D&D 5E Ray Winninger, in charge of D&D, states his old school bonefides.

[Umbran]

If he's in charge, and he's 'old school' then why does the game not seem to satisfy people who are 'old school' and want something different from what 5e provides?

So, be careful there - your statement is subject to possible non-response bias.

Say there is a population. 90% of that population is perfectly satisfied. They go about their business, buy some product, and do their thing quietly at their own tables. 10% of that population is unsatisfied, and complain.

The 10% say, "Look! Our population is not served, we are unhappy!" and we get the idea that this is true, when, in fact, 90% of the population is fine, but we miss the fact because they are not part of the conversation, because they are happy.

What we can say is that there are some people who are 'old school' and not satisfied - we have some here. So, they exist. We cannot, with the information at hand, say that in general people who are 'old school' are not satisfied. To do that, we'd actually have to know how many old school players even exist.

 

[Hussar]

I asked this in the other thread and I’ll ask again. Just how much support do people expect? We’ve had multiple adventure paths based on old school material. Every time I turn around there are nods and acknowledgement reaffirming the roots of the game.

Ten framing years of pandering to old school sensibilities isn’t enough? Sheesh.

 

[Campbell]

Speaking as someone who plays an awful lot of OSR games, and considers themselves a fan of the OSR as well as other sorts of games, I do not see how Wizards can reasonably make a game that appeals to old school sensibilities more than 5e without ignoring large swathes of their existing audience. Besides it's not like OSR players need Wizards of the Coast or have ever needed them. There's such a staggering amount of quality OSR material available today. Great games. Great modules. Great communities. Who needs Wizards to deliver some compromised product?

 

[Scribe]

So, be careful there - your statement is subject to possible non-response bias.

Say there is a population. 90% of that population is perfectly satisfied. They go about their business, buy some product, and do their thing quietly at their own tables. 10% of that population is unsatisfied, and complain.

The 10% say, "Look! Our population is not served, we are unhappy!" and we get the idea that this is true, when, in fact, 90% of the population is fine, but we miss the fact because they are not part of the conversation, because they are happy.

What we can say is that there are some people who are 'old school' and not satisfied - we have some here. So, they exist. We cannot, with the information at hand, say that in general people who are 'old school' are not satisfied. To do that, we'd actually have to know how many old school players even exist.

I absolutely agree with this, I think.

My question remains.

What prompts the guy to declare his 'old schoolness' and is a declaration of 'I played 1e, I am old school' actually speaking to the concerns of the group that motivated the declaration in the first place?

 

[darjr]

I asked this in the other thread and I’ll ask again. Just how much support do people expect? We’ve had multiple adventure paths based on old school material. Every time I turn around there are nods and acknowledgement reaffirming the roots of the game.

Ten framing years of pandering to old school sensibilities isn’t enough? Sheesh.

I don't think the adventure content or settings is the whole of it. What I like about 5e is it supports the old school style of game I like. The rules do that. I do however want new fangled cool adventures and settings. (and maybe one or two more old school settings........ ). But I'm also VERY happy that WotC opened up to Goodman Games for some of that.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't think the adventure content or settings is the whole of it. What I like about 5e is it supports the old school style of game I like. The rules do that. I do however want new fangled cool adventures and settings. (and maybe one or two more old school settings........ ). But I'm also VERY happy that WotC opened up to Goodman Games for some of that.

I think it's abundantly clear that WotC has been working overtime to please and provide content for as many kinds of gamers as they can, young and old, new school and old school.

 

[Umbran]

What prompts the guy to declare his 'old schoolness'

I think the answer to that lies with him, not us.

and is a declaration of 'I played 1e, I am old school' actually speaking to the concerns of the group that motivated the declaration in the first place?

Well, once we admit that we don't know what prompted the tweet, we can hardly claim to know if this speaks to the concerns that prompted it.

Unless you happen to know YOUR concerns prompted it, you should not take it that he specifically intended to address your concerns.

It was one lone tweet. While it may have been intended to address something, it is at best naïve to suggest that it could have been intended to completely address anything. I would caution against ascribing or expecting lofty goals for single tweets.

If it speaks to you, that's awesome. But if it doesn't, I don't think that's really a flaw or failure.

 

[Umbran]

"I played back then!" is meaningless if the product continues to move in a direction away from whatever 'back then' implies.

So... the worst case is that one person put out one meaningless tweet. Not exactly world-ending.

The likely case is that he put out a tweet that has various meanings to various people - since what "back then" implies is different for each person interested in "back then". This would be about par for the course for tweets.

 

[Umbran]

Just because one played something, doesn't mean they care about any specific demographic.

So, here's a question for you - what could be put in a single tweet that would satisfy you?

If the answer is that no single tweet could do so, then your criticism of the one tweet becomes like... a review of an ice cream from someone who is lactose intolerant.

 

[Scribe]

So, here's a question for you - what could be put in a single tweet that would satisfy you?

If the answer is that no single tweet could do so, then your criticism of the one tweet becomes like... a review of an ice cream from someone who is lactose intolerant.

I think you believe I care, far more than I care.

I simply was curious what would motivate such a tweet, as normally something like that, to declare one self as 'something' has some kind of motivation in the current public/social media/twitter, environment.

Is it the Thaco Clown topic? Is it the 'Wizards only cares about their new player base'? Is it something else? I dont know.

I do know that some corporate 'I'm one of you!' type declaration doesn't move me personally, from anyone, or anything, and I'm not even part of the scene hes professing to be a part of to comfort (??) said group.