Doom wrote:
This isn't going to happen. It's all about control of the IP, and anything less than a stranglehold is unacceptible. A friend of mine wrote a few D&D novels, and the rules he had to write under made it essentially impossible to do anything but churn out pablum. The specs were something along the lines of no children, no blood, very limited violence, must model something specific to game rules at least 1/chapter, no new characters other than the one specifically permitted by the contract, must include certain established characters, established characters must perform to established guidelines (subject to approval), established characters cannot be given any new traits...it just went on and on.
How much rope would D&D fiction writers need in order to produce quality work while still reinforcing the brand? It's the responsibility of the initial writers to produce a campaign setting with adventures worth writing in. So that's 'taken' care of.
But I can sort of see where they're coming from about trying to stifle character development. Now while it would be really fuckawesome if Drizz't traded in his panther and swords for a flaming battleaxe and a combination golem/chariot, the fact is that it creates confusion between other writers for what's going on.
But that's okay. Comic books do it all of the time. You just need some coordination between the authors and someone to ensure that things don't get out of hand. I think it's perfectly okay if Wulfgar decides to pick up some arcane magic and become a Rage Mage, but it's not okay if Wulfgar suddenly loses all of his magic in the next novel because the follow-up author didn't get the memo. You probably also want to prevent Wulfgar from becoming an Archmage, too.
But like I said earlier, the D&D campaign setting is the loss-leader and the novels are your moneymaker. While protecting the brand via novels will retroactively strengthen both the TTRPG and associated properties (such as RPGs), if there a conflict between what's good for a TTRPG and what's good for the novel/comic/video game... the adaptation should get priority.