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Nov 8, 2012 -- 10:33AM, AbdulAlhazred wrote:

Nov 8, 2012 -- 8:17AM, Mand12 wrote:

Nov 7, 2012 -- 4:40PM, Zardnaar wrote:

Erm you do realise 4th ed and D&DN are still d20 derivitives right? I just use d20 as its easier than typing 3.0/3.5/4th/PF/D&DN which all use the basic d20 mechanic.

That's...rather inaccurate.

"d20" is a specific term, the name of third-party content based on 3e published under the OGL.

Not everything that involves rolling an actual 20-sided die is "d20" given this context.

It actually isn't all that clear-cut.

I'm more referring to the various books, magazines, etc. that have the big

logo stamped on them.

Nov 8, 2012 -- 10:55AM, Zardnaar wrote:

Strip away the powers and the 4th ed core is not dramatically different from Star Wars Saga or 3.5 core.

(empisis mine)

And that brings up an interesting question. If Disney did buy Hasbro, and by extension WotC, what potental would there be of a new updated version of a StarWars RPF be? Or maybe even another Marvel? Or any of the other popular IPs that Disney owns?

Nov 9, 2012 -- 3:44AM, Zathris wrote:

Stop being such a Pedant.

I actually think it would be cool if they did, Disney is known for making movies, video games, TV shows, and related merchandising. Given the current direction of D&D by WotC-under-Hasbro, us fans of 4e and "tactical combat RPGs" could only gain by such a purchase.

They have the creative talent and infrastructure to do those things, but the question is why would they? If they could make a D&D movie and people would shrug and assume it was dorky and bad or they could make a Star Wars movie and even if fans grumble about it the thing will still make 300 million on opening day, it just isn't a contest really.

Also, and I know this is going to sound like sacrilege but I don't think Drizz't and FR are all that amazingly compelling characters or settings. Sure, FR is a fine setting for playing RPGs but that doesn't make it automatically very original or compelling in a wider sense. Movies particularly live on larger-than-life themes. The struggle between freedom and tyranny, the quest of the common man to make a difference, the sheer black-and-whiteness of Middle Earth made LotR a great subject for a movie. It is easy to grasp the plot, clear who the good guys are, dramatic, and provides a platform for exploring the characters. I don't know how you get the same sort of story out of FR. It just doesn't have that sort of larger-than-life organization. It is a much more like a real world, things aren't so clear, people don't single-handedly change the world, etc. It just isn't black-and-white. Exploring that world in an RPG is interesting, but it isn't a particularly promising subject for a movie, and it doesn't have millions of fans waiting for one. Disney can as easily invent their own fantasy worlds, or just build on more familiar myths and legends from the real world. The same can be said for D&D novel characters. They just aren't that popular or uniquely compelling that they NEED to use them. It is easier creatively to start with a blank slate or else a familiar story.

D&D might be served well by Disney, but I can't see how Disney needs D&D.

Nov 10, 2012 -- 3:40PM, warrl wrote:

Nov 10, 2012 -- 1:18PM, GreyICE wrote:

Oh man.  That could be really interesting or really disasterous.

I'd be game to see what came out of it. 

It looks to me like the status quo is disastrous. Fans of ALL prior editions (including 4E) appear to mostly prefer what they have, including retroclones, over Next. In most cases Next isn't even their second-favorite edition. (Most of the few ideas that Next borrows from 4th are implemented so badly that not having them would be an improvement - and that's the word of a solid 4E fan.)  There's at least one (I think two but I haven't confirmed the second one) commercial attempt in progress to do a 4E retroclone under the OGL. 

Right now, IMHO, WotC is on track for a failure so bad that when they drop the D&D line entirely, the D&D fanbase won't really notice.

Disney is probably not capable of making things worse. Making things better is much more plausible. 

So if this is going to happen, I hope it happens quickly. 

Heh, you're on the money.

If they go through with Next I can't help but think the fanbase will be so burned that no one will trust them.

Disney comes through, pours some serious money into D&D as a loss leader to make it a flagship product, gets some hardcore Video Game development tie ins (not lousy flash games, real games), really puts together an edition that supports their games... it could be epic.  I mean Disney can really afford the marketing and all to make the core books a loss leader rather than the flagship that they currently sit as, and with the core books as a loss leader for other products, D&D becomes viable in the long-term, rather than these 4 year edition cycles (because we need to sell core books every 4 years).