Mearls is the new manager of D&D

Congratulations on the promotion. You're doing a good job with D&D so far, looking forward to seeing where you go with it next!

Congrats!

First of all, congratulations on the position, and best of luck steering your vessel through the 'Skylla and Charybdis' that are upper management and the fanbase respectively.

mearls said:

I'm acutely aware of the pressure of the position, the expectations, and the current atmosphere among D&D fans.

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I'd be grateful if you could elaborate on that!

weem said:

Grats Mr. Mearls.

I would be interested to know what you see are some of the immediate changes that need to occur that you can only institute now, after having earned this position.

Not that I have a list of things that need changing (and if I did, they would quite possibly be different than yours anyway) but I would imagine that you, like others who advance to a new position, have seen things you want to get working on right away. Whether they are things you have been against and now have the power to change, or things that you felt should have been done/instituted that never were (for whatever reason).

Anyway, you are on vacation and as you said this is not the best place for questions - I guess I am thinking out loud here - maybe a blog post about your immediate as well as long term goals/plans would be cool. I know I would be VERY interested.

Have fun on your vacation, and grats again to you

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I'd love to know what Mike thinks of the old V-shaped classes and how he and his crew intend to present them in the new D&D essentials line.

In general, yeah, I'd like to know what Mike thinks are 4e's weaker points and how he'd like to address them. That would be an amazing podcast to listen to.

Congratulations on your new position, Mike!

ppaladin123 said:

I'd love to know what Mike thinks of the old V-shaped classes and how he and his crew intend to present them in the new D&D essentials line.

In general, yeah, I'd like to know what Mike thinks are 4e's weaker points and how he'd like to address them. That would be an amazing podcast to listen to.

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Yes, that would be extremely fascinating. In general, I'd love to get a lot more "designer's notes". For instance, some time ago, an article was mentioned about the expertise feats, but it never materialized. Stuff like that would be very interesting to read, at least for me...

First of all, congratulations on the promotion - I hope you have it for a long time. That said, two opinions:

mearls said:

It's easy for me to look at this as the chance for me to make D&D into the game I always wanted it to be, but that would be disingenuous. It'd be the height of vanity, a monument to arrogance. D&D can't be a game that caters to a single person. It's bigger than that. It lives and dies by the collected spirit of every person that's ever picked up a d20, put pencil to graph paper, or leaned close to the table as the last character standing, clutching his last hit point, rolled his attack against the BBEG.

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It's a wise thought, but don't forget that "making it your own" has the benefit of creative direction and preserving inspiration in the face of "death by committee", too. Stan Lee used to say of his creation of such Marvel greats as The Fantastic Four and Spider-man, that he created them right as he was about to quit Marvel/Timely, and the comic biz, and said, "to hell with it, I'm gonna make comics that I want to see for a change," -- and to everyone's surprise, they ultimately triggered the "Marvel Age", if not the entire Silver Age Revolution in comics.

Granted, he also credits where credit is due, with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko for bringing the characters to life on the page, for basically "writing the story" in pictures and adding their talents to it.

I've heard this same thing time and again, from other success stories; they were successes because they weren't afraid to "make it what THEY wanted", because they were fans, too, dammit.

As you said, no one does it alone, but don't be afraid to go ****ing crazy, because sometimes that's where genius lies, and disaster lies in mediocrity.

mearls said:

This is also a new position in the department. I'm taking on a lot of Bill Slavicsek's responsibilities. Bill's responsibilities have broadened to include more things like boardgames, novels, Heroscape, and so on. There's a lot more to D&D than just the RPG. The RPG is my corner to play in, while Bill looks over the entirety of D&D.

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I just wanted to bring this out, because some of the responses seem to follow the "mearls as designer/developer" train of thought. It sounds like you're focused on the direction of the whole RPG line.

In looking back, I think that my job is fairly simple. I want people to love D&D. I want people to feel like the game is in good hands, that the hand at the tiller is confident, smart, and genuinely interested in the good of the game.

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One of the biggest things that I believe would help bring the proselytizers and ministers back into the fold I really doubt you could do anything with -- making a less restrictive GSL. I feel like it's one of the biggest issues that drove a bigger wedge into the fan base that I've seen in fifteen years, easy, and to use an image it's almost like a religious movement whose most prominent evangelists just up and left because the high priest reorganized the whole thing to make all the evangelists send the new converts straight to him instead of doing their own thing. The momentum is there, the movement is still doing good works, but a huge chunk of the grass-roots proselytizers are all gone because the "grass-roots" is no longer there. Even then, I don't know if it would be enough to heal the wedge. D&D they feel is no longer their own game, but at least with an outlet like the OGL they could make it what they wanted it to be, same as they did with 3E.

Anyway, as I said, I wish you all the best, and don't forget to go ****ing crazy.

mearls said:

Way back in the misty days of the 1980s, when I first discovered D&D, I thought Gary Gygax, Tom Moldvay, Doug Niles, Tracy Hickman, and the entire TSR crew were demigods. I loved poring over Dragon magazine, reading through adventures like Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun again and again, and studying the DMG. I devoured the Dragonlance novels. I fought battles across our basement floor with legions of BattleSystem counters. I filled the few, precious pieces of graph paper I had with dungeons. I designed classes and monsters. I loved D&D.

Then, something happened. TSR dropped Gary. Greyhawk was pushed aside. When 2e came out, I was torn. There were plenty of things to like about the game, but the attitude around it was off. It almost seemed like the people behind D&D didn't particularly care for the way I loved D&D. Maybe I was completely irrational, but the game felt changed in some insidious way.

As time went on, that feeling only increased. There were bright spots, most notably Dungeon magazine, but a lot of the stuff TSR put out didn't really speak to why I fell in love with D&D in the first place. I wanted to love D&D, but it wasn't really clear that the company behind D&D wanted to return that love.

I actually stopped playing D&D for a few years. I ran a grand total of one (terrible) campaign in college. I wasn't really sure that D&D was something I'd be involved with anymore. I bought a PS 1 and started playing lots of console games. I ended up sticking with RPGs, but I kept to games like Deadlands and Unknown Armies.

It's easy for me to look at this as the chance for me to make D&D into the game I always wanted it to be, but that would be disingenuous. It'd be the height of vanity, a monument to arrogance. D&D can't be a game that caters to a single person. It's bigger than that. It lives and dies by the collected spirit of every person that's ever picked up a d20, put pencil to graph paper, or leaned close to the table as the last character standing, clutching his last hit point, rolled his attack against the BBEG.

What I can do, though, is watch, listen, and learn. I can put everything I have into D&D and hope for the best. At the end of the day, you guys get to judge whether I'm doing a good or screwing up by buying or avoiding the products I help make. That gets back to the election thing. You guys didn't put me into office, but you sure as Hell get the chance to kick me out.

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Seriously, I have to spread XP around before giving it mearls again.

I'll make this short and sweet then let you get back to the congrats. Your first few paragraphs that I quoted above express very clearly how I feel about this new edition. You clearly understand why there are problems in our community. Like in your past, I have not been a paying WOTC customer for years and did try one (terrible) campaign in 4e. The only difference is that my money didn't go towards video games, but stayed in the hobby--as I suspect is the case with many others. You understand this. Your acknowledgment of this situation leads me to believe that you can have a positive impact on D&D and for that I wish you the best of luck.

To the above posters that have a problem with backhanded stabs while congratulating mearls on his promotion. Some people do not like this edition but still can wish mearls well in his new position. Last time I checked this board still allowed open discussion and I don't think anybody is served if this thread remains only a love fest for mearls. Granted I hope it doesn't turn into a jerk fest. This line couldn't be more literal: Hate the game not the players.

Again mearls, congrats and best of luck.

mearls said:

Then something pretty cool happened. In 1999, at my very first GenCon, I sat in the audience as Ryan Dancey announced 3rd edition. It was like a religious revival. One presentation and free t-shirt later, and I was a complete convert. My friend Nate called it a money grab, an appeal to munchkins. I think my exact response was, "**** you dude. This is the best thing that's ever happened to D&D."

For whatever reason, the entire presentation of 3e's announcement felt like it had been directed straight at me. I was a complete D&D goob again. Hallelujah, praise Gygax, my faith was restored.

A year later, my faith had been well-placed. 3e was awesome. D&D felt like the game I always had wanted it to be.

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Congragulations on the New Job and good luck with it.

Let me start by being uprfront and saying I haven't bought a single WotC book since 4e came out except for some of the kids books for my daughters and a star wars saga book for one of my sons. I am not a wotc hater, its just there are no books being released that appeal to me because 4e lost me when they ditched the OGL, threw over the 3pps (and coincidentally released a rules system that I was pretty meh about.)

That being said, your post resonates with me because, while I wasn't at Gencon, how you felt when 3e came out was exactly how I felt and while the strength of the feeling waned with time as all emotions do, it never died.

I would very much like to see you revive that same feeling with your handling of DnD. But I think the secret is, it won't be done with rules. And it won't be done with super great campaign settings; because the truth of the matter is great campaign settings are easy to make and good rules are already out there. It will be accomplished byyou when you can demonstrate, with actions not words, a love of the game that goes beyond editions and the need to sell the next "cool book;" a desire to bring others, not into your particular game, but into the hobby as a whole. Dancy demonstrated that love and that desire with the OGL and that more than just the fantastic rules Monte and the others put together, is what made 3e great. And its part of what, in my opinion, makes Paizo great. I believe they are gamers first and salesmen second and I respect them for that.

However, if you can, in your current position, bring the monolith that is WotC back into a position of actively supporting the hobby and not just the ruleset, then kudos to you and I wish you the best of luck.

@Mearls Let me add too that if you want to generate a lot of instant good will on the part of even those of us who don't play 4e and don't really want to: release the older WotC material in some way where we can access it again. Its a crying shame that WotC has all this wonderful stuff in their vaults and they refuse to share it anymore because its not 4e. Whether as republished "classic" books, PDFs, or some new ebook form, I don't care but release it and watch the love blossom on our part.

Jasperak said:

Some people do not like this edition but still can wish mearls well in his new position. Last time I checked this board still allowed open discussion and I don't think anybody is served if this thread remains only a love fest for mearls.

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It's like showing up to a baby shower and saying "This food you made is awful and this house is ugly, but congrats on the newborn!" You have the right to say it, but it's just rude. There are things like decorum. Just because you can say something doesn't mean you should, or at least that it's appropriate time and place to say it.

Any other thread can be used as a place to complain about the current edition and make your opinions heard, but the one thread being positive about someone's promotion, folks can't hold their tongue long enough to say "Hey good for you" without being negative in the same breath.

God knows there's no "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" rule on the internet. And it's not a requirement for ENworld either. But sometimes it should be exercised, and "there's no rule against not saying nice" isn't a retort to someone pointing out decorum. There shouldn't need to be a rule, people should be able to show some kind of restraint.

"You don't talk about politics or religion in polite conversation" is a maxim of general etiquette. I'd add "Edition Opinions" to this list; this thread is polite conversation, and that's just dragging in unnecessary baggage for the sake of dragging it in.

I've all ready spent too much time derailing this thread by pointing this out and dirtying it up with negativity. This is the last I'll say on the topic. But come on, people. Is there no where we can look past which edition camp we're at and just treat one another like human beings who share a certain hobby?