Audio EXP Podcast: #222 – Spider-Punk versus Hasbro’s layoffs

Welcome home.

This is Audio EXP for the 16th of December, and the episode title is “Spider-Punk versus Hasbro’s layoffs”

[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #222]

[Also on Stitcher | Spotify | Apple]

DR Games is in the Spotlight thanks to votes from Geek Native’s fantastic patrons.

In the interview, I spoke to Toby Lancaster about the solo game he designed, Rad Zone, which allowed him to see that TTRPGs could be his full-time job.

I think it’s an incredibly brave thing to do. There’s no shortage of game designers who love our tabletop hobby and offer great games at low costs. What does it take to reassure yourself that you can pay the rent by selling games?

Toby and DR Games’ Kickstarter for 2D6 Realm is still live and rocking, and as I write this script, nearly £50,000 has been pledged.

I know. I said script. I kinda read to you, but not quite, and that’s uncommon in podcast land. Audio EXP is a bit like a newsreel with me as the host catching you up on what’s happening during the week. I’ve tried to ad-lib it, but it doesn’t work with just me.

However, if you fancy the more traditional approach of two witty people talking to one another, or if you’re interested in which trailers have hit our screens this week, then I recommend Perception Check: Trailer Edition.

This is a new podcast from Geek Native in which Bronwen and Fenn talk about trailers we’ve seen on the site. We’ve seen them there since myself, Bronwen or Fenn put them there. 

Good man Fenn stepped up to the microphone when Bronwen shared the plans, and here we are. There’s no schedule to give you yet, it’s a soft launch but hopefully a faster soft launch than our multi-year Discord, but episode one is out and a cracker. 

The big news this week, one which Geek Native saved to the Routinely Itemised summary, are the poor 1,100 people Hasbro are laying off. Many in Wizards of the Coast are involved, including the D&D team.

People, rightly, are upset. It must be especially surprising if you don’t know Hasbro and WotC do tend to reshape their headcount just before Christmas. It’s not the first time it’s happened.

However, this year, Chris Cocks, the former WotC boss, is the big Hasbro boss, and D&D seems to be booming.

But Hasbro is not booming. Geek Native’s reported on this before; D&D and Magic are fine for now, but the toymaker’s other efforts, its old toy lines, are struggling, and they’ve done movies, toons and even games for them. Investors have long worried those wells are dry.

The failure of the eOne deal and the lack of commercial success for the D&D movie won’t have helped. Baldur’s Gate, as Bronwen noted, won Game of the Year at the Game Awards, but WotC didn’t make that. WotC is still to find its AAA success. Years after saying the future of D&D is digital, WotC doesn’t have a digital success to shout about. 

Chris Cocks is neither stupid nor, I think, evil. He’s under a lot of pressure to make the money graphs go up. I think the logic behind the cuts is to try and make more from less, to stem the overall losses, please backers and steady the ship.

I wonder, though, whether it also hints at concern at the success of the following edition-but-not-an-edition D&D anniversary books. They’re due out in 2024.

It’s also the first time Wizards of the Coast have done their Christmas layoffs during the D&D boom. It’s the first time the company has had fans with money to spend, a growing social conscience and the ability to be loud about it. The OGL drama, for example, shows how powerful fan voice can be.

I think the genuine risk is that tactics like this continue to nibble away at the shine Dungeons & Dragons has. Fans could, in theory, go elsewhere. 

What’s your experience with RPGs that are not 5e? I see the alternative realities on Facebook all the time. Some people are happy to only play 5e; hey, at least it’s a game. Some people get frustrated that the only gamers they know are stuck in the 5e bubble, whereas they want something else. I also see gamers who don’t go near D&D.

One of the possible alternatives in 2024 will be the MCDM RPG, which has crowdfunded more than $3m. That’s Matt Coville’s game and one spawned from the OGL crisis WotC triggered.

It’s hardly hidden, but I’ve not seen much chat about the MCDM VTT. The company said that they think MCDM RPG will be best played on its own very special VTT, and if the crowdfunder does well enough, then they’ll get one made.

It has.

So, imagine that, in 2024 there might be a new D&D rival and perhaps in 2025 yet another virtual tabletop.

Another alternative, Candela Obscura, was published this week and while it’s from Critical Role, streamers with even more reach than Coville, it’s not clear how successful the game has been. The PDF is still a silver best seller at DriveThruRPG, and no one has reviewed it there yet. Professional reviews on the web have been mixed.

Perhaps the most important thing about Candela Obscura is that it isn’t 5e either. Candela Obscura can also partially trace its origin back to the OGL crisis.

That said, not everything was pushed into life due to that WotC attempt to commercially control the ecosystem. MCDM cancelled their Arcadia magazine. Although notable, James Introcaso put ‘for now’ in brackets when introducing issue 30 as the final one.

If Arcadia comes back you can count it on it being system-neutral, at least, and surely giving the MCDM RPG a boost.

There is an Arcadia bundle on DriveThruRPG this week, by the way, and for $29.99 you can get all thirty issues. The retail value is chalked up at $137.80 so that’s a 78% saving.

But let’s move things along boldy… and to outer space. Why? Because the UK Games Expo did a good thing with The National Space Centre in Leicester and celebrated the best of tabletop gaming.

Imagine being surrounded by actual space tech and playing board games, painting minis and digging into RPGs. I hope it brings some more fresh faces into the hobby.

I did also mention Spider-Punk, didn’t I? This was a story that Bronwen spotted and it’s simple. Spider-Punk almost didn’t appear in the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

I get it. I totally see why, on paper, the character looks unnecessary. That said, I think Hobie Brown was my favourite character. He added vibe and spark. He made it different.

Sony took a risk with the emotional heart of the thing, kept the talent in, kept it exciting and didn’t cut back to the bone. That’s why the title of this podcast is “Spider-Punk versus Hasbro’s layoffs” as it seems to be Sony made the strategic decision that Hasbro has also faced and found a different answer to.

Not that Sony has it all rosy, Bronwen also noticed that the computer giant had to investigate a potential Ransomware attack at Insomniac Games. That’s the studio that makes, that’s right, the Spider-man games. 

Now, onto the outro of bundles and some free ecards for Christmas emergencies.

The Bundle of Holding has been busy, and there are two offers for Mongoose’s Travellers sci-fi, including Traveller Mercenaries for the first time. 

There’s also a deal on the GURPS-based Dungeon Fantasy from Steve Jackson Games. Dungeon Fantasy was late to the GURPS world and an attempt to lure in D&D players.

I think the so-called Dragonbane deal from Free League warrants special attention. In the starter collection, you get the following RPGs;

• Vaesen
• Forbidden Lands
• Coriolis
• Mutant: Year Zero

Then, in the bonus collection, as well as supplements, there’s also;

• Dragonbane
• Twilight: 2000

That’s six whole RPGs.

There’s proper action in Humble, too, starting with everything you need for Pathfinder 2e. 

The Beginner Box is in the £4 tier, and the core rules for £12, or thereabouts.

If you’re quick, then Dark Horse as a Humble may well interest, and that’s a host of Hellboy digital comics. 

Lastly, the freebies are Elf ecards to print off or DM people. By Elf, I mean Buddy and the Will Ferrell movie.

On that note, feel festive and see you next week.