Eric Noah's Info

[Festivus]

Me too.

Can someone point me to info on who does what at Paizo now? There were some position shifts fairly recently, right, up to and including Erik Mona's role at the company?

http://paizo.com/paizo/news/v5748eaic9k91

James Jacobs - Dungeon Magazine Editor in Chief
Erik Mona - Dragon Magazine Editor in Chief / Paizo Publishing Publisher (big cheese I presume)

 

[Henry]

Can someone dig up the Ryan Dancey quote about "yesterday's customers" not factoring into tomorrow's plans? I think it fits here. 4E may not be "for us" -- it may be for those who don't already play, or gamers yet to be.

I can understand it, but part of me wonders whether D&D would have such a devoted fanbase as it did, had it alienated most of its previous fans back in the 1970's or early 1980's. I think that by its nature it never WILL be a rabid success, and if it's changed TOO much, it will lose its rabid proselytizers, and STILL not be a major hit. Having contributed to the success of D&D minis (to the tune of about 30 boxes of minis by myself) I've played the minis game only ONCE, and didn't like it. It may well be the ONLY game I repeatedly buy, but don't play.

 

[JohnRTroy]

My biggest concern about the future of the D&D game is this.

3e was designed by people who cared a lot, and who had enough of the traditional "old school" thought. Monte Cook worked on 2e products, Skip Williams was there from 1e, and Jonathan Tweet was the new "young turk". Together, they revamped a system but kept a lot of the old flavor in. And at that time, Wizards had just purchased TSR and there was still a TSR culture.

But as the game has progressed, it's changed thanks to the influence of WoTC R&D, etc. While this isn't a bad thing per se, you'll note that the rules took into account more miniatures, squares for instance, and there are elements I see that are designed to remove the dependency on the DM. When 3e first game out, I was glad they made people feel less "guilty" about "min-maxing" or power gaming. All styles of play are valid. But it seems that there is no longer as much emphasis on the story or background.

And note the loss of the "TSR" culture. What big names are left at the company? Most formed their own d20 labels which have suffered a lot--or completely retired or moved on to CRPGs. I think Monte had the best success but now he's retiring. I feel there's a loss of direction there and there's no one to keep some of the magic that made D&D DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS.

What I think might happen:

4e comes out as expected. Emphasis is on combat and minitures, the DM's role is reduced. Things like death, etc, are reduced in a way similar to Mike Mearls columns. This may happen in 2008. The game will not be OGL, no SRD will be produced. It will still be compatible but the company will emphasize minis because that's a lot harder to copy and post on the Internet.

The game gets short term new fans. Older fans dislike the changes.

The game has a disapora of players who follow various systems. Sadly, because of the OGL, this may allow the game to survive, but it will become factionalized. Some publishers will attempt to do a 3e compatible OGL game, but the competition and lack of Wizard's industry power will likely prevent any one from coming too powerful.

RPGs might not be spun-off--at best I could see somebody spinning off a Forgotten Realms RPG project or sell the Novel division.

Hasbro will NEVER give up the D&D Trademark.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Why don't other games follow the "revise, reset, resell" model? Like chess, poker, baseball, etc.? Wouldn't companies that make those products be better off revising the rules and selling new products to all the players every few years? Or is there an advantage to grognards always being able to teach the game to newbies, fathers-to-sons, etc.?

Who owns chess, poker, baseball, etc...?

I live in Chicago. Bleacher seats for the Cubs at something like $30 bones.

Chess? Well, it's not quite the same type of game, but I've owned about ten different sets based on where I was living, free space, quality of the pieces, etc... Chess, and Monopoly, and to a lesser extend Risk, are games that are continusouly being updated, but their changes are visual no?

And poker? Man, how many variants do we need? How many different styles of cards? How many different styles of chips? How many different options or buy ins or gaming guides?

 

[Vigilance]

I can understand it, but part of me wonders whether D&D would have such a devoted fanbase as it did, had it alienated most of its previous fans back in the 1970's or early 1980's. I think that by its nature it never WILL be a rabid success, and if it's changed TOO much, it will lose its rabid proselytizers, and STILL not be a major hit. Having contributed to the success of D&D minis (to the tune of about 30 boxes of minis by myself) I've played the minis game only ONCE, and didn't like it. It may well be the ONLY game I repeatedly buy, but don't play.

Well, as I said above to the person who was buying books he wasn't using, I'm fairly certain Hasbro doesn't care whether or not you play the minis game as long as you buy the minis early and often

As for alienating old fans, I don't see it happening. I've been through this 4 times already and have heard people claim "never again!" only to see them slink (quickly mind you) to the counter opening day to buy it as soon as possible.

And the ones who stick to their guns are eventually swayed by the social network aspects of the game. If the GM wants to run 4e, chances are his buddies will buy a PHB just to get their game on.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I just hope that when I order my first case of 4E feat cards that I can get a Weapon Finesse card. It would suck if that was a rare chase card that I had to buy 2 more cases of to be certain I would get it.

I keep seeing blatently stupid stuff like this, stat scratch cards... come on guys, use your heads. You cant HONESTLY think crap like this would fly.

 

[Vigilance]

I keep seeing blatently stupid stuff like this, stat scratch cards... come on guys, use your heads. You cant HONESTLY think crap like this would fly.

What about boxes of randomized minis, with little cards of monster stats, including variant and rare monsters (like Heroclixes different more powerful Wolverines) for popular monsters like Dragons or Beholders.

 

[Festivus]

I keep seeing blatently stupid stuff like this, stat scratch cards... come on guys, use your heads. You cant HONESTLY think crap like this would fly.

I don't think it's all that stupid, and I do think it could fly. Please don't drag this down into a icky name calling event or insult my intelligence, and I won't insult yours.

I think if anything it would help bring people into the game by simplifying things greatly and also provide a revenue stream. It's something I have always complained about with 3E, there are way too many feats/spells/rule options in way too many different books to be economically feasable and unintimidating to the new player. If on the other hand you say, yeah you can play, go buy a starter pack of feat cards that have the rules printed right on them.... easier, cheaper, more fun time rather than book time. Yep, I think it could fly.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I keep seeing blatently stupid stuff like this, stat scratch cards... come on guys, use your heads. You cant HONESTLY think crap like this would fly.

I never thought people would spend hundreds or thousands of dollars buying poorly sculpted and painted plastic minis that were randomly packed and cost fractions of a penny to produce, either. Especially after the aborted Chainmail game. <shrug>

There is an extraordinary amount of information we don't have. The one thing we know for sure, though, is that WotC is the house that 'collectible' built.

 

[Henry]

If the GM wants to run 4e, chances are his buddies will buy a PHB just to get their game on.

Assuming there's a book to buy anymore...