D&D 5E I think 5E needs less innovation.

[Reynard]

And the past has its set of problems: how do you go forward without simply reliving the past and its bygone glories?

Why "bygone"?

If people continue to play and enjoy older editions (and clones) then those days aren't bygone.

Unfortunately, the real question is whether those days, even if recaptured, can be monetized.

 

[Aldarc]

Why "bygone"?

If people continue to play and enjoy older editions (and clones) then those days aren't bygone.

Unfortunately, the real question is whether those days, even if recaptured, can be monetized.

Because I subscribe to Thomas Wolfe's view that "you can't go home again." It can never be "the past" again. You can never truly relive things as they were.

 

[Reynard]

Because I subscribe to Thomas Wolfe's view that "you can't go home again." It can never be "the past" again. You can never truly relive things as they were.

But you don't need to "relive." You are playing, and if playing is fun, it doesn't matter how old the game is.

 

[Aldarc]

But you don't need to "relive." You are playing, and if playing is fun, it doesn't matter how old the game is.

Color me skeptical, but if this forum is anything to go by, I'm not sure if that's entirely the case.

 

[Reynard]

Color me skeptical, but if this forum is anything to go by, I'm not sure if that's entirely the case.

People play out of print games all the time. I am not sure the "must buy everything" demographic is particularly representative of the community -- though I bet they are a big chunk of the customer base, which in itself is something of a problem.

I'll be honest, if as it gets closer to release the plan for 5E appears to be a flood of books right after release, I'll give the whole thing a pass. I will not support another short edition cycle, which is a direct result of an overly aggressive supplement schedule.

Sell adventures -- you're not just selling a product, you're selling a shared experience. Look how people talk and reminisce and compare their experience in The Keep on the Borderlands and The Tomb of Horrors and other classics.

 

[Aldarc]

People play out of print games all the time. I am not sure the "must buy everything" demographic is particularly representative of the community -- though I bet they are a big chunk of the customer base, which in itself is something of a problem.

I'll be honest, if as it gets closer to release the plan for 5E appears to be a flood of books right after release, I'll give the whole thing a pass. I will not support another short edition cycle, which is a direct result of an overly aggressive supplement schedule.

Sell adventures -- you're not just selling a product, you're selling a shared experience. Look how people talk and reminisce and compare their experience in The Keep on the Borderlands and The Tomb of Horrors and other classics.

Which is all well and good, but when you are producing a new edition with a new set of rules...

 

[thedungeondelver]

Because I subscribe to Thomas Wolfe's view that "you can't go home again." It can never be "the past" again. You can never truly relive things as they were.

There are people for whom "the past" is "the present", in that they didn't just quit because the buzzer indicating that it was THE FUTURE! went off. And I don't mean AD&Ders, either. Folks who play PATHFINDER aren't permanently stuck in a "Jeffety is Five Today" 2003 causality loop just because they didn't care to "upgrade". Likewise, for myself? If I went out, bought a Sears BMX style bike, rode across town to my elementary school, called my friends and asked them to come to the library (let's ignore the "getting arrested for being creepy" part that would come from a bunch of grown men hanging around in an elementary school) and play D&D and we all sat around talking excitedly about the new DUNGEONS & DRAGONS cartoon and would it be as cool as HE-MAN while we played and...well, acted exactly like children...that would be living in the past.

But nobody wants to do that.

"I found a ruleset, I'm comfortable with it, I'm going to use it, and since the company who makes it intimated they're going to continue to support it then I'm happy" is not a cry for help from deep within someone's psyche.

We haven't been to the battlefields of France and are now damaged to the juncture that home doesn't suit us. It's just some D&D rules that we prefer over others. And as to assigning any ulterior motives as to why I prefer AD&D and the PATHFINDER folks prefer d20, and so on? There's no profit in that. Nobody here's desperately grasping for the glory days.

 

[enrious]

There are people for whom "the past" is "the present", in that they didn't just quit because the buzzer indicating that it was THE FUTURE! went off. And I don't mean AD&Ders, either. Folks who play PATHFINDER aren't permanently stuck in a "Jeffety is Five Today" 2003 causality loop just because they didn't care to "upgrade".

But a lot of feel that we did upgrade, or at the least are part of a game supported by new material.

 

[thedungeondelver]

But a lot of feel that we did upgrade, or at the least are part of a game supported by new material.

And thanks to the OGL and the magnanimity of WIZARDS OF THE COAST everybody may well get "supported" again.

I don't see an issue here!

 

[Aldarc]

There are people for whom "the past" is "the present", in that they didn't just quit because the buzzer indicating that it was THE FUTURE! went off. And I don't mean AD&Ders, either. Folks who play PATHFINDER aren't permanently stuck in a "Jeffety is Five Today" 2003 causality loop just because they didn't care to "upgrade". Likewise, for myself? If I went out, bought a Sears BMX style bike, rode across town to my elementary school, called my friends and asked them to come to the library (let's ignore the "getting arrested for being creepy" part that would come from a bunch of grown men hanging around in an elementary school) and play D&D and we all sat around talking excitedly about the new DUNGEONS & DRAGONS cartoon and would it be as cool as HE-MAN while we played and...well, acted exactly like children...that would be living in the past.

But nobody wants to do that.

"I found a ruleset, I'm comfortable with it, I'm going to use it, and since the company who makes it intimated they're going to continue to support it then I'm happy" is not a cry for help from deep within someone's psyche.

We haven't been to the battlefields of France and are now damaged to the juncture that home doesn't suit us. It's just some D&D rules that we prefer over others. And as to assigning any ulterior motives as to why I prefer AD&D and the PATHFINDER folks prefer d20, and so on? There's no profit in that. Nobody here's desperately grasping for the glory days.

Do I need to explain what the saying "you can never go home again" means?