HAVE FOLKS FORGOT T$R???

There much wringing of hands, clucking of tongues, and vapours regarding statements by Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks planning to move D&D to a live service model and supposedly away from physical book format. "Books will always be an important part of D&D," Cocks said. "It will always be kind of like a special totem that you can collect."

Gamers, we have been here before!

In the giddy and impetuous 1970s by the time I started gaming had evolved into a free-for-all here on the West Coast. While we imported D&D and Judges Guild, we also had third party publishers Arduin Grimoires and Chaosium to add D&D flavor and crunch to our campaigns. 

Then, in the early 80's T$R started to clampdown on what was becoming a nation-wide phenomenon. T$R ceased licensing "official" ruled 3rd party material to publishers like Judges Guild (Goodbye Wilderlands). Then started licensing their D&D intellectual property on action figures, electronic games, coloring books, and, my personal favorite bloat, "Player Packs" (you would get your ass kicked or at least taunting a second time if you showed up at our game with a "Player Pack"). What capitalistic bullshit!

Here's what we did that you can do too... get yourself a set of rulebooks and a group of players and play the wheels off that version for twenty years! And there are always ways to add new material someone might pickup, even from subsequent newer editions. Remember what David Hargrave said, "The numbers don't matter - only the ideas!"

Something the early publishers only somewhat understood is that once players possess a set of rules, they don't need to purchase anything else (the need is purely convenience). You have tools to produce anything you need. And if some industrious DM with ducats wants to purchase online retail material, I am certain they will find a way to bring that to the game table - whether it's online or in-person.

And don't forget about what happened with 4th edition. Rebellion against the 4th edition conceits jump-started a revolutionary renewal of older version games and the Old-School Renaissance line of supremely imaginative merging of tropes. Say what you will of Peter Adkison, but he did the D&D gaming community a fat gift insisting Hasbro honor the Open Gaming License and System Reference Document. (Anyone needing a reminder of T$R's position on D&D IP check out this historical essay "Spinning in Circles: A History & Analysis of TSR’s Copyright Policies")

Get your set of rules, attract your band of players, then fuck-all to Hasbro. They are at our mercy...!