stupid to end the license! They're making money off of it!

But I think things are becoming more clear. Much like the signs the gods of Krynn sent before the Cataclysm, so are Wizards giving us signs of the Fourth Coming...that's right. Fourth Edition is on the horizon. Wizards is taking down their wandering licenses, one by one. First the magazines, now Dragonlance. Why would they do this? Many strongly suspect that 4E will NOT be part of the OGL.

A little history, if you don't mind. Before D&D was purchased by Wizards, it was owned by TSR. Although in its latter days, many disgruntled fans called it T$R. TSR became increasingly 'possessive' of its licenses. It became infamous when it would send rather harsh 'cease and desist' letters to anyone who posted their content online...even if the person in question was not making any money off of it. I fear WotC is now following in those disastrous footsteps.

I wonder now, if Nexus and KC are going to receive cease and desist letters soon?

Way to piss off a substantial part of your fanbase, Wizards. Again.

[matt]

Ugh. First of all, anyone who thinks cancelling Dragon and Dungeon magazines is insignificant is just completely off the reservation. They were the LIFELINE to RPGs before the rise of the internet. I wouldn't have gotten interested in the hobby in the first place if I didn't pick up that issue of Dragon in a bookstore when I was a kid. I think Gary Gygax's reaction to this whole ordeal is fairly spot on, it's hurting the RPG business in general, but it's also hurting Wizards. It's almost as if they want another company to come along and cripple them.

I admit that there's an audience for electronic media if that's the route Wizards wants to take, but it's not always the same audience that gravitates towards print media, myself included. I don't like books online, pdf files, e-mails, or audio books, I want the book or magazine in my hands. Magazines were also the way I stayed informed about the hobby in general. Besides visiting a few forums every now and then, I got about 85% of my RPG news from reading a magazine.

As for Dragonlance, well, they've screwed them and every other setting before, why not do it again? If Spelljammer, Ravenloft, Planescape, even freaking Gamma World can survive in one form or another, Dragonlance can too.

I wonder who masterminds these decisions? Wizards has been making shite calls since they took over the D&D cash cow. Cancelling lines that still generate revenue, dumbing down the product, getting behind that fucking movie that I can barely talk about without gagging.

It's not just Wizards, though. Wizkids/Fanpro are flogging off Shadowrun and Battletech to another publisher, and there's also what appears to be a debacle of a first-person shooter coming up that has um... NOTHING in common with the Shadowrun source material. It seems like if you're over the age of 14, you're not part of the target demographic for these companies anymore, which seems outrageous to me. I think part of the problem is when these kiddie-geared companies like Hasbro, Mattel, Topps, etc, got involved by becoming parent companies to the publishers, they decided this was only something that children and young teens were interested in.

I just miss the old days when the RPG business was small-time and almost underground.

[Daos]

The internet is where it's at, and WotC would be stupid not to try and cash in on that. But they seem to be relying on the 'net too much. Not everybody has the internet or even a computer. I never read the magazines myself (I didn't even know of their existence until long after 2E was cancelled) but they helped keep the local gaming stores in business and helped attract new fans.

I agree, I don't like online material. If it's all I have, I'll deal with it. But given the choice, I'd always prefer a solid book in my hands.

There are a lot of theories flying around on what the hell WotC is doing, but nobody can be sure. They are being suspiciously tight-lipped about the whole thing. Whatever it is, I can't imagine it will bode well for the gaming industry as a whole.

As for Dragonlance, what happens to that depends on what Wizards does next. If they leave it alone, then fans can at least continue to work on it on Nexus. If, however, the theory that 4E will not be OGL and Wizards is terminating all of its leases in order to regain its monopoly, then they made wind up trying to shut Nexus down (as well as Athas.org, Beyond the Moons, Planewalker, etc.).

I just miss the old days when the RPG business was small-time and almost underground.

No kidding. I like my games designed by bearded, unwashed nerds. Not faceless men in suits.

[Airellian]

I'm not really that sorry to see the license die. Most D&D 3rd Edition Dragonlance products were uninspiring, to say the least. If it means that they're not going to be writing any more DL novels, though... Actually, I don't care if they stop writing those, either.

[Daos]

Actually, from what I understand, the products released under MWP were among the best there were. I've heard many people say that MWP did a better job than TSR/WotC did on Dragonlance.

What becomes of the franchise is up to Wizards. They could sell it to someone else, but I doubt it. They would be creating new competition. They could try releasing material for Dragonlance themselves, but it probably won't be very much, nor very good (Expedition to Dargaard Keep, anyone?), as they are trying to primarily focus their efforts on FR and Eberron.

Whether this affects the novels or the upcoming movie, I cannot say for sure. I, for one, would miss them, though.