dungeons is also so hobbyist that, like many people who play other TTRPGs, I’ve called D&Doften refer to such games simply as “D&D” short. But apparently that kind of notoriety and dominance in this space isn’t enough for publishers Wizards of the Coast. Based on comments made during an investor call with the CEOs of Wizards of the Coast and its owner Hasbro, the companies are interested in finding ways to improve monetization strategies related to “the world’s greatest RPG,” similar to the Kind we all know and love in video games: microtransactions and subscriptions.
As reported by cube breakerHasbro CEO Chris Cocks and Wizards of the Coast CEO Cynthia Williams want to grow the future of dungeons through “the kind of recurring expenses you see in digital games”. Williams highlighted and lamented the fact that dungeon masters (or “game masters,” players who “run” the game and control all non-player characters and monsters) spend the most on the hobby through rulebooks and digital services that gamers (those who only play single characters) just aren’t spending enough to play in the company’s fantasy world. she described D&D
Many familiar with the hobby may find these comments a bit odd. As the world’s most popular tabletop role-playing game dungeons has a variety of ways for players and game officials to buy official material and spend money on the game, which Williams says “has never been more popular.”
It’s true that if you want to save money and use your imagination like some kind of monster, buying the core rulebooks costs around $100 and can give you a lifetime of material to play with. A hundred dollars isn’t nothing, but it’s hardly the amount a lifetime gamer, for example, is likely to spend on new video games in a year’s time, and many video game players spend it much more than that only on microtransactions within their favorite titles. However, some might say that this ability to spend around $60-$100 and then let your imagination guide you the rest of the way is what makes the hobby so appealing. It’s accessible, affordable, and has a personal, unplugged feel. But then again, that doesn’t fit the spending models we see in “digital games.”
So, from a certain angle, it might be easy to see why executives at WOTC and Hasbro might lament that someone can just buy some books, get some dice, and spend the rest of their life happily playing the game without one to spend another cent. However, there are also many great supplemental sourcebooks out there that offer new character creation options, new magic items and abilities, and the like for $30-$60. There’s also a digital service called D&D Beyond that provides online access to various rules tools and reference materials, all available in various tiers of free and paid options, including microtransactions for individual classes, magic items, monsters, spells, and more.
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In this sense, there are already spending models in the style of “digital games”. dungeons has in recent years through television programs such stranger things and the streaming phenomenon that critical role folks want D&D like never before, and there’s no shortage of DMs happy to set up a game for new players unsure of the investment of time or money. The magic of D&D Sometimes you realize how much fun you can have just sitting at the table with friends or telling a story on a Zoom call and rolling some dice. Sometimes it’s not even so much about the game as just hanging out with fun, entertaining people. Wizards, it seems, wants people to pay more for the experience, and more often.
These comments come as D&D is currently in a transition from its hugely popular Fifth Edition ruleset, released eight years ago, to its next revised ruleset called One D&D. This new frontier promises a brand new digital scope and tighter integration with D&D Beyond’s suite of online tools. What we saw from the new digital tools definitely looks like a video game, and it’s depressing to think that C-suite dreams of a pay-to-play spectacle are at the heart of the development of the hobby’s next generation. And looking at D&D Beyond, it feels like the financial infrastructure is already in place to make this possible, although some of WOTC’s plans to leverage that infrastructure have yet to be revealed.
Next time you start working on some homebrew rules and stories, please think about the poor CEOs who are losing sleep because you’re not paying enough for them? And don’t you dare play another game such as scout or 13th age.
