DND Essentials: The Shelly Mazzanoble Edition

[Charwoman Gene]

Well, well well... it looks like we've found the culprit behind Essentials...

My Interview with, the Player-In-Chief, Shelly Mazzanoble Pt. 1 | Dice Monkey

It's all clear now...

 

[FireLance]

Nah, she only claimed responsibility for making magic missile auto-hit (in fact, she had already said it earlier, in her Dragon magazine column). That's technically an update, not Essentials.

 

[WanderingMonster]

I'm going to go ahead and come to Shelly's defense here, only because I'm inferring from the OP that Shelly's influence on D&D has been bad. My apologies if I am wrong.

I have seen Shelly's influence as putting a more accessible face on the D&D brand. She's doing her job. From my point of view, D&D is enjoying a surge in popularity among people who have never played it before and lapsed gamers.

D&D Essentials may bring more of the same, if we're lucky.

More gamers = more chances for me to play D&D. If Shelly is responsible, I'm gonna invite her out for mani-pedi and a cosmopolitan.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

This should have been tagged as humor, so understand I'm not criticizing anyone or anything.

I do not like Ms. Mazzanoble's writing or presence intruding on podcasts and other materials. She is like nails on a chalkboard to me, I just find her really annoying. But this thread isn't about why I dislike her, which is just my opinion of direct exposure to her. I'm not looking to debate her influence on D&D. It was just a little joke.


I bet she doesn't even like bacon.

 

[WanderingMonster]

This should have been tagged as humor, so understand I'm not criticizing anyone or anything.

I do not like Ms. Mazzanoble's writing or presence intruding on podcasts and other materials. She is like nails on a chalkboard to me, I just find her really annoying. But this thread isn't about why I dislike her, which is just my opinion of direct exposure to her. I'm not looking to debate her influence on D&D. It was just a little joke.


I bet she doesn't even like bacon.

Well, that's fine. We all have our preferences. Personally I can't stand Phil Collins or Nick Cage.

In the context of your original post, I didn't think it was fair to correlate your dislike of the Essentials line with your dislike of Shelly's writing and interviews. I understand now that it was a comment made partly in jest. I know you're not blaming her for the downfall of D&D (at least not publicly), so I'll leave it at that! Cheers!

And for the record, I don't trust anyone who doesn't like bacon either.

 

[im_robertb]

Anyone remember that ridiculously OP warlock bear familiar she had in one of her Dragon articles a while back? Came within an inch of causing major headaches for the RPGA. The decision ended up being that since the statblock lacked the familiar keyword, it could not actually be chosen as a familiar.

 

[LuckyAdrastus]

I really don't think we should be having a thread for picking on a specific person. Especially someone who isn't a game designer.

Ms. Mazzanoble is more active in the flavor area, and more specifically, in bringing new players (including more female players) into the fold. She isn't a number-crunching game designer and shouldn't be criticized as such.

 

[Aegeri]

Anyone remember that ridiculously OP warlock bear familiar she had in one of her Dragon articles a while back? Came within an inch of causing major headaches for the RPGA. The decision ended up being that since the statblock lacked the familiar keyword, it could not actually be chosen as a familiar.

That was actually really funny at the time, because if it had been compiled correctly by RAW it would have been allowable.

Ah RAW, how you create the most hilarious things.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Ms. Mazzanoble is more active in the flavor area

Well, now, that is the problem though. Shelly Mazzanoble's idea of "flavor" is a Minotaur named kevin and a familiar of a dancing bear. That's flavor that makes her the type of D&D person I want to take their books and dice and ban them forever. I've met lots of other players like that, some of whom are as rpg gear head as they come.

I should fork this if I want to go into the "flavor hierarchy" though. Kevin the minotaur, Jim Darkmagic, Xagyg, Rustlin and Druzzt, ar all flavor variants, there is a lot there.

Shelly, best of luck to you, sorry I cringe when I hear you or see your name, it's just personal preference!

 

[ourchair]

I really don't think we should be having a thread for picking on a specific person. Especially someone who isn't a game designer.

Ms. Mazzanoble is more active in the flavor area, and more specifically, in bringing new players (including more female players) into the fold. She isn't a number-crunching game designer and shouldn't be criticized as such.

I agree.

I actually dislike 80% of Mazzanoble's columns thus far, but degustibus non disputandem. One thing I appreciate about her is that she doesn't take D&D too seriously.

Sure, "Kevin the Minotaur" and all her other wacky 'disbelief-breaking' nonsense turns certain kinds of gamers off, but it's the kind of attitude I can point to and say, see, "Not everyone who plays D&D is an overtly self-serious lore-obsessed humorless basement dwelling troglodyte," and not have to fall on her gender to say that.