It Would Be Mentzer, Of Course

A question on a forum asks, who would you have design the next edition of D&D. The answers were all over the map. I did see Zeb Cook's name mentioned a few times, which was nice. Can't argue against the man who did the first D&D Expert book and with Tom Moldvay created the beginnings of what became Mystara among his many other offerings. If Dave wanted to be a part of this, I wouldn't object.

A few years ago, when he was still alive, I'd have said Gary Gygax, and I'd want Tom Moldvay to be a part of this project as well. I've heard Tom had notes when he passed away for campaign ideas and stuff. I would love to get my hands on that for this project. Some new modules for this game by Tom Moldvay? Heck yes!

As I see it, this is wishful thinking, even if this is just a hypathetical idea to begin with. For starters, the current game must move ahead, not backwards. The new game will upset some in the 4e crowd who will leave, just as 4e upset the previous crowd. But, the new game will bring new players with it's features that mimic computer games. It's as it must be. Why? Just because. It's progress. Whatever.

But, I'd do something crazy. Remember, if it comes from Wizards, it's money made by them, so I'd break out the D&D Retro line and put Frank Mentzer in charge. D&D Retro would include the Advanced core books and at least B/X Boxed sets. Frank would be charged with any updates (probably not too different from what it was) to rules, art updates in the books that would either be new art from those guys or new artists or both. The old adventures could be touched up and re-released and new ones created.

D&D Retro, Advanced and Basic. Not a bad idea. Guess what though? It's not likely to happen. There's not enough money in it. Now, there are probably thousands of us out there, but that's not enough to do this for. For starters, some people wouldn't spend the money. The Wizard's budget wouldn't be there for this. It's sad, but true. The ship has sailed. Now, if your dealing with a money guy who isn't worried about making money on this as long as too much isn't lost, then sure, but that's not who we're talking about.

Now, suppose all works associated with Basic and 1e were licensed to Frank's new company. It's unlikely that they could use the label D&D Retro that would be important to such a project. You might be thinking, he could rename it and reintroduce it. Maybe even Greyhawk and Mystara would be allowed to be used by name, just not D&D. Problem is, Retro Clones are out there that make this a losing proposition.

So, if the question was if I had millions to invest in such an operation and was able buy the license to that line as D&D Retro, including all Modules from Greyhawk 1e and BECMI, who would I bring in to oversee this? The answer would be Frank. Frank is one guy who was there, had the credibility for the works he did and had the respect of Gary. That would be good enough for me.

He might not accept my offer, but the only condition I'd put on it is to make sure at least Basic and Expert D&D lived. And, if we could get rights to any unpublished works by Moldvay, that would be good too.

Now, I have no idea where they intend to go with 5e, but judging by the way Monte Cook is talking in his blogs, they are looking back at things gone by. It might not be a bad idea to give a guy like Frank or even Zeb Cook a call. It couldn't hurt anyway.