The Business: More On Diamond's Impact On Tabletop

Roll For Combat streamed about this on Wednesday this past week.

First: Confirmation that Wizards of the Coast are moving to a Brand-focused business model.

"Wizards of the Coast has appointed a new “Vice President of Franchise” to lead the Dungeons & Dragons team. The news comes just weeks after the departure of Jess Lanzilo, who had previously served as VP of D&D for the past year. The new position is being filled by Dan Ayoub, who was promoted internally after serving as the Head of Studios for D&D since 2022.

As VP of Franchise, Ayoub will oversee a major internal shift of the Dungeons & Dragons brand, which will be moving to a new model that puts all D&D books, films, TV shows, video games and merchandising elements under a single business structure at Wizards of the Coast.

So just what does this mean for the future of D&D as both a game and a brand? Below, we take a closer look at all the details."

Second: Diamond's collapse is going to screw so many Tabletop publishers and retail stores, some harder than others, and some of those--already reeling from the tariffs--are going to get cored and blown up. Those that survive, like our hosts, will still be seriously or critically damaged and those tariffs are not only not going away they are getting worse for them as China's finding out that they can't dodge those tariffs and others open to fuck over American economic sectors are also getting smacked around now.

So, therefore, are those here being willing accomplices, which includes most Tabletop operations. Not all--some, like WOTC, do everything domestically or moot the issue by only being digital and Print On Demand--

The only viable reaction for most of the Endless Product Slop Conventional Play outfits is to abandon traditional printing for digital/POD only, but that means abandoning all hopes for breeching the Normiesphere and thus getting out from under WOTC and D&D. Some will suck it up and deal with it; most will double-down on their delusions of relevance and still proclaim being able to go where Normies are and get sales. You'll see who sifts where soon enough.

You think I exaggerate? Watch the discourse; you'll see this double-thinking in action.

The retrenchment is real and already happening. Fortunately the Clubhouse makes all of this irrelevant.