Unpopular opinions go here

[Hussar]

Yeah, that "largely useless except as gatekeeping ammunition" is a stretch, my guy, and Fans vs. Fun is a fallacy. You're not just sharing an unpopular opinion, you're throwing barbs.

Besides. You already said you won't buy "history texts about made up places," so you shouldn't care how many of them get written.

I wouldn’t except that if WotC goes back to writing fictional history texts, they will stop writing stuff that I actually want.

There is a limit to how much WotC will publish. You folks got decades of what you wanted. I’m finally getting g what I want and apparently that’s bad because WotC should only cater to you.

I’ll be over here enjoying my schadenfreude thanks.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Except that you got what you wanted for decades while I was told to suck it up.

Now I’m getting what I want and you still have decades of what you want.

Then I'll go back to "why not both?", because what you want is explicitly for me not to get what I want. You can ignore material you don't care about, while I would be forced to manufacture what I want myself. How is that ok? How can you think that's an ok thing?

 

[Micah Sweet]

I wouldn’t except that if WotC goes back to writing fictional history texts, they will stop writing stuff that I actually want.

There is a limit to how much WotC will publish. You folks got decades of what you wanted. I’m finally getting g what I want and apparently that’s bad because WotC should only cater to you.

I’ll be over here enjoying my schadenfreude thanks.

Classy.

 

[Hussar]

Then I'll go back to "why not both?", because what you want is explicitly for me not to get what I want. You can ignore material you don't care about, while I would be forced to manufacture what I want myself. How is that ok? How can you think that's an ok thing?

Because it was okay to ignore me for thirty years.

So given the choice, I’ll go with practical and usable every time.

 

[CleverNickName]

I wouldn’t except that if WotC goes back to writing fictional history texts, they will stop writing stuff that I actually want.

There is a limit to how much WotC will publish. You folks got decades of what you wanted. I’m finally getting g what I want and apparently that’s bad because WotC should only cater to you.

I’ll be over here enjoying my schadenfreude thanks.

Making things that people want and are willing to buy is kind of the idea. You might say it's their whole plan. Now if you're willing to buy stuff in Box A, and I'm willing to buy the stuff in Box B, Wizards of the Coast would be wise to keep both boxes full. So again,

 

[Micah Sweet]

Because it was okay to ignore me for thirty years.

So given the choice, I’ll go with practical and usable every time.

And that's your right, but its not your right to willfully encourage the denial of other people's wants to advance your own. Did someone specific ignore your gaming needs for thirty years, such that no one's ever made a product you liked?

 

[Lanefan]

Unpopular opinion #1: "gatekeeper" isn't always a perjorative.

Unpopular opinion #2: some gates need to be kept.

 

[Hussar]

And that's your right, but its not your right to willfully encourage the denial of other people's wants to advance your own. Did someone specific ignore your gaming needs for thirty years, such that no one's ever made a product you liked?

Yes. They did.

And frankly it’s a bit rich when someone who has made it their life mission to take big steaming dumps on every single thing that isn’t 100% targeted at them to complain about me being happy because I’m finally the one being targeted.

I got into dnd when everything was presented through modules. Dragonlance, Greyhawk, The Known World. The idea of setting guides was still years away.

Then, about the time of 2e, modules went away. And it was nothing but and endless avalanche of setting books. On and on. Then 3e came and there was a tiny glimmer of change. The Adventure Path matured. But the market was still massively dominated by endless fictional history texts.

Finally, after about 25 years, 5e rolls along and rolls back the clock. Settings are presented in adventures again. Functional, practical books that actually get used at the table instead of gathering dust on the shelf.

And it proves to be spectacularly popular. Far, far more popular than fictional history books ever were.

And you want me to say that I’m not happy that I’m finally getting what I want? Bugger that. You got tens of thousands of pages of products specifically for you. I’m finally getting stuff I want.

I could not care less that you aren’t. I really couldn’t. Because you folks certainly couldn’t give a rat’s petoot when it was the other way around.

 

[Lanefan]

I got into dnd when everything was presented through modules. Dragonlance, Greyhawk, The Known World. The idea of setting guides was still years away.

Agreed except for Dragonlance, which had the advantage of the setting being presented - in massive detail - through the novels. The DL adventures didn't have to do much if any setting work.

Then, about the time of 2e, modules went away. And it was nothing but and endless avalanche of setting books. On and on.

An avalanche if one bought and devoured all of them. If you picked your spots, however, and just stuck to one or a very few, it was great.

And there were modules in 2e, some setting-specific and some generic, but unfortunately many of them were kinda forgettable.

Then 3e came and there was a tiny glimmer of change. The Adventure Path matured. But the market was still massively dominated by endless fictional history texts.

Adventure paths (particularly the Paizo ones) always presented far too much setting and backstory for me. I just wanted the adventure itself; I already had a setting to put it in. And so by that era I was actively in favour of splitting out setting material from adventure modules.

Finally, after about 25 years, 5e rolls along and rolls back the clock. Settings are presented in adventures again.

Yep, and I lost that war.

Functional, practical books that actually get used at the table instead of gathering dust on the shelf.

If one runs that adventure path. If not, and all I want is the setting material, the adventure-y bits just get in the way. But then, I've only the tiniest of horses in that race any more; I've got a pretty solid homebrew setting that'll do me for the foreseeable future, and I just look at other setting guides now for ideas to swipe for my own.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you want to crazy with Superman, make a movie based off the "Superman Smashes the Clan" radio play/graphic novel. That'll turn heads.

If you want to go crazy with Superman, there’s literally hundreds of superpowered beings inspired by him (and/or Captain Marvel aka Shazam) that haven’t been licensed. A great many of those are even owned by DC & Marvel, or even some of the companies the next tier down, like Image and Dark Horse, etc.

And some of them are plenty dark.