A franchise by any other name

Episode 17 of the Rascal Radio Hour is all about licensed games and this week's dirty word: franchise. The pair discuss the cancelled Tomb Raider RPG and what kind of IP-scrubbed game might rise from its ashes, along with the continually disastrous Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy leaving some tabletop publishers bereft of consigned books. The big story of the week is D&D's apparent "full franchise" turn, which Chase argues is a meaningless distinction and Lin believes fits with Wizards of the Coast's past behavior. Both agree the word franchise is dumb.

They also chat collaborative storytelling games and how different titles balance freedom against handrails for the inexperienced. Lin has been enjoying Daggerheart for what it is. Chase played a Cyberpunk LCG with a very enticing cooperative hook. Both tackle some questions about whether licensed RPGs are healthy for the industry, as well as their favorite ENNIE nominations from the recent shortlist.

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Here's an excerpt:

Chase: What do you think "full franchise" means for Dungeons & Dragons? Like, if you hear those words, what the hell does that mean?

Lin: I'm just sort of thinking of like full frontal where Dan Ayub just shows up with a trench coat, and it's like you guys want to buy some franchise? And he just holds open his jacket. There's all of these things.

Chase: Yeah, and it's third-party licensed video games and animated TV shows. It's a bunch of Critical Role merch and shit like that.

Lin: I think something that's really interesting about that post is that I did not hear the word game. Did not hear the word game, which is really sad. And I think that so much has been made of D&D's history over the past couple of years with the 50th anniversary that they have sort of decided that the game is so secondary to their brand at this point. They're trying to work towards being a storytelling studio rather than a game design studio. I don't know if they've got the chops for that sort of thing. But it is interesting that they're just going to start becoming a lifestyle brand. It's not necessarily that you like playing D&D. You like watching Critical Role. You like playing Baldur's Gate 3. You like dressing up and going to conventions, watching Joe Manginello be a goofy himbo on a documentary series. That will be what D&D is in the future.

This is really, really obvious. Just this year, there was that D&D experience that I went to at Universal Studios, and it's like, that's D&D. That's being a fan of D&D, going to a theme park and walking through five rooms, pointing out runes, and oohing and awing over a Xanathar puppet. I mean, I get it. I sort of see that, and I sort of do what everyone else does, which is like give a shrug and say, I guess, man.

Chase: I get into it in the piece, but I think a large part of this is that I don't think what Ayub is talking about in his new position and whatever this new direction for the company is really going to touch D&D the tabletop game, D&D the books full of rules that you can sit at your table and tell stories with your friends. That's probably going to be largely untouched by whatever this is, but it is going to be lost in the sea of capital-C Content produced for this capital-F Franchise.

It is going to hurt the game insofar as there's going to be a lot of attention and money funneled every direction except towards the creatives, the artists, designers, and layout folks that are making the game. You do need D&D for it to be a lifestyle brand. If they could, they would just sort of carve out the middle of this and have a hollow core surrounded by money and licenses. But they gotta have the game somewhere in there.

Lin: It's pretty funny that it seems, for Wizards of Coast, D&D is the little stick holding up the rest of the franchise, which is hilarious to me the more that I think about it. D&D the game is the little stick holding up D&D the movie, Baldur's Gate 3, and every other D&D game. It's just wild.