#1: Wizards of the Coast: 1990-Present

[RPGnet Columns]

http://www.rpg.net/columns/briefhistory/briefhistory1.phtml

Summary:

Magic, Everway, TSR, and more.

Go to the column (http://www.rpg.net/columns/briefhistory/briefhistory1.phtml) for more information.

[rylen]

Here's another take on WOTC. It deals more with the culture of the place than with the products.

http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/03/23/wizards/index.html
Or look up "Death to the Minotaur" by John Tynes.

Nice article. I'm looking forward to my favorite (if smaller) systems/companies. HERO, Issaries, and the fall of TSR.

Rylen

[Dan Davenport]

Excellent article, Shannon.

WotC owns Avalon Hill now? I hadn't heard that. Does that mean they could make a new edition of the James Bond game?

[quozl]

My claim to fame (infamy?) is that I'm the guy who wrote the Palladium conversion notes for The Primal Order.

[ShannonA]

Nice article. I'm looking forward to my favorite (if smaller) systems/companies. HERO, Issaries, and the fall of TSR.


The next four will probably be: Paizo, Chaosium, Issaries, and ICE. I've got some notes for HERO and TSR, but haven't put them on my schedule yet.

[ShannonA]

Excellent article, Shannon.

Thanks.


WotC owns Avalon Hill now? I hadn't heard that. Does that mean they could make a new edition of the James Bond game?

Technically, Hasbro owns Avalon Hill, but lets Wizards run it.

As for 007: I suspect not. Odds are good that they have the rights to the rulesystem, but the odds are bad that the actual license has survived the years and the transfer.

[JongWK]

Good article.

Too bad History of the World is out of print. :(

[JLowder]

http://www.rpg.net/columns/briefhistory/briefhistory1.phtml

Summary:

Magic, Everway, TSR, and more.

Go to the column (http://www.rpg.net/columns/briefhistory/briefhistory1.phtml) for more information.

Not a word about WotC's fiction? Their fiction had interesting rises and falls before the TSR buyout. Post TSR-buyout, bestsellers by the likes of R.A. Salvatore have been one of the few consistent positives for them on their balance sheet.

Cheers,
James Lowder

[ShannonA]

I do actually mention them very briefly, near the end:


Novels and anthologies based on the various D&D worlds seem to greatly outnumber the game books, and may well be Wizard's secondary business (after Magic) at this point.


I expect to talk more about gaming fiction in an article on TSR since they really did the pioneering work. And maybe an article on Green Knight. If you've got any insights that you'd like to pass on for either, drop me a line;).

Shannon

[JLowder]

I expect to talk more about gaming fiction in an article on TSR since they really did the pioneering work. And maybe an article on Green Knight. If you've got any insights that you'd like to pass on for either, drop me a line;).

Shannon

Ah, I missed the summary sentence on fiction. I would have expected more about what is, as you say, a very important part of their company income. There were some interesting turns in their early fiction attempts, too. Massive sales when they had coupons for promo cards in the backs of their books. Huge drop in sales when they didn't. Lots of rumbling about branching out into creator-owned fiction, which never came to pass. WotC is gearing up for creator-owned fiction again now.

There are a couple of companies where discussions of their fiction output would be critical to coverage of the company as a whole. I'd include WotC in there, but also TSR, White Wolf, GW, as well as Chaosium and the Green Knight. FASA and WizKids, perhaps, though a lot of their fiction is licensed to other publishers, rather than "home grown."

Happy to talk about TSR's fiction division, and point you to people who can talk about the division before or after my tenure. Same with the fiction programs or projects for any of the other companies for whom I've worked--which is most of them, at one point or another.

Cheers,
Jim

[ChristopherA]

There is also a thread and commentary about this article on Slashdot (http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/03/2054247).

[ShannonA]

Ah, I missed the summary sentence on fiction. I would have expected more about what is, as you say, a very important part of their company income.

Keep in mind, the article wasn't "a history of WotC", but instead "a history of WotC from the viewpoint of the RPG industry". But I probably would have included something about those unique cards in books if I'd remembered them or anyone I'd talked to had mentioned them.

If you have any thoughts about the Chaosium fiction program, drop me a line off-list (shannona@skotos.net), as Chaosium is one of the articles in my hopper. And as for the others you mention, I'll drop you a line when I get to them.

[JLowder]

Keep in mind, the article wasn't "a history of WotC", but instead "a history of WotC from the viewpoint of the RPG industry".

I think their fiction lines are an important part of their identity as RPG companies, with both positive and negative ramifications.

Of course, I'm biased on the subject. :)

Cheers,
Jim Lowder

[ShannonA]

I think that's true for a smaller game company, but WotC looks (at this point) like it's mainly using its RPG lines as breeding grounds for more profitable fiction IP.

[JLowder]

I think that's true for a smaller game company, but WotC looks (at this point) like it's mainly using its RPG lines as breeding grounds for more profitable fiction IP.

For many of the lines, the fiction outsells the RPG material. WotC would love to get a Forgotten Realms RPG product that sold anything like a Salvatore Drizzt novel, or a Dragonlance RPG product that sold anything like one of the Hickman & Weis novels. The Ravenloft fiction--at least the first several novels--sold many multiples of the average RL RPG product. So a significant number of individual consumers know those lines--and the company--through the fiction. Moreover, fiction has a much, much lower creation and production cost, meaning the individual products have a higher per- item value for the company than a typical RPG product from the same line.

Cheers,
Jim Lowder

[smascrns]

Excellent article, Shannon.

WotC owns Avalon Hill now? I hadn't heard that. Does that mean they could make a new edition of the James Bond game?
I've been intermitentling following AH ever since it was acquired by Hasbro. Keep in mind that this was more or less at the same time than WotC. The fact is that AH was handled to WotC long ago, not now.

Now, Hasbro acquired AH for their computer games first and for their boardgames next. They didn't buy AH for their rpgs. In fact, AH rpg line was imediately dropped since WotC was the Hasbro company that would deal with our hobby. Of course, WotC didn't want to sustain competitors to their D&D and d20 efforts. Thus RIP AH rpgs.

I followed this because of the RuneQuest brand. AH/WotC/Hasbro dropped AH's rpg lines so effectively that they even lost their rights to that brand, so Issaries eventually was able to get hold of it at no cost!

This means that the old AH James Bond rpg is something of the past. AH/WotC will not bring it back to life. The way I see it all WotC may do is licence 007 and produce a d20 game for it. If the cost of the licence is right, and it most likely is not.

On the other hand, WotC allowed most of its rpgs to be sold out in the past but that was pre the acquisition of TSR. So I doubt they would sell the James Bond system (the system, not the licence as Shannon pointed out) to anyone. But systems can be reverse engineered, so anyone can come out with a James Bond look-a-like.

[ShannonA]

For many of the lines, the fiction outsells the RPG material. WotC would love to get a Forgotten Realms RPG product that sold anything like a Salvatore Drizzt novel, or a Dragonlance RPG product that sold anything like one of the Hickman & Weis novels. The Ravenloft fiction--at least the first several novels--sold many multiples of the average RL RPG product. So a significant number of individual consumers know those lines--and the company--through the fiction. Moreover, fiction has a much, much lower creation and production cost, meaning the individual products have a higher per- item value for the company than a typical RPG product from the same line.


That's what I was saying. It's an increasingly common strategy, to use the creative force of a less profitable line to create IP for a more profitable line.

[JLowder]

That's what I was saying. It's an increasingly common strategy, to use the creative force of a less profitable line to create IP for a more profitable line.

I see your point here. The "IP engine" strategy is fairly common at the moment, with both DC and Marvel Comics as the prime examples. Their comics are expensive to produce and don't make very much money compared to the films and animated series they spawn.

The relationship between RPGs and "home grown" hobby game company fiction is more complicated. The fiction for the Realms, Ravenloft, and especially Dragonlance might be seen as the real IP engine and creative force. Just look at the number of RPG products spun from Salvatore's Drizzt. Certainly the Dragonlance novels--in particular the first six--were always the horse pulling the IP cart.

Cheers,
Jim Lowder

[ShannonA]

It was my understanding that the first Dragonlance novel was primarily written from modules, and then things shifted the opposite direction with the second. (It's something I need to research more before I do a TSR article sometime in the future, but I'm sure there are Weis & Hickman interviews I can find.)

In any case, Dragonlance is a kind of special case, and the novels seem to continue to drive the line, more than vice-versa.

But the Realms? Sure, there were a couple of definitive & original books (Moonshae and Drizzt spring to mind) and a few simultaneous releases (Empire springs to mind, which I believe you had a hand in), but there have just been a handful of supplements based on each of those. In return you have things like the Harpers, the Rogues, and I'm sure many others which only expand the IP in vague and derivative ways.

But yeah, generally, I see Wizards like DC or Marvel right now.

[JLowder]

It was my understanding that the first Dragonlance novel was primarily written from modules, and then things shifted the opposite direction with the second. (It's something I need to research more before I do a TSR article sometime in the future, but I'm sure there are Weis & Hickman interviews I can find.)

In any case, Dragonlance is a kind of special case, and the novels seem to continue to drive the line, more than vice-versa.

But the Realms? Sure, there were a couple of definitive & original books (Moonshae and Drizzt spring to mind) and a few simultaneous releases (Empire springs to mind, which I believe you had a hand in), but there have just been a handful of supplements based on each of those. In return you have things like the Harpers, the Rogues, and I'm sure many others which only expand the IP in vague and derivative ways.

But yeah, generally, I see Wizards like DC or Marvel right now.

The initial DL material--games and fiction--involved the same people. They were more simultaneous developments, not cart-and-horse.

As for the Realms fiction--well, the fiction tends to develop areas or characters left vague by the game material, and often it creates new characters and areas that are then grafted on to the RPG. The original material from the fiction works its way into the RPG products quite frequently, usually without much fanfare, sometimes because the resulting RPG products involve the same creatives as the fiction. I wrote Ring of Winter, one of the Harpers books, and used Chult for the setting. Not much space was devoted to Chult in the RPG material at the time. It's not accurate to say that the novel I wrote is a "vague and derivative" expansion of the IP, since it uses a couple of place names from the boxed set and creates everything else. My material from the novel lead to a game product, Jungles of Chult, of which I also wrote a majority of the RPG support material. Content derived from the novel shows up in a few other Realms RPG products, too. My novel Prince of Lies impacted the content of the Ruins of Zhentil Keep boxed set in significant ways, along with various other supplements. Whole Realms products, like Hall of Heroes, were derived from the fiction. So, in terms of fiction playing a major role in the IP's identity and development, we're not just talking about the major coordinated fiction-game crossovers, like Empires or Avatar, or the breakout Realms novels by Salvatore.

The relationship is a lot more complicated than the Marvel-DC IP engine model you're adopting. The fiction, from TSR to present, has been an integral part of the development of the world, not at all like some licensed offshoot.

Cheers,
Jim Lowder

[ShannonA]

I appreciate the insight.

[Spectral Knight]

I've been intermitentling following AH ever since it was acquired by Hasbro. Keep in mind that this was more or less at the same time than WotC. The fact is that AH was handled to WotC long ago, not now.

Now, Hasbro acquired AH for their computer games first and for their boardgames next. They didn't buy AH for their rpgs. In fact, AH rpg line was imediately dropped since WotC was the Hasbro company that would deal with our hobby. Of course, WotC didn't want to sustain competitors to their D&D and d20 efforts. Thus RIP AH rpgs.

A similar strategy was followed in the acquisition of Last Unicorn Games, as they were coming out with a competitor for the newly-produced Star Wars RPG (aka Dungeons & Death Stars): DUNE - Chronicles of the Imperium. As such a long-awaited RPG line would spell serious danger for d20's latest acquisition, something had to be done. The DUNE game book was published in limited numbers, but ultimately allowed to die. Planned supplements, some of which were already being written, never saw a page of print when WotC proved unwilling to buy a license after buying the company that had owned it.

I followed this because of the RuneQuest brand. AH/WotC/Hasbro dropped AH's rpg lines so effectively that they even lost their rights to that brand, so Issaries eventually was able to get hold of it at no cost!

Another issue of competition for d20, and this one was almost too late. Hopefully Issaries is doing more with it than WotC did with DUNE. Or more than they're currently doing with Star Wars, which as of the moment is one more collectible minis cash cow.

[cj.23]

One of the finest and most interesting articles I have ever read on rpg.net - very insightful, and fascinating. Look ofrward to future instalments.

cj x

[spshu]

A similar strategy was followed in the acquisition of Last Unicorn Games, as they were coming out with a competitor for the newly-produced Star Wars RPG (aka Dungeons & Death Stars): DUNE - Chronicles of the Imperium. As such a long-awaited RPG line would spell serious danger for d20's latest acquisition, something had to be done. The DUNE game book was published in limited numbers, but ultimately allowed to die. Planned supplements, some of which were already being written, never saw a page of print when WotC proved unwilling to buy a license after buying the company that had owned it. <snip>
Last Unicorn Games was aquired at the tail end of the licenses. Dune and Star Trek was suppose to come out as d20 systems. Except each license renewal hit snags. Decipher gained the Star Trek license and hired the former LUG Staff that WOTC had previously hired. As I understand it, the Herbert Estate wanted to much for the Dune License. some discussion regarding this has accured at the TrekRPGnet (http://forum.trek-rpg.net/)* Forums.


*TreRPGnet has no affiliation with rpg.net.

[Hands]

Last Unicorn Games was aquired at the tail end of the licenses. Dune and Star Trek was suppose to come out as d20 systems. Except each license renewal hit snags. Decipher gained the Star Trek license and hired the former LUG Staff that WOTC had previously hired. As I understand it, the Herbert Estate wanted to much for the Dune License. some discussion regarding this has accured at the TrekRPGnet (http://forum.trek-rpg.net/)* Forums.



I was under the impression that it had something to do with licenses like that not transfering when companies are bought out. I could be wrong, though.