In summary:
* I’d make it as easy as I possibly could to play and run D&D every week, both logistically and socially.
* I’d make it completely possible to play your own campaign, while at
the same time providing world-class campaigns to either run in whole of
crib from (both in story and play-aids).
* I’d provide sophisticated online tools, and provide enough of them
for free that merging the online, RPGA, and local communities is so
attractive that people make their own choice to do so.
In detail:
I’d keep the existing d20/3e base, and fine-tune it into best
Against the Giants, Descent into the Depths of the Earth, White Plume
Mountain heroic simulationist game it can be.
I would do so by incorporating a lot of the best of the 3rd Party d20
stuff, like Mutants and Masterminds, SpyCraft, Dungeon Crawl Classics,
etc., and blending them into a reasonably fast-playing crunchy game
with better balance than 3.5. Point costs for feats, fewer, broader
skills, and spell levels from 1-20 would be the major system changes.
I’d probably group most of the key material from the PH and the
DMG, along with the “classics” from the MM, and merge them into one
book. I’d then publish a non-crunchy “how to DM” and “how to play” book
for super-low cost ($9.99 ea).
I’d take the Dungeon Magazine “Adventure Path” concept to the max,
hiring the best designers out there to create at least 3 parallel
campaigns that were published online for DMs to just pick up and run.
I’d publish content online monthly with about 20-30 hours of play
content per month, per campaign.
One campaign would be always be Greyhawk Dungeon Crawls, one would be
Grandiose World-Saving stuff set in FR or EB, and one would be
something unique and different (i.e. Al-Quadim, SpellJammer, Dark Sun,
Birthright, etc.)
I’d sell packs of minis and preprinted battle mats for each
campaign every month, and allow those to be subscribed to, so if you
were subscribed to campaign “A”, you’d get a box of minis, maps, and
player aids every month to run every major encounter in the campaign.
I’d have podcasts that guided DMs through each campaign each month,
and offer tips and suggestions from playtesters both in podcast, and
forum/article form.
I’d have a comprehensive set of online tools that allowed campaign
and character tracking, as well as tools that let DMs simulate
encounters between sets of monsters and their PCs. I’d offer
super-fancy character sheet printing from the character creator (both
to your local PC and to your nearest FedEx Kinko’s, or like
leatherbound and mailed to you). I’d offer campaign blogging. Also
tools for locating a group, highlighting groups playing one of the
mainline campaigns.
I’d set up a place in the online community for individual DMs, or
groups of DMs to freely collaborate in building their own worlds,
campaigns, and game extensions. I’d add a ratings system so that the
best of these things could be highly rated, and then hire the best of
these people for the mainline campaigns.
I’d allow these homegrown campaigns to assemble their own lists of
minis, upload their own maps, etc. so that people could subscribe to
them in the same way they did the mainline campaigns.
I’d publish a 20-30 entry monster book every quarter, along with a
minis set that matched it. You could buy either one separately, or both
together. The minis alone would have stat cards to cover the game stats
of the creature, the book would have more background material on each
encounter ideas, ecology, etc., in addition to the stats.
I’d also then sell singles of every mini directly from my website,
with prices based on how expensive the mini was to make. I would
provide the most popular singles in blister-packs for sale at
traditional retailers.
I’d take the best of the game extensions (feats, classes, etc.)
from the mainline campaigns and the online environment and publish a
“best of” book twice a year.
I’d produce free online videos on how to play, and actively work to
incorporate positively-spun gaming experiences as product placement
into mainstream media.
I’d scrap the existing RPGA entirely, and merge it with the online
membership. If you are geeky enough to play D&D and you aren’t
online and least once a week, (@&* you.
I’d scrap all the Living Greyhawk/Living X stuff, and replace it with organized play of the mainline campaigns.
For your mid-sized 5-weight rod, they usually come in 8’6″, and 9′ lengths. Since I mostly fish little spring creeks, I probably could have gone with the 8’6″ rod. Maybe it’s the man in me, but I wanted the flexibility to fish a larger river (like the Colorado), so I went with the 9′. To be honest, I’d pick what was on sale or available.