The edition wars have hit a new low

[Neonchameleon]

With a quite literal book burning party.

 

[Dungeoneer]

With a quite literal book burning party.

Looks like someone just burned a couple hundred dollars in books.

So... guess they really showed 'em, huh?

 

[TwoSix]

How embarrassing. Attaching that much emotional baggage to a D&D edition is pitiable.

 

[MoonSong]

I can't watch it right now, care to spare some details?

 

[Manbearcat]

There were heartfelt testimonials from several people. Mine were fairly innocuous and rang through on themes from my reviews: the triumph of The Technocracy over The Traditions, turning an imaginative dream in to mechanistic drudgery. Others were not so kind, and I was a bit surprised at the venom. The splitting of groups, the loss of friendships, the breakup of games and drifting apart of old friends. Forcing people in to Not-D&D in order to play. I guess it's not all that surprising; RPG's are best when they are social games, shared among friends, and combined with the awkwardness that can make social interactions difficult, it's no wonder that there were such strong feelings ... about an elf game.

Seems reasonable.

Look, when the very soul of D&D is at stake, sometimes you can only (b)turn the page by breaking out the lamp oil and the flint and steel.

 

[SkidAce]

Personally I don't get it.

Donate the books to a kids club or library or something.

but thats just me...

 

[I'm A Banana]

Ladies and gentlemen, the dark side of brand loyalty.



Makes me sad as a lover of books and as a lover of D&D and as someone who really respects a lot of what 4e was trying hard to accomplish. I mean, even if you hate the game, this is kind of a really brutal thing to do. Not to mention that in order to burn these, they'd had to have bought them to begin with and why the heck is someone so angry at 4e going to buy all those books?!

I suppose this bit is the only bit of light, from the g+ thread:

Others were not so kind, and I was a bit surprised at the venom. The splitting of groups, the loss of friendships, the breakup of games and drifting apart of old friends.
...
Comment from attendee:
It feels genuinely a bit like when you finally let go of crap from your last relationship and open your life and heart to the next wonderful thing.

That's a level of emotional investment that goes beyond the jokey "4e shot my dog" and right to "4e broke up my friendship," which, if that's happening, that's, like, clearly some other stuff is going on for you, man. And I guess if burning the books helps you get closure on some of that stuff, okay, but you could maybe look into giving them away or making better life choices instead.

This comment on how he got the books....

I divested myself ages ago; I had to go REBUY them so I would have something to burn.

That's a lot of time and a lot of money spent on expressing some deep-seated anger. It's not like there wouldn't be HEALTHIER ways to spend that time and energy, bro.

 

[Reynard]

NO! The fools!

Don't they know what they've done?!? Those books -- all 4E books -- must be kept whole! The Wizards of The Coast captured the demon Lo Rhaneswil Y'am, the evil force that nearly destroyed D&D decades ago, and to bind her from being able to harm us any more, made the ink used in 4E with her vile inch or. Only by doing so could her power be held in check, though at great cost since her evil seeped into the rules themselves.

But if this catches on and enough 4 E books are burned, the released iChat in the smoke will be enough to free the monster! We must not let this happen!

We must act quickly! Everyone, drive up the cost of used 4 E books o owners will believe them "collectible" and put them safely away in storage to pay for their kids college educations.

(Hey, it worked in the '90s with comics when the evil Were-Thram spirit returned. Of course they had to use silver foil on the covers to contain that beast.)

 

[Dungeoneer]

Others were not so kind, and I was a bit surprised at the venom. The splitting of groups, the loss of friendships, the breakup of games and drifting apart of old friends. Forcing people in to Not-D&D in order to play. I guess it's not all that surprising; RPG's are best when they are social games, shared among friends, and combined with the awkwardness that can make social interactions difficult, it's no wonder that there were such strong feelings ... about an elf game.

I'm of the possibly unreasonable opinion that books and rules do not break up friendships... people do.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I can't watch it right now, care to spare some details?

There's nothing to watch; just a couple photos of nerds giving all of us a bad name, and then the ringleader exercising his grammarfail to tell us about how his nerdrage is 'performance art.'