Recent content by Desdichado

You've always been an optimizer and you don't think optimization is the problem. Well, of course not.

Not really. Not at all, actually. It's not any problem at all. You're just not getting it. I'm saying exactly that; that what you're calling bad behavior isn't universally seen as bad, and what you're calling perfectly fine behavior isn't universally considered perfectly fine. You're so close...

Yeah, well, that's certainly at play here too, no doubt.

Like I said, it's a question of degree. I can work with the former, although I'd honestly prefer not to, because they're doing the same thing as the latter, just with admittedly more restraint. No it doesn't. I guarantee you that I've played with many more "optimizers" who insist that their...

What they says that? Some they who likes being wrong! :p I've long ago realized that one of the key elements of having a really great (as opposed to merely adequate) gaming experience is being more or less on the same page with your group about what the game is like. Playstyle really matters...

And that classic meme doesn't have optimizers as a separate category. Sure, sure... if you want to be... again, pedantic and nitpicky, then you can say that optimizer doesn't have the same stigma as munchkin, and that maybe there's a line somewhere on the spectrum between the two where you stop...

I'm sorry, but of course it is. If I don't like optimizers because they mess up the game (vs my expectations and hopes for the game, anyway) then of course I'm going to decry them. Why wouldn't I? I don't like the way they play, I don't prioritize the things that they enjoy, or even enjoy those...

I very much doubt that. That doesn't seem to be Amazon Studio's MO at all. And Villeneuve doesn't pull that much weight; the Bond franchise is a big deal with a lot of people having a lot of opinions on what its supposed to be. I doubt he'll even have carte blanche in who to cast, since whomever...

D&D variants are games that vary from the rules (of some official edition) of D&D, and can be used in place of it. On the tight side, I'd even suggest that some D&D settings are best described as D&D variants rather than D&D per se, because they feel too different from D&D as we know it. Dark...

The OSR is, essentially, three big patterns on a scatterplot that kinda overlap sometimes, but are clearly recognized as different clusters: 1) those who believe that the OSR is based on recreating old rules, or at least creating similar rules to old D&D. This movement is centered on...

While I don't exactly use it a lot, my favorite one to read is Fiendish Codex 1: Hordes of the Abyss from late in the 3e cycle. It's just a wonderful, wonderful monster/cosmology book with a great Lovecraftian vibe that I can't get enough of. Other than that, I think I most enjoyed some setting...

What does that mean that he did, though? I'm trying to understand what this means for the brand and for the game.

Not to be that guy, but does anyone know what exactly Todd Kenrick did other than that interview series of YouTube videos? What exactly was his role with D&D, and what exactly did he do?

I kinda feel like this too. I have a great copy of a POD B/X that I made from the PDFs I bought years ago from Lulu. I also have a POD of Basic Fantasy, and pdfs of Labyrinth Lord. That's already several more versions of the same game than I need. I like B/X as much as the next guy (unless the...

As a player? No, not at all. As a homebrewer? Not very much. As a reader? Sometimes, if it matters to a book I'm reading. Mostly not, though. It has it's place. It's not usually a super important place, though.