d20 Hatred near you?

On the bulletin board I've been on the past 9+ years (blatant plug:ISCABBS, worlds largest text only BBS http://www.iscabbs.com or telnet://bbs.isca.uiowa.edu) in the RPG forum I constantly see people bitching about d20, saying things like:

"Call of Ctulhu>The 6th edition (non-D20) will be shipping April 9. It most certainly is not out-of-print! And thank God for that. CoC deserves better than to be reduced to D20."

which makes me say things like:
"Man people freak against d20 like they're old people and d20 is on their lawn."


I mean do you guys experience the huge d20 hatred that seems to be out there? Waiting to attack? Seems more than a bit ridiculous. Very few companies out there abandon their original systems when they port over to d20, heck some (like CoC) dual stat. Best of both worlds.

Opinions?

Hagen

"Man people freak against d20 like they're old people and d20 is on their lawn."

Click to expand...

Heh. Classic.

It seems like the D20 hatred is a small vocal minority....usually frequenting message boards.....

SSquirrel said:

On the bulletin board I've been on the past 9+ years (blatant plug:ISCABBS, worlds largest text only BBS http://www.iscabbs.com or telnet://bbs.isca.uiowa.edu) in the RPG forum I constantly see people bitching about d20, saying things like:

"Call of Ctulhu>The 6th edition (non-D20) will be shipping April 9. It most certainly is not out-of-print! And thank God for that. CoC deserves better than to be reduced to D20."

which makes me say things like:
"Man people freak against d20 like they're old people and d20 is on their lawn."


I mean do you guys experience the huge d20 hatred that seems to be out there? Waiting to attack? Seems more than a bit ridiculous. Very few companies out there abandon their original systems when they port over to d20, heck some (like CoC) dual stat. Best of both worlds.

Opinions?

Hagen

Click to expand...

My hate of d02 know no limit.

Read this thread, but make sure you aren't drinking anything while you do.

Yeah, I ran a game at my FLGS and a woman asked me what it was -- I said, "Pirates and undead horrors and TALKING MONKEYS!" She said, "Is it d20?" And I said, "Yup!" And she said, "Oh. No, thank you."

You can't please everyone, I guess. Not even with TALKING MONKEYS. Weird.

Should have said "No, it's d30-10, reroll modified scores under 1"

Teh Funney !

You will always find a hater for everything. Human nature.

Just go "feh" and move on.

I could categorize the haters of the d20 System within the gaming world into four categories:

1. Fans of a specific game, who only know how to play, or strongly prefer that game. They get offended when someone suggests they replace a system they know better than anything else with another system, especially one which is significantly different. This was aggravated by some really cruddy d20 conversions of existing games (like d20 Dead Lands). Sometimes they think that their system allows for "real roleplaying" and that d20 is a childish, combat oriented system that makes it impossible to "tell a story".

2. People who hate level-based systems. They typically refused to play *D&D *E (or if they did, they did so under protest and complaining loudly the whole way). They typically expoused the merits of White Wolf's Storyteller System, GURPS, or HERO System. Sometimes they didn't understand why people didn't drop their existing games and move to *their* system of choice. Even with a flexible levelling system that makes levels just packages of skills, they complain anything that isn't a pure "point buy" type system is just too constricting for them.

3. People who didn't have anything against d20, per se. They objected to the d20 "mentality" they saw. They complain that d20 is just a bunch of fanboys who insist that all games must be d20, all existing settings must convert to d20, and that they will only play d20 games and only talk about d20 games. I've actually seen these fanboys, they aren't common, but they are loud, and they are walking anti-diplomats for d20. They ignore the system and hate it because of a very bad impression.

4. People who were big fans of 1E or 2E, and saw 3E as a "dumbed down" version of AD&D, with simplified rules, elimination of "important" aspects such as THAC0 or saw the reduction of saving throw categories to 3 as a crime. A few such purists I've seen don't want to touch the d20 System, because they think it's too. In my experience, these sorts of d20 Haters typically prefer AD&D 1E/2E, Rolemaster, or Palladium for their gaming needs.

5. Because it's popular. No kidding, but I've met a few people who look down on D20 for that very reason, it's not cooool or exclusive enough for them... But they're also like that about music, films, bars, etc, etc.

Very, very silly people.


Where is my 'hat of D02'? I've hung it up somewhere and can't find it.

At the same time I think there are a number of people who are 'non-d20' haters. These are the people who have been so swept up in the d20 system that they refuse to play anything other than that at this point.

I like d20. I like it a lot. It is good for the industry where you can learn one system and have a pretty good idea that you have learned numerous systems but it does bother me that lots of systems are moving towards d20 (yes, I know its for the money - I don't blame them) but part of me thinks it has stiffled some creativity as people are forcing their systems into a d20 mold when they could use a system that could better fit their game.

6. People who think that a system which is obviously tailored for a very specific kind of gaming experience should not be presented as a universal gaming system.

I certainly can sympathize with that point of view.