Ryan Dancey - D&D in a Death Spiral

[El Mahdi]

As for your last point:

then consistency (rules varients generated by inexperienced designers and/or overworked developers start to spawn and cohesion in rulings breaks down leading to ad hoc interpretations as the de facto way to play)

...Giving up the unified system with Essentials and Arcana Unearthed? Done

Let's break it down:

1. Are Essentials "rules variants generated by inexperieced designers"? - Nope! Essentials was designed by some of WotC's most experienced and tenured designers. Just so I can't be accused of conjecture here's the main designers of Essentials: Mike Mearls - Lead Developer of 4E (if anyone understands the ins and outs of the 4E rules, this is the man); James Wyatt - writing for D&D for 14 years, working for WotC for 10 years, and author of the 4E DMG; Bill Slavicsek - designing RPG's for 19 years, and was originally hired when D&D was still published by a little company called TSR! - Inexperienced? - I don't think so! (just check out his resume at WotC or on Wikepedia)
2. "...cohesion in rulings breaks down leading to ad hod interpretations as the defacto way to play." - I think the jury is FAR from making a decision on this one. But so far, it looks like the essentials are quite consistent. And where it appears there may have been conflict with existing rules, the rules were changed and apply retroactively to previous material. Also, with all changes updated to DDI, the consistent, unified system hasn't gone anywhere. They have also been very pointed in saying that Unearthed Arcana material will not be included in the Compendium and will be completely optional in home games, and have provided plenty of caveats and warnings that such material may be unblalancing or at best, experimental.

I believe you're declaring old conjecture as fait accompli with no real evidence that it is so. I think that only time will tell if Essentials is the harbinger you believe, but it's way to early to declare it so.

 

[samursus]

See the declining quality of the online mags.

Although I don't disagree with your assertion, this is not what Dancey was referring to in his original post. He was talking about the rulebooks. As far as I have seen the quality of the books has gotten better, reflecting the desires of the customers (more fluff). And the DDI hasn't changed price since they introduced the Monster builder.

Secondly, as a company with finite resources, I am not surprised that the online offerings have been sparse this month, what with the launch of Essentials and returning from 2 big conventions. I am not saying this is "OK", but for a subscription based service I am willing to see what happens next month, and if things continue to be sub-par, in my opinion, I will consider investing my $5/month elsewhere (although, in truth, I don't where that $5 would get me more value).

My ENWorld subsciption costs me $3/month, and I don't get near as much content for the game I play (4e), but I still feel I get my moneys worth. Its all in your perspective.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I literally don't know about the merits of D&D today as a "gateway" -- and I don't think anyone else does either.

Just from a marketer's perspective, it almost has to be. Like Kleenex, Xerox, Coke and other brands that lead their industries, "D&D" has become a name that many use as a synonym for any product within the industry, for the hobby itself.

When non-gamers ask you if you play D&D, they may not know there are other RPGs out there- I've even heard non-gamers refer to RPGs like HERO and the like as "other kinds of D&D."

To them, "gaming" refers only to whatever they can plug into an X-Box or other electronic game.

 

[Obryn]

I sure don't see declining quality in the book offerings. I'd say 4e is comfortably in its stride... The Dark Sun setting is, IMO, the very best book released for 4e to-date. The DS Creature Catalog is likewise impressive. Essentials looks great right now - and judging from some posts on rpg.net, it is indeed getting people who passed on 4e to give it a second look. (And I'm loving the new ideas, I have to say, even if it will never replace my PHB.)

So... I guess I'm saying I don't see it.

-O

 

[AngryMojo]

I sure don't see declining quality in the book offerings. I'd say 4e is comfortably in its stride... The Dark Sun setting is, IMO, the very best book released for 4e to-date. The DS Creature Catalog is likewise impressive. Essentials looks great right now - and judging from some posts on rpg.net, it is indeed getting people who passed on 4e to give it a second look. (And I'm loving the new ideas, I have to say, even if it will never replace my PHB.)

So... I guess I'm saying I don't see it.

-O

Not to mention that Demonomicon and Monster Manual 3 were both excellent. The fact that the Monster Manuals keep getting better as their number increases is a wonderful change from last edition.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

Not to mention that Demonomicon and Monster Manual 3 were both excellent. The fact that the Monster Manuals keep getting better as their number increases is a wonderful change from last edition.

QFE.

Sure, I'm not exactly thrilled with the content of Dragon and Dungeon atm (but we did finally get an Eberron article this month), but hopefully it will turn around.

The last few supplements have been outstanding.

 

[cdrcjsn]

Now, reading Ryan's one and a half year after he made them, I am shocked how many of them came true: [snipped]

Regarding cutting the budget of the RPGA...

Big fan of the RPGA here. When I look at how LFR was let go by WotC and turned into a mostly volunteer-run organization, I can't help but look at D&D Encounters and Game Days and see where the organized play money went.

LFR is fine as a volunteer run organization. The only problem I see with it right now is that sometimes the campaign leadership is too slow to make major decisions, waiting to hear from higher ups for instructions (such as whether or not to include Themes or other options from Dark Sun or incorporating the Essentials rules into the campaign).

 

[megamania]

Interesting read

makes sense on many levels


but.... but as one person has already said, there are many other factors involved. The sales / conditions in 2000 and in 1988 are different from now.


But still..... there are things there to consider.....

 

[pneumatik]

LFR is fine as a volunteer run organization. The only problem I see with it right now is that sometimes the campaign leadership is too slow to make major decisions, waiting to hear from higher ups for instructions (such as whether or not to include Themes or other options from Dark Sun or incorporating the Essentials rules into the campaign).

Waiting for WotC response was a problem with living greyhawk, too. Though in LG we often waited for the senior volunteers to make rulings, and for the local volunteers, too. Not that I can think of an easy fix. More helpers would have required more time to manage them, and lack of volunteers' time was the root of the problem to begin with.

 

[Failed Saving Throw]

I sure don't see declining quality in the book offerings. I'd say 4e is comfortably in its stride... The Dark Sun setting is, IMO, the very best book released for 4e to-date. The DS Creature Catalog is likewise impressive. Essentials looks great right now - and judging from some posts on rpg.net, it is indeed getting people who passed on 4e to give it a second look. (And I'm loving the new ideas, I have to say, even if it will never replace my PHB.)

So... I guess I'm saying I don't see it.

-O

I'm gonna have to totally agree with you on Dark Sun; in fact, it's the recent purchases on the Campaign Setting and Creature Catalog that have me suddenly doubting the future for WoTC. The Campaign Setting is a pretty solid effort, but the art in the book is all over the place, and on some pages it's obvious that they pulled art from wherever they could just to fill space (there's too many examples of people in metal armor, wielding metal weapons, etc.). The Creature Catalog is perhaps the most shockingly lazy 4E product I have seen to date. It did nothing more than recycle some of the "core" monsters from previously published versions of Dark Sun. There is not a single new monster in the Creature Catalog. Not one. In other words, there was no creative growth in the monster department whatsoever. The book is nothing more than a big "stat bloc conversion" of 2E monsters into the world of 4E.

Plus, the interior art is largely , too small, and fails miserably to live up to the genius visions of Brom and Baxa from 2E.

I'm gonna go into this in greater detail later, but I just bought the Creature Catalog yesterday and it really, really pissed me off.

Oh, and let's not forget that because WoTC simply refuses to hire enough qualified people to run DDI, the inclusion of all the Dark Sun material has been delayed "until early October," which in WoTC parlance means "some time before New Year's."