Nov. 23: Musk Fights 'Woke' Wizards

In This Edition

• Wizards of the Coast

• Major Publishers (Paizo and Co)

• Crowdfunding

• TTRPG Tech

• Indie Content and Publishers

Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg that the company would no longer fund films after the middling box office experiences of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves as well as Transformers One. While Honor Among Thieves made more than $200 million internationally, its budget was $150 million. In other words, it made back its budget but was not enough for the film to succeed. Transformers One was in a similar place, costing $75 million and only making $128 million internationally as of Nov. 22. That led Cocks to lean into Baldur’s Gate 3’s success and focus on making new D&D games.

“We want to reach fans where they want to play, and increasingly that is through digital expressions of their favorite brands,” Cocks emphasized. Hasbro properties still might appear in theatres, but they will not be getting funding from Hasbro.

I find this move curious, considering the absolute massive success of Barbie in 2023 and the subsequent “Mattel Cinematic Universe” that is coming our way. Those two will be at war, and Cocks may regret this going forward. I also think it was the wrong lesson to learn from Larian’s fantastic success and it’s constant growth in the gaming world with Baldur’s Gate 3. But executives are often hard to persuade on such matters.

In a move surprising NO ONE, Elon Musk is getting into the culture war around Dungeons and Dragons.

Mark Kern, aka Grummz, is a video game developer who has become notoriously aggressive about complaining that games are “woke,” often without actually doing research. It’s pure culture war fodder at its finest. He posted a thread on Twitter/X stating that he’d spoken to Rob Kuntz, one of the original creators behind the game, about how Wizards of the Coast and left-leaning historians misrepresent Gygax and other founders’ culturally questionable beliefs.

Musk, who has evolved from a very science-friendly creator of game-changing products to a right-wing supporter of the Trump Administration and culture warrior in the finest degree, decided to get in on it.

Wizards can “burn in hell” for what they did to Gygax, Musk stated.

Kern’s categorization is (unsurprisingly) inaccurate, as he posted several passages out of context from Wizards’ book on the history of D&D, as noted by Christian Hoffer. Kern’s discussion only centers on a single book that Kuntz was involved in, but makes some pretty broad insinuations about the claims related to the game that scholars have made. The game has had a history of relying on some stereotypes around Africa and Asia that do not hold the test of time, as well as how it decided to portray women. But just as society evolves, so do we. It’s important to realize that our worldviews have changed and that not everything from the past is okay.

It’s unclear if Musk’s remarks will spark anything more than culture-war-oriented conduct, as he has been for years. Musk has grown increasingly right-wing in his beliefs over the last few years, including his purchase of Twitter. That’s led to him spreading tons of misinformation as well as putting every single one of his tweets at the top of my X feed. But between his alleged plans for saving the government money and advising Trump, I doubt he has time to wage war on Wizards.

• Shadowrun, a old-school TTRPG that mixes fantasy with the cyberpunk aesthetic, is getting an anniversary release! Catalyst Game Labs is releasing the game's First Edition in a special 35th-anniversary edition on Dec. 11. Shadowrun’s always been a setting that caught my eye, but its rules scare me. But I’ve played Shadowrun Returns and its sequels multiple times over.

• Pathfinder: Divine Mysteries released this week. The volume offers storytellers and players a better understanding of Golarion’s gods as well as what it means to be one. This conversation’s particularly pertinent among Paizo’s War of the Immortals meta-event, where at least one god’s died.

• DC Heroes, an old TTRPG featuring Batman, Superman, and your favorite DC superheroes, is getting a 40th edition release. The game’s been out of print since 1993, but Cryptozoic Entertainment is raising funds for a reprint on Kickstarter today. A quick skim of the campaign reveals a plethora of bundles, old content, and special books capturing the old game’s ruleset. It also has that nice 90s comic book vibe to its print. I’ve never been a big superhero TTRPG fan, but I can’t deny that this is a collector’s item for comic book fans and TTRPG fans alike if they have the cash (and I guess they do. $250,000 invested in it so far.)

• Redsky is a science-fantasy game using the 5e rules to explore a low-magic world where tech and magic intercede. Solar Studios is raising funds for a Starter Set for any who might find a setting akin to Game of Thrones or The Witcher attractive

• Household II is an expansion of the original Household, a game where players explore the world as small fey-like creatures and fight off threats that we may see as small (spiders, etc) but they view as fantasy-level monsters. The new book expands the universe and allows players to go outside FINALLY. The book is published by Two Little Mice, the minds behind Outgunned.

TTRPG Technology

Itch.io, a platform used by a number of indie game devs to publish their content online, has incorporated an AI filter into its search box. The addition will allow users to search for content and avoid the growing number of AI-generated game assets, character art, and more. Creators will need to hit a tag to ensure that their item is not AI-generated, although the company said that most normal creators don’t have to do this to avoid being tagged as such. It’s a simple but helpful product decision as a growing number of consumers are deciding if AI-generated content is okay with them. A lot of small publishers have continued to make statements that they will not review or publish AI-generated content.

Baldur’s Gate 3 now has more daily players in 2024 than it did in the launch year, according to Larian publishing director Michael Douse. From a game release standpoint, that’s a big deal, considering most games see their user base drop by more than half in the weeks and months after release.

Indie Games

Studio Hermitage, the minds behind Our Brilliant Ruin, has continued to do an extremely aggressive job hyping up their new franchise despite a fairly average fundraising effort in Spring 2024. The game’s getting a lot of attention from the press, with articles featuring it in Wargamer and Forbes. It’s also revealed more information about its upcoming comic book deal with Dark Horse, as they commissioned former Critical Role cover artist Helen Mask to draw the series' first cover. They also wrapped up their podcast, Clawmoor Heights this week. I’m very eager to try this game once I can get my hands on my physical copy.