The OGL 1.1 from My Perspective as a FLGS Owner

First, we don't know if the leak of the proposed OGL 1.1 is actually real and until we all see it everything here is pure conjecture. However, I really think this the path Wizards of the Coast will pursue.

The main reason I'm processing it is that I have products both on the DMs Guild and on OneBookShelf using the OGL 1.0a for OSR products.

While the money I make helps me with Kickstarters and action figures I'm not going to create a headache for myself in any way. This is a hobby at best and not my livelihood, thankfully.

Second, I've dealt with Wizards of the Coast for close to twenty-five years as a vendor. I own two comic and game stores and I sell a lot of their products. Hasbro has spent the last five years or so trying to find their customers floors and ceilings. I've noticed the Magic: The Gathering team doing this in the last three years and I think they are now turning their attention to Dungeons and Dragons. 

The CEO of Wizards of the Coast was promoted to CEO of Hasbro earlier this year due to the unexpected death of the previous CEO and we also learned that WotC was responsible for 70% of their profit in 2021. Think about that for a minute, Magic and DnD made them more money than Transformers, GI Joe, Star Wars, My Little Pony, etc.

Hasbro was ecstatic with the millions of people DnD has brought in and its growth is important to them. Sadly, they don't realize that Critical Role did more for DnD than anything WotC did. They have projected that they can double their profits by 2025 from $1 billion to $2 billion, however Hasbro's earning report fell short of their goal which caused some concerns amongst their stockholders. Another complication occurred when they announced a Magic release that cost $1000 for four boosters packs and were only available through direct order from WotC, these cards are not playable in tournaments or organized play which led to Bank of America down grading Hasbro's stocks because they believed that WotC was trying to "kill Magic: the Gathering". 

WotC then had a "fireside" chat where they claimed everything was fine, that yes, some customers were "price sensitive" but everything was great. Additionally, they mentioned that 20% of DnD's fanbase are Dungeon Masters who account for 80% of their sales. They want to better monetized the other 80% of DnD's base. For December's Dragonlance release you could order a version direct from WotC and got access to it on DnD Beyond two weeks early. This echoes what they have done with HasbroPulse for toys and print on demand sets for Magic: the Gathering. 

The unusual part is that WotC used to be a distributor but converted that infrastructure to only fulfilling product to Amazon, Target, and Walmart about five years ago. I foresee, as demand grows for DnD fulfillment, that this will be a customer service challenge for them because a few of those Magic direct to consumer products are months late for fulfillment. They keep releasing several of those print on demand products every month and last year around 70 were released. Those sales are full profit for WotCs as there is no middle-man in that chain of sales while it also trains their customers to be fulfilled by them not a local store or an online retailer. It's ironic because part of Pathfinder 1E's success was their implementation of subscription services too so obviously, WotC was watching.

If this leak is real I think WotC has decided to gain more of that 80% of DnD's player money by trying to get royalties from publishers who use the OGL rather than make cool and interesting projects. They have data from 3E and 4E that told them multiple releases each month was competing with themselves so maybe this is their "killer app"? 

Royalties are an easy money grab and doesn't really affect most DnD players (who know little about what is going on by WotC). I also think that they might be content with the DMs Guild for 5E material but want to own any marketplace they develop for One DnD or "6E". I have a feeling that a benefit of using the OGL 1.1 could gain access to your material being available on DnD Beyond, which is huge for some publishers.

Hasbro wants to protect its IP and make sure that if something is cool they get access to it via the new OGL. We won't see another Pathfinder 1E or Critical Role without them getting some of that money.

At the end of the day Hasbro is a corporation with stockholders and it is their job to make those people as much money as possible and that is what they are going to do.

I'm uncertain how to proceed as a publisher but I'm currently thinking about altering all of my products to exist without the OGL and contact the publishers of the games they support to see if this is acceptable and if not, I'll pull them down until another solution presents itself.

I'm really torn about what is happening and the development of 1DnD. I think WotC is picking a fight with our whole industry but I don't think most DnD players are going to know about it. Yes, social media is prevalent but if you aren't looking for this kind of thing does it cross your radar?

Counter Culture: Wizards of the Coast Can't Seem To Do Anything Right

In running my stores, Wizards of the Coast is a very important partner for me, however I don't mean one iota to them and I get it. I really do.

However, Magic: the Gathering is still our top selling Trading Card Game and Dungeons and Dragons is our top selling Role Playing Game.

Both brands have veteran leads in place, neither is new this year, let alone this decade.

But for some reason each brand keeps having problems in things that should be simple.

Look at DnD, this past thursday, January 9th, WotC was going to reveal the new supplement dropping in late March. But apparently someone realized Nintendo was going to make an announcement on the same day and they decided to move it to Monday the 13th. Except know one counted on Amazon and Barnes and Noble spoiling it.

It's not a killer issue but WotC keeps having troubles like this. They don't seem to quite have their social media presence 100%. Why not just move it to Friday the 10th? This should be old hat to this company by now.

For me, this is a compounded problem because the Magic: the Gathering development team has been having some quality control issues. In the Throne of Eldrane set thye printed a card that broke nearly every format in October. How does that still happen, how are their playtest efforts this lax? The new set dropping next week, Theros Beyond Death, has two cards with infinite combos in certain formats. Further, the Buy It By The Box Promos the've been printing for years are not Foil as they are supposed to be and hopefully we should get replacements about two weeks later than the launch.

For a company this large, these issues shouldn't happen in every set and somehow, their quality control is proving very lax.

Somebody isn't doing their job and that has to stope.

Counter Culture: Beginner Boxed Sets

As I stocked RPGs for the Holiday Season in our store, I gleefully ordered as many Beginner Boxed Sets as I could and realized how lucky that we have so many of these products in 2019.

For years, the industry had all but abandoned the Boxed Set and I get it, a Publisher has to make money, but these days we have Beginner Sets for Pathfinder 1, Starfinder, DnD 5, Mongoose Traveller, Call of Cthulhu, Warhammer Fantasy Role Play, Star Wars, Legend of the Five Rings, Cyberpunk Red, Numenera, and Star Trek. 

And I'm really glad these products are in the market both as a Retailer and as a Customer. I especially love that Wizards of the Coast uses them to bring new Players into the Market with the Starter Box and the Essentials Box and use synergy to bring in Players who enjoy Stranger Things and Rick and Morty.

Looking back, I really have to give some love to Green Ronin for using Boxed Sets for their Dragon Age RPG using the Adventure Game Engine. I know we had a Red Box Starter for DnD 4, but in my opinion, having another publisher go that route with a high profile intellectual property was a big risk that paid off and showed other publishers it could still be done. And I don't want to leave the Pathfinder Beginner Box out in the cold. Paizo made some excellent decisions with the contents of that product and streamlined Pathfinder for Players and Dungeon Masters alike.

It's a good time to be a gamer, we're cool all of a sudden and we have some wonderful tools to share our love of a game with others who will, hopefully, love them too.

Counter Culture: Wizards of the Coast is At It Again

Today, Wizards of the Coast released a Trailer for their upcoming expansion to Magic: the Gathering, Throne of Eldraine.  The trailer is pretty darn cool.

However, there are two problems I have with the Trailer. 

One, at the end it very specifically advertises Magic: the Gathering Arena. Two, you can start playing with the cards in the Brawl format on Arena right now even though they don't release to us until the end of the month.

It truly seems that in the last few years, Wizards of the Coast's M:tG department has it in for local game stores. You know the guys that have kept the game going in the dark days between Fallen Empires and Lorwyn. They stopped distributing to us to focus on distributing to Amazon, Target, and Walmart.  They abolished MSRP so the big box stores can charge whatever they want. On top of that, they seem to be focusing on M:tG Arena, their new digital platform. 

What doesn't make sense to me is that for nearly two decades Magic: the Gathering Online shared the MSRP as the physical product, they wisely didn't discount their own product as a digital investment. That was ingenious. They didn't compete against us and their singles market often had very different prices than the physical singles market. It had to be a win-win for WotC. People come into my tournaments every week and meanwhile, if they can't sleep, they jump online and play there at the same price points.

I hear quite a bit about e-sports from WotC's new CEO. I understand it's a growth market, I do. But what has driven down Magic: the Gathering's attendance at tournaments of all levels has more to do with the health of the current economy (many new and returning players started up during the Great Recession because they were foolish enough to think it was an inexpensive hobby) where people are spending their money in different ways again. Other factors include poor quality control, poor playtesting, a really weird replacement for Pro-Tour Qualifiers, and a phase where WotC encouraged new stores to open in an existing markets. Generally speaking, players are either willing to play everywhere or play at only one store. WotC's been around long enough to remember that new stores might bring in 5 to 15% of new customers, however, those new stores break up the diehard players into smaller chunks and the whole market in an area collapses, with hopefully one or two stores surviving the process. They have seen this before and I guess just think they are smarter now, but they are not, these lessons are pretty clear to anyone doing this stuff long enough.

Another problem is a new tournament software that lets players at home run sanctioned tournaments without all the hoop-jumping that brick and mortar retailers go through to run do the same thing.

All of  these problems are impacted by the fact that WotC seems to resent the singles market because they don't get a slice of that pie. But a healthy singles market is necessary for a successful trading car game and they know this. They know this.

I'm sure Arena is solid profit center, there is no physical production costs and they get all the money. I'm a capitalist, I get it. But WotC isn't Blizzard and M:tG isn't Hearthstone. I'm sure their player bases overlap, but that doesn't make much difference. The culture of each product has been shaped for different customer expectations.

Then WotC breaks it's own street date while the retailers that support tournament play how can they not expect to have retailer dissatisfaction? Understand, Target and Walmart are renowned for breaking street dates but we have no recourse for that and now does it really matter if the manufacturer is doing it themselves?

For a few months I've been trying to figure out who they expect to run tournaments and I've come to realize they don't care about that because they have Arena and their physical players can buy their cards in the mass-market and they don't need us anymore because of the new tournament app. And that is okay, because I've been doing this long enough to plan for things like this. I don't have to fully support Magic: the Gathering for my stores to survive, I do that for my customers. Now I'm preparing for the day where they are not necessary for us, mostly because they already are preparing they day where we aren't necessary for them.

However, I think they underestimate the social value for their players. The Great Recession seemed like a good value for your money. You paid anywhere from $4 to $16 and you hung out with like-minded people for 3-5 hours every week. It was as cheap or cheaper than a movie and the players built relationships.

The path that WotC is taking won't end well for them, but this time they might not have their direct market to lean on when things go sideways.

Counter Culture: Pre-Release Weekend

Well, it's one of THOSE times a year again. There is a new Magic: the Gathering set, War of the Spark and it is the Pre-Release this weekend. All weekend. I'm talking midnight events and then back at it saturday and back at it sunday.

I'm amazed how popular the Midnight events are. People get SO damn excited. They seem to think its some great honor to be in a retail environment until 6am. I don't really share it, but then I've been working retail for 20 years now. I am glad they enjoy it so much, but by about 4am I'm not always as fast with answers as I should be.

One of the cool equations that has recently been added to the event was Wizards of the Coast allowing our preorder customers to pick up their boxes of booster that weekend. That's been a great addition and the type of innovation I like to see.

I won't lie that by the end of the weekend I'm pretty wiped out. It won't help that Free Comic Book Day is the following weekend, but at least we will be busy and money will have been made.

Counter Culture: Dice

There are many categories to my store, but one of our best-selling, for literally decades, has been dice. We stock all different kinds of sets from many different companies. Literally, if a dice company has terms for wholesale, I set up an account. I will admit that through all of the manufacturers, Chessex seems to be the old standby.

Our most popular types fo dice are sets of polyhedral dice for games like Dungeons and Dragons. I literally go through dozens of sets each week. Sets of 6 siders sell dramatically less, but still sell well. 

What I've found most unusual about the category is that even when RPG sales are flagging, my dice sales stay consistent. 

People love dice. And who can blame them? Can you really ever have enough dice? According to my customers, the answer is a resounding no.

Counter Culture: Wizards Changing Rules

As a retailer working at a local gaming store (that I make as friendly as possible), I appreciate it when Publishers remember the direct market that they distribute their products too. It makes me feel good, appreciated.

For years, Wizards of the Coast did this. But things have been changing and I don't think for the better. Late last year, WotC stopped being a distributor to local game stores as part of their initiative to make sure that Target, Wal-Mart, and Amazon could have better access to their products. 

Yes, you read that right, they stopped selling directly to me, the little guy, to strengthen their share in big box stores. No, its not shocking, but it hurt. Its not like I have a ton advantage over big box stores, so I enjoyed the benefits that a direct account with WotC gave me.

One of those was that we got DnD releases 10 days over everyone else and eventually exclusive covers.

However, that 10 day lead time is now gone. Its tough. What makes it tougher is that, according to people on the internet, GameStop is selling the Dungeons and Dragons Stranger Things box right now, a product that I and even Amazon don't get until May.

I love what I do and I'll find a way to adapt, but when a company seems to turn its back on you, it can be a tough pill to swallow and at the moment, thats what it feels like Wizards of the Coast has done.

Counter Culture: Are The Stars Now Right?

I've been a fan of the Cthulhu Mythos since The Collect Call of Cthulhu Episode of The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. When I first got into gaming, I had a small amount of knowledge of the Mythos, mostly through Brian Lumley, but no one else in the group shared my interest. Our DM, Todd, talked about hearing about the Sanity mechanic in Chaosium's Call of Cthuhlu RPG and that kept him from getting into it.

Further, as a the Manager of Comic Book World in KY for the last 19 years, CoC has never been a big seller for our stores. Honestly, for many years, I was lucky if I would sell one copy each year. I can't tell what it is about our market, but d100 games (CoC, RuneQuest, etc.) have never sold well.

However, this year that has changed. I'd gladly stocked the 7th Edition of Call of Cthulhu and watched it sit there for months. However, since May, I'm selling at least three copies of the main rulebook each month. It's exciting. I'd like to take credit for it, but I've talked about the Mythos as much this year as I have any other year. I know I have at least three groups actively running it, and I'm glad for that.

While I know that there were more significant changes to 7th Edition, than we've seen in decades, I honestly don't know what is causing the upsurge. I only question it to learn about market. Hopefully, this trend will continue, because at this point, CoC is my tied with Savage Worlds for my second/third best selling RPG line.

And that makes me happy.

Counter Culture: Looking at the Pathfinder 2E Announcement

I've been working at my store for 19 years. I've been through the launches of DnD 3, 3.5, 4, 4 Essentials, 5 and Pathfinder.

This announcement for Pathfinder 2nd Edition, as a retailer, has been a bit odd for me.

First, there isn't any buzz in my store about it. There is amongst my group, as I ponder if I will try it (I pondered trying Starfinder but it was more system than I want right now).  Heck, there was more buzz about Starfinder, in fact. Now, that is completely shocking because Paizo has always cultivated a better direct to consumer program than any other RPG publisher. But that also meant, even at it's height of sales when Wizards of the Coast abandoned 4E and we were waiting for Next, it's sales were not anything significant for us, as DnD always had been. But it's also not as shocking because WotC wisely decided not to do a 5.5 and those unsure of it playing other games are now more willing to dive in. And new players are diving in every day, right now. Meanwhile, I'm lucky to turn (sell) a Pathfinder Pocket Core book every two months.

To complicate things, it seems that Erik Mona is bristling with comparisons to 5E, while he and his teams are making statements that remind me of 4E. If I were Erik, I'd look at the fact that their success is built upon WotC walking away from a customer base AND the fact that almost four years into it's life cycle the Player's Handbook is STILL #4 on Amazon. I would want to catch that lightning. That doesn't mean I would make 5.5, but I wouldn't necessarily distance myself either.

In fact, if I were in charge of Pathfinder, now would be the time I would take an older Adventure Path and convert it to 5E. Yes, WotC screwed them on the OGL portion of 4E and yes they were smart enough to capitalize on those who didn't want to leave 3.5 behind, but when Green Ronin is selling their Critical Role books like they are, why wouldn't you try a campaign out?

This is merely my gut feeling, but I think Paizo has as good a chance of having their 2nd Edition be received the way DnD 4E as they do of having a hit. Understand, at the retail level, Starfinder did great for everyone on it's first printing. But there is been very little momentum on additional supplements or it's second printing for my stores.

And please understand, I don't wish Paizo ill, I learned about eight years ago they wouldn't drive RPG sales for me the way WotC and DnD do. You see when DnD is successful, the whole industry is successful. Other systems and DnD "competitors" like Pathfinder or 13th Age NEED DnD to be huge, so that the iconoclasts and grognards out there have something to rebel against it. That's why the OSR was good for DnD.

I'm watching all of this and waiting to see how it turns out.

Counter Culture: Welcome to D&D

Something really cool happened this week at my store. Everyday, I had at least one person come in and tell me they were new to DnD and needed dice, books, miniatures, etc.

They would tell me how they had just played or were about to play in their first game and they were super excited.

I really can't contain my own excitement by this trend. And it's not merely because they are spending money with me, it's great to hear their excitement and to see their interest in my favorite hobby.

I don't know if anyone from Wizards of the Coast will read this, but good job, guys. You are getting it really right this time.

And I thank you as a gamer and a merchant.

Counter Culture: A Trend That Brings a Smile to My Face

I've been working at Comic Book World, Inc. since 1999. I've lived through the launches of DnD 3, 4, and 5. I've seen quite a few trends.

From my perspective, we are the point in DnD 5E's life cycle that we typically would have seen DnD 3.5 or DnD Essentials (4.5). But we haven't, we instead got the excellent Xanathar's Guide to Everything.

I'm so glad that Wizard of the Coast's marketing and release schedule, the excellent work they did in designing 5E, and the rise of Critical Role and all the other streamers and podcasters playing DnD, continue bringing people into the hobby and I don't have to bog them down with why 5.5 Edition is BETTER than 5th Edition. Casual players don't care, it confuses new players, and it makes it harder for families to play.

And that is the trend I'm enjoying. Getting to see Mom's and Dad's (or even both) bring their kids in and they all start playing DnD together. Sure, some of them move on to other games, but most are not gamers, they simply play DnD.

They come in two to three times a month to buy dice or spell cards or miniatures and it makes me happy because I realize that they are spending time together, time most likely away from a screen, and sharing adventures and quality time. They are reading and doing math and using their imagination. With their family.

Isn't that awesome?

And understand, I'm just as happy if they are playing board games or Magic: the Gathering or even reading comics. But DnD is so unique in how you have to interact. It's very...intellectual...I love my parents, but I can't imagine (sadly) playing DnD with them. It requires, in my opinion, a level of communication that I simply don't have with my parents. And that's as much on me as it is them.

I hope 5th Edition goes on another 10 years and I hope I keep seeing all of it's fans, especially the families playing it continue to grow and go on adventures together.

Counter Culture: Selling DnD vs Pathfinder

Counter Culture is, possibly, a new series where I relate my experiences as the Gaming Manager at Comic Book World, Inc., my family's two stores in Kentucky.

I've been doing my job there for almost 18 years, so I've watched the end of ADnD 2nd Edition, the rise of DnD 3, 4, and 5 and the rise of Pathfinder.

Today, I'm going to talk about my experiences selling both of them.

Many people talk about Pathfinder beating DnD, but for my stores that only occurred after Wizards of the Coast pulled the plug on DnD 4E and the period they didn't release very much.

While Pathfinder has always been a Top 3 Seller for me, it's never sold like any edition of DnD for me. I don't attribute this to not being popular, however, I attribute this to the phenomenal job Paizo has done selling directly to customers. In my experience their Subscription program has sustained them through the years and will continue to do so. While I understand how important the program is for their success, for us, it comes at the cost of numerous sales. In fact, I doubt that they could sustain the large number of supplements each year without the program.

Meanwhile, DnD 5E has been an amazing launch. I can't say that it eclipsed 3E's launch (but that was hard to do, after the death of 2E and the $20 books), but it has come close. Additionally, unlike 3.X and 4.X (I consider Essentials 4.5), the sales are growing and while we enter a period in the product's history around the time that we would previously see a ".5" edition, I'm seeing incredible sales growth as new and still returning players discover this edition. It's a real treat to see how the current DnD Team is treating the brand and making, to me, very intelligent decisions, the slower release schedule has galvanized fans and allowed them to better keep up with the product line.

Understand, while I might a preference between the two games as a player and gamemaster, I want to see both games succeed as a retailer. It's always good to have multiple choices to give to your customers.