Xi & Xi

BREAKING NEWS

Doot, doo-doot, doot, doot, doo-doot…

It looks like Wizards of the Coast (WotC) might be peddling the D&D intellectual property (IP) to potential buyers like Tencent, a company owned by an authoritarian country that happens to rhyme with the intimate parts of the female anatomy.

I couldn't resist!

This is bad enough, but it’s par for the course in our modern, global economy.  These IPs are valuable assets and companies are hungry for them or eager to offload them when they need cash.  Case closed.

*nom...nom...nom* (AI Image courtesy of Bing Image Creator)

What I’m most worried about though, is what will happen to not so much whatever the current version of D&D is (or will be,) but D&D Classics.  

If you have any classic, D&D print-on-demand or PDFs titles on your wish list, you might want to grab those ASAP, and place them in your (real or digital) vault of treasures, because regardless of how this sale goes (or not.)  It’s clear that major changes are coming to D&D.  

I experienced this circa 2008 when WotC pulled their classic PDFs from RPGNow.  While DrivethruRPG (to their credit) honored most of these when they came back online years later, not everything has been offered, and not in the same format.  For example, my PDF of the Mentzer Expert Set no longer includes the Isle of Dread adventure (which it should!)  The lesson: be proactive when change is in the air.  Don’t be caught with your studded leather breeches down!

What a way to celebrate D&D’s 50th anniversary huh?

 

Update: It seems the issue may be more complicated, where the sale IP in question might just be the rights to video game versions (could it include the upcoming virtual table as well?)  That's what I get for getting into the "news" game.  Anyway, my point still applies.  It's best to be prudent about these things.