What If D&D 6E is Shadowdark-eqsue?

This is a hilarious thought.

What if D&D 6E starts as a "stripped down" simplified set of rules and tries to compete with Shadowdark? Of course, the "expert rules" will come later, after they hook you in, and you will be paying for character creation tools and digital add-on books after the community heaps praise on them for "seeing the light," and we all get walled-gardened later.

The problem is, I can see this happening.

This is what I would do if I were in charge of Wizards.

Split D&D 6E into a basic book and an expert book, and release the basic book first. Of course, the 5E players would complain to high heaven, but D&D would be "back in the OSR" and "back to basics" with "everything everyone loves."

Play like it is 1980!

You can finally give up all those "not D&D" OSR games. Ugh. Finally. Insert sarcasm tag here.

Later on, the expanded "6E expert rules" will, of course, have subclass options, extra powers, spells, and all the "expert combat" rules you will need the VTT and character creation software for. The 5E players who love complexity will be happy then. The expert rules are an online-only option. The expert monsters would require combat trackers and online-only tools. The expert spells have effects and targeting options made much easier by the VTT. Expert campaigns have support requirements of bastions and dominions.

The only weak part of the plan is that people may never upgrade and remain satisfied with the Basic rules. But this is Wall Street, and they can motivate purchases and upsells all the time, especially if you get "three free months" of expert rule access if you buy basic. Some monsters would be expert only. You know how it goes, and what they would hold back to get you to enter your credit card information.

Even if this did happen, if D&D 6E were a rule-for-rule copy, I would never leave Shadowdark. The third-party support is here. The licensing is excellent. The creator is awesome and listens to the community. The game is built on a promise, and it holds to it as a core principle. The books made for this system are excellent. The art holds up. Respect is paid to the creators and traditions of this hobby.

And I trust The Arcane Library.

After the OGL, I can't say that about Wizards.