Unpopular opinions go here

[MGibster]

Forty years later, and we still haven't managed to create better ttRPG gaming experiences than existed in the mid 80s. At best, we're just doing a better job of codifying them. At worst, we're as out of ideas as the guy whose idea was to just remake all the classic Disney films with CGI.

You know what? I'm a little ambivalent here. Part of me disagrees because I'd rather gouge my eyes out with a plastic spork from KFC than play some of the games I absolutely loved when I was younger. That kind of suggests that games have improved in many ways over the years. But am I having a better overall experience today than I did in the 80s? I don't think I can answer that in the affirmative.

Sturgeon's Law is a vast understatement when it comes to RPG supplements. For every 1 usable page of RPG supplements, there are like 999 pages of crud.

Takes me back to the d20 glut. It's why I'm still gunshy when it comes to 3rd party D&D products.

 

[Parmandur]

Call of Cthulhu kind of needs it.

Not really: you could remove the mythos and keep the rules pretty much as is for running generic Horror, and CoC would stand up.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Next Big Thing on the D&D culture wars front will be the barbarian.

Yeah, we're already seeing the first smoke from that wildfire.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

D&D cannot be all things to all gamers. It's not designed to be a generic game like GURPS where you build the world exactly the way you want.

I don't even think 5E is the best system for all D&D games. When you have to have a 20-page stack of house rules to get the feel you want, you probably should have been looking at alternate systems.

This month I'll be running both Shadowdark and 5E games (including one at GenCon Online, which is exciting/terrifying) and while each adventure could be run in the other system, it would be poorer for doing so.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Solo RPGs are not RPGs.

(That isn't to say they aren't cool or fun or anything else, but they aren't RPGs.)

Are one man shows theater?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Mandalorian only has about a half-dozen good episodes; SW fans were just starved for something that wasn't terrible.

This seems to be a very lukewarm take. If the Mandolorian had ended after the first season, it would have been a stone-cold classic. The longer it goes on, the more everyone is pulling away from it, even before they see Andor and really get depressed at everything else Star Wars.

 

[GreyLord]

Argue all you want, but you can't escape the truth:
D&D only needs four classes.

Off-topic Comedy post...

And those four classes would be...

Factotum, Monk, Halfling, and UA Spellcaster ?

Or would that be UA Spellcaster, UA Spellcaster, UA Spellcaster, and UA Spellcaster?

Or is it Factotum, Factotum, Factotum, Factotum?

Could also be Halfling, Halfling, Mystic, Halfing. Let the chaos ensue...

End of Comedy Post...

 

[overgeeked]

Argue all you want, but you can't escape the truth:
D&D only needs four classes.

Almost. It only needs three.

 

[aramis erak]

Oh, and The Empire Strikes Back is the worst of the first three Star Wars movies.

Agreed. It's slightly worse than Jedi.
And Eps I, II, III, VII, VIII, & IX don't even come close.

I find Star Wars continuity best adjudicated as "This is all from R2-D2's perspective as told by C-3PO to Han and Leia's other kids. Y'know, the ones who didn't turn out whiney and brattish, nor go all dark-dork over grandpa Anakin's series of incredibly bad life choices.

 

[aramis erak]

D&D cannot be all things to all gamers. It's not designed to be a generic game like GURPS where you build the world exactly the way you want.

Note that it super strongly implies that it can be used for almost any adventurous settting in the AD&D DMG, and again in the AD&D2 DMG, and the d20 open licenses were specifically to make it ... not quite GURPS-like universal, but more like 80's Hero & BRP lines, and almost all Palladium games: adapted cores using a common ruleset.

Real Controversial: Palladium has much better worldbuilding efforts for each major setting than any official D&D setting.