The Most INSANE Dungeons & Dragons Scandal Got Worse 

DM: "... and with a final gasp the Dark Wizard falls." Player A: "I'm going to search the Dark Wizard" Sigil: "Insufficient Loot tokens. Please purchase more Loot tokens to search the [Dark Wizard]" Player B: "I told you not to loot those goblins!"

It's pointless, Hasbro. We have the books and imaginations. We don't actually need you.

I think they didn't pay attention to the part where many dnd players play physically because they DON'T WANT TO BE PLAYING A VIDEO GAME.

"The way we play D&D is about to change forever." No... it isn't

So basically, "D&D players are weird, and we don't know how to sell things to them. So we're going to replace them with video gamers, because we totally know how to sell things to them."

Foolish idea. The average D&D player does not have a ton of disposable income, much less than the average video game player.

Them being so blatantly open about being shitty means they think their customers are gonna be okay with it

As a veteran MTG player, yikes that power creep statement scares me. DnD DOES NOT need a battlepass ffs.

Meanwhile paizo's business model is "Here are all of our rules for free, please buy our books if you like them"

So, not defending them, but we can just play the old books, find cool homebrew, and ignore Hasbro Wizards?

After 58 years on this earth, if there one thing i am 100% sure of is... it can always get worse.

Everything this company does makes it so much more obvious why Larian had zero interest in Baldur's Gate 4.

Eventually it will be all about franchise crossovers. As a DM you'll be required to let someone play Mickey Mouse in your serious horror campaign because the player paid for that DLC. You wouldn't want your player to report you and for you to lose access to all the digital content you've paid for but don't own.

Hasbro adventising Pathfinder without even trying ✨

I hope the online tabletop backfires and costs them a fortune.

can you please stop clickbaiting by using Brennan and other big DND content creators in the thumbnail? Its incredibly annoying.

It's astounding how the people who are in charge of DnD know absolutely nothing about DnD...

With so much supporting material, tools, homebrew, and culture around 5e, 3.5, Pathfinder, etc I think both the players and Hasbro need to realize that saying "no thanks, not for me" is a completely painless decision. I've got friends that have been exclusively playing AD&D since the 80s and have yet to run out of material.

If I want to play a video game, I will play a video game. If I want to play a TTRPG, I will play TTRPG. This is garbage.

Guys I’ve been doing micro transactions in D&D for years Bring Pizza - 500xp Bring Coca Cola - 100xp Help clean up - 100xp Maybe I should add $10 - 1,000 gold $10 - 20% xp needed for level $5 - rent a mini for the night $5 - replace lost character sheet from my notes $5 - rent a set of dice for the night … thank you WoTC … that got my creative juices flowing

Ah my daily dose of irish meth related DnD news.

Queens of the Stone Age fans raise your hands.

As a person that owns multiple 3d printers I will never be buying any digital D&D minis, monsters, or scenery.

Why’s Brennan on the thumbnail? That feels disingenuous when he has nothing to do with this controversy

Good guy, Hasbro shooting themselves in the foot so often so that people are more willing to try other TTRPGS.

Hasbro as a comapny has litererally 1 idea about how to make money and they have repeated it in Monopoly, MTG and now it's coming to D&D. What an intellectually bankrupt corporate hierarchy must exist for this to just repeat itself over and over.

And Hazbro wonders why people pirate everything...

"Welcome to Sigil, aka The Cage!" "The what?" "I mean, the City of Doors!"

The only thing Hasbro will be printing is Paizo's paychecks for the next 20 years because of this.

I'm amazed that they're trying so hard to duplicate the tabletop environment without making ANY effort to use the strengths of the platform. Instead of having figures that could react to changing circumstances (rotating toward a foe that just got in melee range, adding attack animations, animating attack result effects, etc), we have completely static and unchanging figures. Moonbreaker has already demonstrated the foundation for what could be a far superior tabletop experience, with animated and paintable figures, that Hasbro's "Project Sigil" seems like a half-dozen steps backward.

If you need any more proof Hasbro is pro AI, I'm 99% sure an ad they've been spamming podcasts with is AI generated, cause there's no way a human could sound as lifeless as the voice they used.

The correct way to say it is “implicate myself in crime” not “admit to crime”. The first one implies your innocence.

I literally started playing D&D when it was new and just a few pamphlets as rule books, and I have enjoyed playing it most of the time since then, however I can say with experience that when D&D strays too far, I have no problem dropping it until it becomes fun again, I have never just played one TTRPG at a time anyway and I have run the gambit of all genres of games from Gamma World, CarWars, Shadowrun, G.U.R.P.S, MERP, WOD, Pathfinder and many MANY more over the past 50 years. So there will always be something out there to play that caters to how we enjoy our gaming, and if Hasbro wants to destroy D&D then that's there choice as owners and us true gamers should show them how we feel by NOT participating. I suggest we stop giving them lip service and start hyping alternatives to entertain ourselves with. I am sure there are hundreds if not thousands of TTRPG gaming companies out there with worthy games that just need to be discovered and shared with the rest of us.

Money truly corrupts. I'm so fucking sick and tired of billionaires killing things I love so they get an extra nickel in the end. No one is ever fucking satisfied. "Oh, we made $1 billion? Next year, we have to make $3 billion or we're failures."

You told people about my third nipple?! WORST GIRLFRIEND EVAR.

it's pretty funny (grim) that each hyperbolic title on this channel is a truthful statement of how something has gotten much worse

Hasbro really thought that VTTs are how people prefer to play, and not just a byproduct of Covid.

Expect really annoying ads every 5 mins in your D&D game ... unless you subscribe $100 per year for the bronze tier (with half of the playable options removed)

Then people get annoyed when PF2e fans go online saying "Just play pathfinder2e". Paizo won't try to milk you like a cash cow and definitely won't send the Pinkertons to beat you.

There is a reason that D&D has survived for nearly 50 years. There's also a reason that few electronic games last more than 5 years. When D&D becomes a video game, it's days are numbered. I don't mind computer aids for the game, but nothing will replace face to face gaming.

How to quickly turn your long-lived IP into cash? Replace all your creative product-focused people with marketing people. How to quickly make your long-lived IP move to the retirement home with less and less relatives willing to check up on them each year? Correct. Replace all your creative product-focused people with marketing people.

speaking as a video gamer and a ttrpg player, I don't want subscriptions and micro transactions in my games regardless of the format. games as a service is ruining video games don't let it ruin D&D.

$20 for CHARACTER SHEETS!? What in the ever hungry Elder Gods is this shit!? {edit}- Wait, another Cortex fan? There are quartets of us!

“Whelp, that’s enough of that.” *Furiously digs out cache of 3.5 sourcebooks*

Can't fall into the D&D hellscape if you don't play D&D...

Why was Brennan in the thumbnail? He's not related to any of this current drama and the majority of his Dimension 20 games don't use the D20 system anymore.

I literally got into this hobby around 2003 to get away from games as a service. I didn't like having memberships for things that were ephemeral licenses. Or buying a new game every 6 moths because it was the one all my friends were playing and I had to keep up. I liked buying a book and some dice and being able to use them for whatever I want whenever I want with whoever I want. There's no amount of cool software or graphics you can shove in my face as you take those things away and tell me you're doing me a service because I already walked away from cool software and spiffy graphics.

Selling power-creep also means that they will focus only on short boring easy to finish campaigns as well so that groups will have a quick turnaround and have a reason to buy each new power-creeped addition. It also probably means that they will release OP versions of their products and then nerf their online stats in an effort to balance the game. Quickly snatching away the value that people are paying for.

hasbro is killing face to face d&d....literally the heart of the game...

Pretty much what I’ve been worried about: I play table top to take a break from screens so this new direction is about as appealing to me as poison ivy toilet paper. I’ll be exploring other systems like the awesome looking Shadowdark

Thank you for being honest and not a boot-licker.

Hasboro needs to realize that virtual tabletops like Foundry are popular not because being virtual is innately cool, but because they allow people who normally couldn't meet up to do so. My group of internet friends that hails from North America, South America, and Europe could NEVER play IRL. Nevermind more normal things like 'friends who move away but want to continue the game'. Adding homebrew that still follows the core rules is possible in current VTTs, if a bit tedious, is also a thing, something I feel like a monetized system won't allow for free.

less sex appeal than wormtongue lmmfao

A lot of this VTT stuff is basically "we're actually able to do the stuff we promised but never delivered on for 4th Edition."

I would remind you that there are 2 subclasses per class and 4 feats in the "free to play" version of dndbeyond. The first time a player shows up to my session with Eldritch Blast in their spell list because they bought it with real money, I'm burning everyone's character sheets and switching to Pathfinder.

DMing D&D online during COVID was terrible, it was like running a work Zoom meeting, even using the resolutely adequate Roll20 platform. The last thing I want to have to do is spend my off time building (or buying) entire videogame levels so my friends and I can skype into World of Worstcraft and play a not-quite-a-videogame together where you have to pay for the spells to have graphics. That sounds like signing up to play an MMO, but only the part where you join a demanding high-level guild you have to treat like a second job.

OH BOY! All the worst parts of modern gaming all in one place for what used to be a tabletop! Hasbro cannot go under soon enough, not to mention all the smear campaigning they've been doing on Gary Gygax since he died. Absolutely ghastly, ghoulish behavior from a former titan of the industry

Look, Denethor is sexy and Grima Wormtongue is sexy. These are objective facts.

Your jokes are getting more extremes by the video, I love it.

My Pathfinder Beginner Box finally showed up. I'll just leave D&D 5e in the past.

I've never been this early before. "We're monitizing everything. Draining your account."

Player: Alright, does a...(mumbled calculations)...19 hit? DM: Ooo, not quite. Thats your Action and Bonis Action done, and no Movement? Alright, now Ta-... Player: Wait, wait, wait! (tappa-tappa-tappa on their phone, ch-ching sound effect plays) How about a 24? Does that hit? DM: Y-yeah? What just happened? Player: I just bought a +5 to my attack! Oh, also I paid to see the NPCs stat block so guys, make sure to drop any Cold damage, its his weakness. (Breaks the fourth wall to point at the audience) You've just been Coxxed!

Sounds like Hasbro is implying that DMs will be restricted in how much they can influence the player's abilities in a campaign run on Sigil. It would be hard to sell to players power creep if the DMs smacks the overpriced DLC out of their campaign world.

So what I'm hearing is: fuck hasbro, fuck D&D, explore all the other TTRPG systems that don't want to squeeze you dry. There's no point in even getting mad at hasbro and trying to get them to change, just let it die.

So hear me out here... DON'T BUY THIS SHITE! If they sell it, they will keep selling it. The ONLY thing that will make this change... is if we don't buy it. So don't buy it. Keep all the 5e books. Keep playing 5e, or go back further... Just DON'T BUY THIS STUFF. Don't throw up your hands and say "oh well... I guess this is the new norm..." Don't get them your money... and they will have to change.

Player: *rolls bad* Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast VTT: would you like to spend Dragon Coins to reroll? Player: *sighs* okay lets do it Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast VTT: Sorry you don’t have enough Dragon Coins (DC). Would you like to purchase more? 20 DC = $20 50 DC = $50 100 DC = $100

"KIDS LOVE FORTENIGHT!" Yeah, that maybe true....but that doesn't mean they're gonna love your shitty attempt at it.

What *is* D&D? It is a roleplaying game. A set of rulebooks, and accessories (such as dice, minis, and game settings) that enable players to play in a fantasy world where a story is told based on their exploits. What *isn't* D&D? It isn't like traditional games, tradable card games, or video games. Games that are limited to the creativity of the designers which then becomes limited options for the players. Games that lack story/narrative of any depth or limited meaning to gameplay. Hasbro/WotC is certainly trying to suck the soul out of D&D and the game and players will suffer as a result. They apparently believe it to be something else, instead of the "handbook" for game rules that it actually is. What they're trying to do is akin to selling a novel, and then having customers pay to unlock the next paragraph/chapter. Absurd and damning to the game. Don't let digital D&D succeed. There's plenty of decent RPGs out there that are worth switching to. For fantasy swords & sorcery there's Pathfinder, Dungeon Crawl Classics, OSRIC, Basic Fantasy, Dungeon World, and many others - even generic systems with fantasy add-ons like GURPS, Genesys, Year Zero, and Fate, among others. The "D&D feel" is changing drastically, it may be far more satisfying to just change systems entirely instead of putting up with Hasbro/WotC's desire to milk the players of their D&D game to the point of ruination. They are trying to do the unnatural to the hobby of roleplaying games.

After watching the first couple of interviews that went over DnD 2024, it felt like WotC was trying to go the way of Warhammer 40k. Just endless releases of core books that technically "work together"

I am not sure what worries me more: Knowing that DnD is at the hands of people who do not understand the game, or the possibility that this way of approaching the game really reflects the average TTRPG player behaviour.

Hearing a statement that is basically "powercreep is for sale" and flashing back to the end of 3.5 when we were theory crafting builds that "Couldn't cas a spell higher than 4th level, but hey, I've got a Caster Level of 3,011 when casting 4th level and lower spells sooo....", or living through the Punpun forums. Not that those weren't fun, but could we not go back.

This is the exact kind of content that is ruining the D&D community. 11 minutes of bullshit to discuss 4 minutes of information with intentional clickbait in the title and thumbnail. Like if 2014 RU-vid decided it wanted to get shoved into a locker.

When a player needs $80 starting playing (fee, plus skins and extras) and then about $50 a month later down the road? With todays economy? The new people who start playing will say meh. The older players who played TTRPGs (almost for free) who wont play for their own reasons. I give it a year before they start loosing money on it especially when there might or might not be a paywall at the tavern or to get healed at the town and the players have dumped $150 after their 1st adventure is done. Oh! But you can get a cool hat for your character for $20 and makeup for $15 so cool! I'll skip lunch at work!

So when I run out of spell slots, is it gonna let me watch an ad to get some back? The orc chief dropped a plain sword... But for $1.99 you can make it a +1 with 5 charges of Smite Oops, looks like the BBEG is immune to all your attacks... But for $19.99 you can buy this Ninja branded BBEG Slayer! It has +100 against BBEGs and bypasses all resistance and immunities!

So they basically want to turn D&D into the monstrosity that is the Dungeons and Dragons Online MMO. It will be a glorious shitshow.

Coming from Warhammer 40K (arguably the best IP on the planet to shitty mobile games, power creep as business core value, continuous reprint of books and rules every year, nightmare witch hunt against fanart and fanfiction, changing the lore to target little kids with merch etc etc...) insert James Franco hanging meme: "first time?"

As a dungeon master of nearly 50 years, one of the longest running challenges for all of is, is power balance. Encounter tuning should have its own freaking book series, and here comes HasBlows trying to make that even harder? Coropate D&D sucks. The thing I hope that happens is, the smaller game houses, that don't have the corporate overhead and profit margin issues, will be able to undercut WotC HasBlows prices and thrive.

What, $20 for 50 character sheets?? It even says "50 character sheets, enough to last you 50 years!"... So you are telling me I only need one per year... Okay I'll just print one at home as I need it. Also, funny they seem to think characters and campaigns survive long enough to only need one a year... Especially when they want people to play more it's funny when they imply they only want people to play in one game at a time.

It is a literal crime to mis-speak the name of the city of doors, while in the city of doors. I can’t be the first to note this.

Most people do not realise what side is properly up in that picture of Mussolini is. Good Job.

man it would be a real shame if someone who went to gencon and got a phb uploaded a full-res scan of it online to hit wotc's bottom dollar

13:35 Definitely pause to read this, it's amazingly informative and I almost can't believe than an IP like Smallville would make such a move. I can only assume that the team responsible were dedicated roleplayers and the expected ROI was so small, anyway, that they could fly under the corporate radar.

I think you nailed it with wanting to target non DMs. Right now a player doesn't need to buy anything, maybe a player handbook but chances are they will use the DMs. So in a group of 4+DM, Hasbro can only expect 1 of them to buy the books. They are chasing players cash. Explains all the pro player rule changes coming.

Dnd Players: Power creep is bad! Also Dnd Players: Check out my new busted af homebrew.

They probs would have gotten away with this a decade ago but then being late to the game seems to be the HASBRO way.

Is this a surprise? WotC is making character creation complicated enough that players will use the online tools because they don’t want to spend 2+ hours to do it by themselves. The best part is WotC will say this is great because they’re just giving players what they want by giving them even more options.

This is the most insane Dungeons and Dragons scandal I’ve ever seen, and it got worse!

"Yes, we are going all in on microtransactions" Well, at least they're honest about it.

the notion of power creep being inherent in the "new edition" was written on the wall since day 1 of their announcement that it would be "backwards compatible". anybody with 2 grains of salt realised it back then, so... not really new or surprising that they now say it outright. after all, they mention it time and time again that the "new" classes and subclasses are designed to "fix" the flaws and weaknesses of the prior versions.. which inherently makes them better and more powerful..and therefore will encourage players to play those new versions rather than the old ones. they have even put in the rules that in the new game, you can play the old subclasses unless the old subclass has a new version, in which case you must (and really, want to) play the new version. how is that still surprising anyone? they can call it an expansion of the fifth edition, or a revision or an update... but it was always going to be a full new edition, despite the backwards compatibility... otherwise, why redesign the weapons, the spell classes, backgrounds and feats and such?

so, the picture of Brennan in the thumbnail is only justified by a passing reference to dimension 20? this is clickbaity as fuck, and totally unnecessary as the topic was interesting on its own.

2:00 the fact that I knew it was him in spite of knowing enough about him to fill a bottle cap is my shot of dopamine for the afternoon

Hasbro needs to realize that D&D is just a set of rules that anyone can sit around a table and follow. I started playing back when people were completely ignoring 4e in favor of 3.5e. We never gave a dime to Wizards in those days because we were playing from out of print books. When 5e came out, it was clear they'd learned their lesson about what players wanted, and I hope we can teach them a similar lesson very soon.

Your imagination like this ( ), my imagination like this ( ). Wizard will get worse until they fall.

Trust me, as a gamer and someonr who enjoys D&D, just because heavy monetization is common in video games doesn't mean it'll just be accepted lol, especially if its coming from something that wasn't ridiculously monetized before

6:43 (video gamers will play with sigil) this feels like a deja vu phrase i've heard when i first started getting into D&D like 5+ years ago or something. When i heard loose descriptions of how we got to 5th Edition, I saw some commentator on here say that 4th Edition was made to appeal to more video game players. and they seemed to say the game wasn't really liked, overly complicated. and it it led to 3.5 being created and Pathfinder becoming a thing as a spin-off.

More Brennan news is required for Brennan thumbail. Feel cheated. Sad fish. :(

If you like the Smallville RPG you should go buy the Cortex Prime ruleset as that is the mechanics underlying Smallville RPG, Serenity, Supernatural, and a few other IP-based titles.

13:45 They've been doing that for 10 years now. This is nothing new. Remember Xanathars with Gloomstalker and hexblade? Remember Tashas with Peace and Twilight clerics? Remember Strixhaven with silvery barbs? But still it doesn't matter because all the best features and spells are have always been in the players handbook.

Have they forgotten that Roll20 exists?

Sounds to me that they are mad because they arent making money off of gameplay. People buy the books and minis and dont interact with wizards or hasburo for hundreds if not thousands of hours of play time creating their own adventures and modifying or excluding things they find to be stupid (lack of racial feats for instance). They dont like this because the ROI is too high on the customer side of things vs the providers. Its just an unsustainible busness practice. Wizards is too big and cant sustain itself off of book and minuture sails which is really all they should be their for in the case of D&D. To many employees, and to many overbloated corperate pay checks. And all customers want is to play a game to escape reality for 4 hours a week with our nerdy ass friends.