Dungeons & Dragons 30th Anniversary, Day Three
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The company also began branching out into new RPG settings. Having had some success with the Greyhawk and Oriental Adventures campaign settings, the company headed full tilt into creating other realms that could be expanded into other products -- particularly novels, which had long since become a major profit center for the company.
The late '80s saw the launch of Forgotten Realms (still D&D's most popular setting), and DragonLance. The runaway success of those lines, particularly Forgotten Realms and its popular signature character Drizzt do'Urden, begat a slew of new world designs. There was the post-apocalyptic Dark Sun, the highly political Birthright, a response to White Wolf's successful Vampire: The Masquerade game called Ravenloft, and the extremely avant-garde Planescape, among others. Unfortunately for Williams and TSR, this strategy, while presenting the initial appearance of success, is actually a strategy for long-term loss. The marketing term is "Brand Extension," but Bill Slavicsekdirector of RPGs, miniatures and R&D at Wizards of the Coast, just calls it the "Many Buckets" theory.
