if Elon Musk buys D&D like he’s threatening to, could the fanbase just crowd source an alternative, called say – Basements & Lizards, and have joint ownership. Like how fans own football clubs in Germany.
Wednesday, 12 Mar 2025
Exclusive insights, data, and analysis for financial market experts.
Search
Have an existing account?
Sign In
Or just play the content you already have? The past 50 years of content and rulesets won’t magically disappear if the ownership of D&D changes hands.
It’s not like there aren’t literally tons of alternatives already. We have everything from games that are basically D&D with the serial numbers filed off (like Pathfinder) to games that are completely different in various particulars.
The alternative is called Pathfinder. There are also many others out there
lol I already bought my books. I can keep playing D&D until the day I die and Elon can’t change a damn thing about it.
If I really wanted new content, it’s not as if other games don’t exist. I’d just switch to Pathfinder, probably.
X&X formerly known as D&D.
The worst thing about this story getting posted over and over (and over and over) again across Reddit is that this story will pick up momentum and encourage Musk to actually pursue this.
Talking about it gives it life.
I think it is best for all of mods of the various D&D subreddits to remove these posts.
I’m curious what people think Elon would actually do to D&D.
There’s so many other TTRPGs out there, and many of them have some really interesting dynamics, but D&D is the cultural force, so that’s the one that gets the attention. He might drive D&D the corporate entity into the ground like he did with Twitter, but D&D itself can never die. And sending it off to corporate valhalla on a raft of flames might be the best thing to happen to the game.
There are already hundreds of other games to play out there. Honestly D&D has had long enough in the spotlight and it’s not like Hasbro are making it any better with its video gamifying of the game.
My dude, there are _sooooooo_ many alternatives to D&D, many of which are just objectively far better.
They are mostly unknown because a bunch of disorganized gamers have zero advertising budget, while a huge corporate has the _biggest_ marketing budget.
And… that’s it. Sorry, friend.
Just play pathfinder because it’s so much better
Or just play a different system or use the books you’ve already got? I know I won’t give this guy a dime of my money but since our group already plays several different systems and we own a ton of D&D books ranging from 2nd – 5th edition it won’t be hard for us to not buy any new D&D stuff in the future.
Not to be that guy. But wasn’t that how pathfinder started. Like with 4e wizards mucked around with the OGL so pazio, who at the time made third party content for DND said screw it. And made a 3.5 clone, with a tighter rule set.
Just play content you already own or move to pathfinder
It’s not like Wizards of the Coast have been perfect owners. Same for Hasbro & TSR so Elon will just be added to the list of imperfect owners. Being a RPG you can create whatever game world you want to create if the one Elon sells is something you like. Hell I know people still playing AD&D without any desire to change.
Just play 5e
Lol. I’ve already left. Hasbro isn’t getting funding from me to finish destroying DnD.
Elon is CEO of many companies, lead of DOGE and still he has time to play videogames, post a lot at X and be a father? Where will he get all the spare time to play DnD?
Hasbro has already made DnD terrible and as anti consumer as possible. It certainly couldn’t get worse than it is now.
The problem with Elon buying DnD is not “oh we can’t play DnD anymore”, it’s that no matter where we go, he will be the face of the hobby because he owns the biggest brand in the room. It’s bad enough that I have to describe every TRPG as “like DnD”, but I don’t look forward to a future where I describe a game as “like DnD” and they say “oh, Elon’s game?”.
There are loads of free systems with loads of community content, to name a few: D20 SRD, 3ESRD, A5ESRD, BRP SRD, Basic Fantasy RPG, etc.
This is an issue with many, many already existing solutions, regardless of preferred play style. We’re good. Seriously, D&D fans are solid regardless of HASBRO and Musk.
Believe it or not some of us still play 2.5 with 20 year old rule books.
Or… he might actually bring back what many fans are missing, realizing that fantasy races are not stand in’s for modern peoples and story lines can be dark without being unprofitable (in fact usually the opposite).
Maybe that’s what it will take to open up the mainstream to the wider world of tabletop RPGs
DnD will become NFT.
Hasbro has been fucking up the game for a few years now just like magic and now yall are worried about it? Just move to a different platform or get the books for free it’s not that hard.
Buddy, the community didn’t give a shit when wotc called the Pinkerton’s on someone.
The community didn’t give a shit during the last half of the 5e release when wotc was basically just dogpiling shit down our throats and acting like we should be thankful for the pleasure of it.
This community doesn’t give a fuck if Elon purchases. They will keep buying.
It will always be *ours*, in name and deed. Even if he buys its, it won’t ever be *his*
Blue Dungeons and Sky Dragons
OSR all the way then
Has Hasbro been doing a great job..?
Lol….all because of the owner ?
Honestly hasbro has fucked my favorite tcg into a coma. It’s been a rapid decline downhill for years now.
I’d be more concerned Jeff Bezos wanted to buy hasbro than Elon.
I mean it just play previous version’s and boycott hasbro all together!! But unfortunately even tho people play off hating him because almost everything he says is on social media the ignorant populace can’t get enough of him so he’s going to stay a rising star until the end..
Why quit playing a game just because it changes rich people’s hands
Why is everyone so afraid of him buying it?
Rent free. It literally changes nothing.
I think Musk is still the weird little kid who never gets invited to play with the people he really wants to game with.
I have no sympathy for him though – he strikes me as the kind of player that is infuriating and disturbing, would creep on any female players or characters, and want to dominate a game with his own Mary Sue übermench human fighter than actually participate in a fun, collaborative adventure. And now he’s rich, he thought he could buy his way into the fun groups, but people still see him for what he is.
Now all he has are his hopeless simps, the orange one who would turn on him in a millisecond, and the threat of ruining good things if he doesn’t get his own way. He still will never know the simple fun of being invited to play by people who genuinely like him.
There are so many other good games out there, for example, my favorite game right now is Forbidden Lands and the Year Zero system. Weapons keep breaking and need fixing/replacing, magic items have some fun drawbacks and the world is interesting. But you could easily play the system in any fantasy world. But that’s just me. I got seriously disillusioned with the whole D&D experience.
Question. This is about the 4th post I have seen about this across various dnd subs… the tweet that’s posted says ” how much is hasboro” and that’s it.. where yall jumping to this conclusion at?
There are so many copies of the first 5 editions out there that nobody ever has to purchase anything from Elon’s version. Just don’t buy it and don’t play it. Pass your current material on if and when you are done playing.
I’d just use the stuff I already have and not buy anything DnD anymore. In all likelihood the next step would be switching to Pathfinder.
Just keep playing DND…
To be fair, there’d just be a jump to other game systems.
Why would a new one need to be invented for this reason when there are already SO many alternatives to D&D?
Most people don’t care and aren’t going to put that much work into it unless it becomes a financial burden.