Industry

Recent & Upcoming Releases

June 18 2024

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1977

(Dungeons & Dragons)
History of D&D.
Replies (128)
July 16 2024

Quests From The Infinite Staircase

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Adventure anthology for character levels 1 to 13.
Replies (264)
September 17 2024

D&D Player’s Handbook (2024)

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Revised 2024 Player's Handbook.
Replies (156)
October 1 2024

Monstrous Menagerie II

(Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition)
The sequel to the acclaimed monster book!
Replies (43)
November 12 2024

D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide (2024)

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Revised 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide.
Replies (120)
February 18 2025

D&D Monster Manual (2025)

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Revised 2025 Monster Manual.
Replies (89)

What's an OGL? An SRD? What's OGC? A Quick Primer!

With all this information about OGLs and SRDs and other acronyms flying around, I thought I'd write a quick primer for those who aren't familiar with the concepts. This is not legal advice in any way, shape, or form - it's just a basic explanation of what these things are and what they mean. For the purposes of this article, I'm not including the Dungeon Master's Guild material, which is an entirely different structure and set of rules. Also, as it's not legal advice, I'm not going into detail on the nuances of the license - it's literally just a cursory overview of the concept, not a detailed analysis of the text. I hope it helps!

Jan 14, 2016 115

Industry

The Day Has Come! It's An OGL! And A Store To Buy & Sell D&D 5E Products!

The day has finally come! WotC has just announced a Dungeon Master's Guild. "There’s a new way to buy and share D&D adventures. With the Dungeon Master’s Guild, you’ll be able to self-publish material set in the Forgotten Realms using monsters, spells, characters, and locations." You can self-publish D&D materials, and buy, sell, and share it. It's a partnership between WotC and OBS (the company which runs DTRPG and RPGNow) and they take 50% of the revenue. The guild is only accepting 5E material set in the Forgotten Realms. Not only that, but there's also a new SRD (System Reference Document) for use with the Open Gaming License (OGL)!

Jan 12, 2016 517

Industry

D&D Still Leads ICv2's Quarterly Hobby Game Rankings

ICv2 has just released its hobby game rankings for Spring 2015, based as always on a survey of retailers, distributors, and manufacturers. The top three positions are exactly the same as the previous Fall/Holiday 2014 positions - D&D followed by Pathfinder, followed by FFG's Star Wars line of products. Following that, Numenera and Fate have been displaced by Shadowrun and Iron Kingdoms (the latter presumably based on Privateer Press' recent, highly promoted Iron Kingdoms Unleashed boxed set). As always, I've added this latest ranking to my compiled chart.

Jul 20, 2015 16

Hasbro CEO: "D&D is Really on a Tear"

Sorry, that laugh was a result of clumsy fingers on my phone.

Apr 21, 2015 221

Industry

ICv2 Fall/Winter 2014 Hobby Game Rankings: D&D Up To #1

ICv2 has released its quarterly hobby game rankings. No surprises here - Dungeons & Dragons has taken the top spot back after several years at #2, as expected, though how long it can hold it without an aggressive release schedule remains to be seen. Pathfinder follows at #2, and Numenera, Fate, and Star Wars all make showings in the top 5. As always, the charts are based on interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers. This is for Fall/Winter 2014.

Feb 26, 2015 71

Dungeons & Dragons Industry OSR Pathfinder

Hot Roleplaying Games

I've made a couple of changes to my live Hot Roleplaying Games chart. The chart monitors over a quarter of a million forum members and approaching a thousand blogs on a selection of major independent RPG discussion forums to create an overall sample of what games are being discussed on the web.

Nov 6, 2014

4 Hours w/ RSD Dungeons & Dragons Industry

WotC, DDI, 4E, and Hasbro: Some History

After Vince Calouri was pushed out of Wizards of the Coast he was replaced by Chuck Heubner. Chuck basically had to manage Wizards on the downslope from the Pokemon salad days. Hasbro has been through many boom & bust cycles in the toy business and they have a standard response when it happens: cut headcount and reduce overhead. Since Wizards was de facto the only part of the business that had...

Jan 5, 2012 111

4 Hours w/ RSD Industry

4 Hours w/ RSD - Escapist Bonus Column

As many of you know, the Escapist has recently run a 3-part series on the past, current and future of Dungeons & Dragons. The ENWorld coverage begins here. I contributed some insights to that column and wanted to take this opportunity to expand and clarify some of my thoughts on this topic. Who Is This Guy Anyway? I [Ryan Dancey] have been involved on the business side of hobby game...

Dec 29, 2011 262

4 Hours w/ RSD Industry

4 Hours w/RSD: Who Is Sitting At Your Table

Who Is Sitting At Your Table? This might seem like a simple question to answer. Usually, you play with a group of friends whom you’ve come to know quite well. Even if you find yourself in a hastily assembled game at a convention or store, you usually have a lot in common with the other folks you play with. But if we consider all the people who may be playing a tabletop RPG at any given...