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

[Mordhau]

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.

If there's a choicing between tweeting and not tweeting, not tweeting is usually of net benefit to the world.

 

[lingual]

Why should a business devote money and resources to such a small niche market rehashing game designs that already exist? When their more recent inventions are generating huge revenues and actually reaching the mainstream and demographics that have never been reached before?

So some DnD players dislike the company that makes DnD and dislike the game itself. And they are upset that they don't have stuff made that's catered just for them? Or get mad about a joke clown NPC? Who are the hyper sensitive snowflakes here?

 

[tetrasodium]

Why should a business devote money and resources to such a small niche market rehashing game designs that already exist? When their more recent inventions are generating huge revenues and actually reaching the mainstream and demographics that have never been reached before?

So some DnD players dislike the company that makes DnD and dislike the game itself. And they are upset that they don't have stuff made that's catered just for them? Or get mad about a joke clown NPC? Who are the hyper sensitive snowflakes here?

We don't even know what "niche" it is without the context that led to the tweet about "old school players"

 

[Hussar]

Just to be absolutely clear here because I think I've been acting under a misapprehension. Didn't the OSR crowd vote themselves off the island about twenty years ago? They weren't told to leave. They pulled up stakes and staked out a new territory for themselves. The OSR territory. Which is perfectly fine. No problems.

So, why would the OSR crowd possibly care about what D&D does? I guess I just don't quite get it. It was a fairly amicable parting AFAIK. The OSR bunch using the SRD, created a clone of AD&D that can then be used to create new content. Fantastic. Great.

I guess I just don't get the issue here.

 

[R_J_K75]

So does this confirm " the Grognards Guide to Old School Gaming" for 5E D&D written by Ray Winniger coming in 2022?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

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

The fact that bothered to point it out at all means he at least cares about the demographically little, but hiring a continuity editor (5e fired theirs, Matt Sarnet years ago and they've been making avoid lore errors ever since).

 

[schneeland]

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?

Tend to agree here. While I personally would love to see a new edition that shifts D&D to an OSR design space, I also think it would be quite unreasonable to do so for WotC. They might get me to buy their books again, but I think they would lose 10 people that actually like 5e how it is at the same time.

That being said, I can understand why one would want the largest game in the RPG space to address their personal preferences. It's just very unlikely to happen if your taste doesn't align with the majority of that game's customers.

One thing I hope WotC does, though, is releasing more of their old products as PDF (I would love to see the localized versions, too, but I guess that's not very likely). Plus opening more settings for publication on DM's Guild, so enthusiasts can create additional content for those.

 

[GuyBoy]

Kudos to Ray for making the statement. I really don’t get, and never really have, the edition anger that runs so intensely.
Personally, my “time in the game” is similar to Ray’s (1976 start, Original, 1E, career/family/sport stopped 2E, 3E and now 5E). I just love the game.
Sure, I’d prefer the 50th setting to be Greyhawk, but if it’s not, that’s no big deal. I bought Yawning Portal, I probably won’t buy Strixhaven, but overall I think WOTC are doing a pretty good job with the game.
Times change. Jokes about a clown named THACO are just fine with me, along with pumpkin-headed bugbears.
Respect to Ray.

 

[Plaguescarred]

If it means Ray is pushing for the revisit of classic campaign settings, then it's nor necessarily a bad thing. But if his old-school bonafides means bringing back in the revisions of the Core rulebooks old-school stuff like racial and gender penalties, HD4 Wizards, GP XP etc then such direction will be bound to assuredly displease some people.

 

[Jahydin]

Just to be absolutely clear here because I think I've been acting under a misapprehension. Didn't the OSR crowd vote themselves off the island about twenty years ago? They weren't told to leave. They pulled up stakes and staked out a new territory for themselves. The OSR territory. Which is perfectly fine. No problems.

So, why would the OSR crowd possibly care about what D&D does? I guess I just don't quite get it. It was a fairly amicable parting AFAIK. The OSR bunch using the SRD, created a clone of AD&D that can then be used to create new content. Fantastic. Great.

I guess I just don't get the issue here.

I think the part about OSR folks voting themselves off the island is true, but the designers (maybe mostly Mearls?) did a great job of listening to them and getting D&D back to it's roots, embracing a good deal of what made B/X great, and reclaiming a good portion of them back. I was certainly one of them. I mean the playtest even used B2's Caves of Chaos!

But the game's vision has changed quite a bit since it first came out, and it seems pretty clear with each new release that getting back to "the good ol' days" is no longer a priority. In fact, it almost seems like they're embarrassed of the past now, spending a great deal of energy rewriting the wrongs for a new audience.

So I think for many, WotC's marketing going from "Please come back, we made it cool again.", to "Wow, D&D was awful back then, am I right?", is cause to be a bit grumpy.