WotC 2020 Was The Best Year Ever For Dungeons & Dragons

[Henadic Theologian]

Sure, I agree with that, I prefer vanilla too. And it's perfectly fine for you not like VGR (or any sort of change whatsoever, judging by your posts), but YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR YOUR AGE GROUP. Some of us like change, especially when it is for the better.

I prefer coffee crunch ice cream or oreo or red velvet or banana or white chocolate ice cream.

 

[el-remmen]

Funny, I like the new products because I have what I think of as the old school mentality of making use of whatever I can get my hands on and incorporating or adapting it to varying degrees. Not everything TSR made was to my tastes, just like not everything WotC makes is to my tastes - but with both I look, I take what I want and I leave the rest - sometimes that might mean going a year without a new book even if they're printing a ton (that also happened in the 90s) - but that's okay, there is still plenty to look through and re-discover and make use of. That might also mean skipping editions (I skipped 4th and only incorporated a handful of stuff from 3.5 into my 3E game). That might also mean incorporating rules and approaches from other systems entirely. Who knows?

To me that is the fun of GMing when not immediately running a game.

 

[Oofta]

No, you are just looking at things from a skewed angle here. I have read the new Ravenloft book. It is a love letter to the older material and older gamers. It just isn't scared of making changes if needed.

Why reinvent the wheel if you have a perfectly serviceable wheel that just needs a little bit of fixing? For newer players it will likely be the first time they read it. For the older players, they can just dust off their old copies if they want.

Do you really think Batman movies cater to older people because the first Batman comic was released in 1939?

 

[Sacrosanct]

I’ve been playing since 1981. Without new players, the game dies as we die. Bringing in new gamers, even if their style isn’t my preferences, is a good thing.

It would be like saying radio stations should have only stuck with playing music from the 70s as the 80s and 90s progressed.

Life moves on. While I disagree that WoTC is catering to old school by Ravenloft (as Oofta’s analogy illustrates), I don’t expect to be catered to either. A nod here or there (which has happened), and restraint from folks celebrating our demise (figuratively and literally both) is all I ask.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

No. But Wo5C cannot satisfy everyone. They need to aim to please as many people, of every demographic, as they possibly can. They've done well here.

EXACTLY
They aim to please as many people as possible, primarily targeting the biggest demographic
That's good business
And that's young and new gamers
Everyone else is just a bonus

 

[Parmandur]

Funny, I like the new products because I have what I think of as the old school mentality of making use of whatever I can get my hands on and incorporating or adapting it to varying degrees. Not everything TSR made was to my tastes, just like not everything WotC makes is to my tastes - but with both I look, I take what I want and I leave the rest - sometimes that might mean going a year without a new book even if they're printing a ton (that also happened in the 90s) - but that's okay, there is still plenty to look through and re-discover and make use of. That might also mean skipping editions (I skipped 4th and only incorporated a handful of stuff from 3.5 into my 3E game). That might also mean incorporating rules and approaches from other systems entirely. Who knows?

To me that is the fun of GMing when not immediately running a game.

This guy knows what it's about.

 

[Parmandur]

Why reinvent the wheel if you have a perfectly serviceable wheel that just needs a little bit of fixing? For newer players it will likely be the first time they read it. For the older players, they can just dust off their old copies if they want.

Do you really think Batman movies cater to older people because the first Batman comic was released in 1939?

I reject the zero sum dichotomy entirely: Racenlift was made for new and old players alike.

 

[dave2008]

As long as you're satisfied, screw everyone else
Got it

That is reading way to much into it. I think you can do better than that.

 

[Parmandur]

EXACTLY
They aim to please as many people as possible, primarily targeting the biggest demographic
That's good business
And that's young and new gamers
Everyone else is just a bonus

It is not a zero sum situation. They are catering to as many old and new players as they can at the same time: they are optimizing their customer base. No demographic is being abandoned here. Look at 4E's hamfisted marketing if you want to see that.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

This remember me the Hollow World from Mystara setting where ancient civilitatins aren't allowed to change.

The changes are inevitable, because the new generations have got different sources of inspiration and influence, and among the same generations they players have got a great creative diversity. The TTRPGs aren't like franchises from comics, movies or videogames. Here the consumer has got the greatest creative freedom. If they don't like anything they can change it.

Not only they are parents buying the books to play with their litle chidren (and here the titles for mature audence as World of Darkness can do nothing) but portion of fandom who would like to create their own stories with their own characters find an alternative, something the videogames can't offer yet, as complete social interaction. The TTRPG were born to be the ultimate board game.

But I warn D&D's future will be more linked with the videogames and media productions. This means scrippters from Entertaiment-One could decide important elements of the metaplot, if you allow me an example a female character becoming mother because her actress in the action-live serie is pregnant in the real life.