D&D General Why Fantasy? Goin' Medieval in D&D

[Paul Farquhar]

In wild-west games the motivating literature has gun fights being really dangerous with a single shot. Do the PCs have hero armor?

Ever played Boot Hill? The answer in that game is no. It's extremely deadly.

 

[Cadence]

"After these words, the prince of the Weather-Geats
Was impatient to be away and plunged suddenly:
Without more ado, he dived in to the heaving
Depths of the lake. It was the best part of a day
Before he could see the solid bottom."

(emphasis mine) Where is it three days straight? I mean, sure, swimming underwater for hours is still superhuman, but let's keep to the text, at least, right?

I'm not sure it matters for the point if it is 3 hours, or 3 days...

I was surprised that google turned up three days as an answer to how long was beowulf underwater without giving any quotes to support it.

 

[Cadence]

Ever played Boot Hill? The answer in that game is no. It's extremely deadly.

No. And thanks!

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I bother. I like history. Even if it is infused with fantastic elements like actual magic, or gods that actually exist and intervene. Fantasy needs to be grounded in some semblance of historic verisimilitude to have any appeal for me. And since—and this is a purely personal opinion of mine—I don't like magitech and steampunk, I prefer going back instead of forward in time. I just can't stand swashbuckling musketeers riding magic trains and wearing laced velvet shirts.

Something like Design Mechanism's "Mythic Britain/Logres", TLG's "Codex Nordica/Germania/Slavorum/Celtarum" or Mongoose's "Vikings of Legend" is right up my alley.

Good for you but aside from knowledge of the period in question D&D as is, caters to you. Unless you need a less magic system. D&D has been magic heavy since its inception and is not likely to change. It is a core value of the game.

However, as the player base ages and expands we are likely to see the game catering to a wider audience and they like steam punk, or even amine style fighters and that is likely where the game will go.
The majority of the posters here are like, 15% of the market these days.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Good for you but aside from knowledge of the period in question D&D as is, caters to you. Unless you need a less magic system. D&D has been magic heavy since its inception and is not likely to change. It is a core value of the game.

However, as the player base ages and expands we are likely to see the game catering to a wider audience and they like steam punk, or even amine style fighters and that is likely where the game will go.
The majority of the posters here are like, 15% of the market these days.

I don't like arguments like this because they read as, "you and most everyone who posts here are irrelevant to modern D&D, so stop cluttering up the internet with your outdated opinions".

 

[overgeeked]

I don't like arguments like this because they read as, "you and most everyone who posts here are irrelevant to modern D&D, so stop cluttering up the internet with your outdated opinions".

It sucks, but it’s basically WotC’s stance. Do you really think they’re taking the grognards’ opinions over the majority of their new fans’ opinions? WotC is happy to take our money, but we’re a drop in the bucket.

 

[Ovinomancer]

There's a reason WotC shut down their board about the same time they really ramped up market research efforts -- they had to realize that the demographics didn't support the cost.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It sucks, but it’s basically WotC’s stance. Do you really think they’re taking the grognards’ opinions over the majority of their new fans’ opinions? WotC is happy to take our money, but we’re a drop in the bucket.

This not a WotC site. We should at least respect each other.

 

[Ovinomancer]

This not a WotC site. We should at least respect each other.

I'm 100% fine with the knowledge that I'm no longer the target demographic for WotC. That just means I have no expectation that the game is going to hack with my interests. I have no problems expressing those in discussions, but if I drift into the "D&D ought to" line of discussion, I'm not offended by the reminder that I'm likely not going to see that. Then I can find out what works for changes or even if there's a better system for me. D&D doesn't belong to me and, more importantly, I don't belong to it.

 

[Willie the Duck]

There's a reason WotC shut down their board about the same time they really ramped up market research efforts -- they had to realize that the demographics didn't support the cost.

Everything I'd heard indicated that they weren't using it for market research, so much as just a goodwill/interest-generating product, and that it wasn't their view of a demographic that changes (if that were the case, why do it right before the initial 5e release, when they clearly were trying to recapture lapsed grognards?) so much as independent internet forums that they thought were ceding ground to Facebook, Twitter, etc.