Acquisitions Incorporated

• 1. Introduction

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  Acquisitions Incorporated is a sourcebook that asks Dungeons & Dragons players to run their adventuring party like a company. It was written for the 5th edition of the fantasy role-playing game. Its humor comes from satire and the office jokes that the original series made famous, and the book uses that humor as an introduction to the game itself. So how did a comedy actual play series end up as an official rulebook? And what does a franchise have to do with exploring dungeons?

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• 2. Podcast Origins

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  In 2008, the creators of Penny Arcade partnered with Wizards of the Coast on a podcast. The show was an actual play series, which means listeners hear real players working through a game. It covered a few adventures for 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, and audiences received it well.

  In 2010, the players moved from audio to livestreaming, with their games starting at the PAX festival. That stage gave the series a live audience. Two years later, in 2012, the group changed game systems and adopted 5th Edition. They also picked the Forgotten Realms as their new campaign setting.

  Over the years the series became one of the longest-running actual play series in the hobby. By 2019 it had produced enough characters and running jokes to fill a book. The route to that book began with a very different plan from the one that shipped.

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• 3. An Unusual Partnership

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  Penny Arcade first approached Wizards of the Coast about crowdfunding the sourcebook. After discussions, Wizards of the Coast proposed something bigger, which was publishing it as an official sourcebook. The company released it on the 18th of June 2019.

  The release broke with recent habits. It was described as the first partnership with an outside design team since 2015. It was also the first time in 5th Edition that third-party intellectual property became part of Wizards of the Coast canon.

  Jeremy Crawford, the lead rules designer for Dungeons & Dragons, also served as a Dungeon Master in the series. He said Wizards stepped back and let Penny Arcade steer. Wizards offered advice here and there, mostly on game design, and left the storytelling to its new partners.

  The art followed the same split. Syfy Wire noted that the team did not blend the two styles. Wizards artists painted the larger pieces in a high fantasy style, while the smaller illustrations echoed the look of the Penny Arcade comics. The reviewer said that, browsing the pages, "it feels like a standard D&D book in many ways."

  The real test of the partnership was the new rules, which turned players into employees.

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• 4. Company Positions

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  Christian Hoffer of ComicBook.com saw the Company Positions system as the book's clearest idea. It takes familiar player roles, such as the item hoarder or the strategist, and gives each one a formal job. Players earn extra abilities for behavior they already show at the table, so their jobs become easier to do.

  Around that system sit practical faction rules. They let a group found a new Acquisitions Incorporated franchise and then grow it inside any home game. Hoffer wrote that the book has a decidedly different tone and feel than other D&D publications, with humorous commentary balanced against the rules.

  Richard Jansen-Parkes of the UK print magazine Tabletop Gaming took a more measured view. He did not think the player options broke new ground, but he called them "damned fun" and said they could be genuinely funny. The strong sense of absurdity, he added, runs through the lengthy campaign that fills much of the page count.

  That campaign is also where the book keeps its promise to newcomers.

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• 5. The Beginner Adventure

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  The Orrery of the Wanderer is the adventure that Gavin Sheehan of Bleeding Cool singled out for praise. The book includes it as an adventure for beginner players. Sheehan still marked it down for leaving out certain characters from the series and a location map.

  Jansen-Parkes found more under the surface. Behind what he called a "silly façade" sits a story that is well written and well structured. He warned that it is heavily scripted at the very beginning. Playing a franchise also means the party is rarely in total control of its goals. Even so, he saw plenty of ways for players to forge creative paths through the melee.

  Hoffer called the adventure "fun" but said the lore and corporate humor of the series are a requirement for enjoying it. In his view it is short enough to give players a taste of that world. It does not demand a full multi-year commitment to building a franchise.

  Those reviews were only part of how the book was judged.

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• 6. Reception

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  In the Publishers Weekly list of best-selling books for the week ending the 1st of July 2019, Acquisitions Incorporated ranked number 13 in Hardcover Nonfiction. The list recorded 5,870 units sold.

  Sheehan wrote that the book is filled with humor and summarizes the series well. He also said it offers an enjoyable alternative to serious play.

  Jansen-Parkes split his advice by audience. He called the sourcebook a "wonderful supplement" for existing fans of Acquisitions Incorporated. For readers who do not follow the series but want some "absurd comedy" in their games, he said it was "still worth checking out."

  The physical hardcover was not the only way to own it.

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• 7. Digital Editions

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  Acquisitions Incorporated also appeared as a digital product through three Wizards of the Coast licensees. Those were D&D Beyond, Fantasy Grounds, and Roll20. Each gave players a way to use the book without a printed copy.

  In May 2022, Wizards of the Coast gave registered D&D Beyond users the digital edition of Acquisitions Incorporated. The gift marked the company's own later acquisition of D&D Beyond, a corporate purchase that echoed the book's favorite joke.

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