WotC How much does Hasbro / WotC impact your feelings towards D&D?

[Snarf Zagyg]

Define cool.

Cool means being able to hang with yourself. All you have to ask yourself is 'Is there anybody I’m afraid of? Is there anybody who if I walked into a room and saw, I’d get nervous?' If not, then you're cool.

-His Royal Purpleness, Abraham Lincoln, shortly before the play began at the Lincoln.

 

[TheSword]

Not about what is reasonable? Fine by me. There’s little point in discoursing with someone who discards even a pretense of needing to be reasonable.

I thought it was a baseline.

 

[CellarHeroes]

Cool means being able to hang with yourself. All you have to ask yourself is 'Is there anybody I’m afraid of? Is there anybody who if I walked into a room and saw, I’d get nervous?' If not, then you're cool.

-His Royal Purpleness, Abraham Lincoln, shortly before the play began at the Lincoln.

I hear the water in Lake Minnetonka is pretty cool.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Again, this notion that only large corporations are about "maximizing profit" is a myth. And anyone who forgets that winds up out of business in fairly short order.

Yeah, I'm not arguing that position.

I'm actually looking forward primarily to the DMG for this edition.
To see how they may have polished downtime activities, dealt with magical items and if they have provided any additional modular options (low magic, gritty, exploration and social pillar expansion, TBIF, HD and Inspiration use, mechanised plot points, fleshing out Sanity, Madness, Disease Tracks etc

As a DM that is what I'm interested in.

 

[Voadam]

Notice I didn't say anything about 3ed to 3.5, nor 4e to essentials. That was on purpose.

Notice I did. That was on purpose too.

I consider the 1e to 2e edition change very similar specifically to 3e to 3.5.

I used 1e and 2e modules and monsters and magic items together in the same campaign with very little work. Same with 3.0, 3.5, Pathfiner 1e, and even d20 Modern and other d20 games.

If you think AD&D to AD&D 2nd wasn't a huge jump, especially in design philosophy, then you never played it.

Factually incorrect.

I do consider 1e to 2e not be a huge jump and I played and ran a ton of both 1e and 2e.

I am wondering what you consider the big differences between 1e and 2e that are comparable to the differences between 2e and 3e, or 3.5 and 4e, or 4e and 5e?

d6 versus d10 initiative?

Changing xp from gold and defeating monsters to defeating monsters?

More lore information in monster entries?

Non-core optional stuff like kits and the PO series?

 

[CleverNickName]

You're missing 3a-3z (modular approach)

Yep. If your house no longer suits your needs, "demolish it and build something else" is just one option out of many--and it's the most extreme and expensive one, to boot. Most homeowners will just convert the garage, or remodel the bathroom, or whatever.

Similarly, if D&D is no longer fresh and interesting to you and your friends, you have a lot more options than "play something else." D&D is modular and infinitely customizable, and comes prepackaged with a lot of optional rules, variants, and adjustments you can add or remove. I think the ability to modify the game in this manner is a big reason why people keep playing it, and why it's such a juggernaut in the hobby.

Consider Skyrim and the effect that mods have had on its popularity and staying power.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I hear the water in Lake Minnetonka is pretty cool.

I want pancakes now.

.... and that's why I stick to gin.

 

[Mistwell]

I have a feeling we’re gonna have to agree to disagree on what 2 writing credits is. It doesn’t mean you have 2 full-fledged products under your belt, it means your name can be found on 2 products in enough of a capacity that you earned a credit. Mid level, to me, would imply you have around 5 years experience in your field. Senior at least a decade.

And I am also going to ask you to explain how you figure WotC has released more material through the OGL/CC. Last time I checked, the Foundry team was only able to release an extremely bare bones 5e ruleset module based on the 2014 Basic Rules while the PF2e Foundry module has ALL of the PF2e rules. There’s a few other products fans have created (AoN, PF2easy) based on freely released rules.

You watch. Whoever takes this job will be mid-level [EDIT - just found the listing, and 1) it says right on the listing it IS mid-level and says "Level of Experience: Mid-level" as well, and 2) it was from 6 months ago so I assume someone did take the job]. They're taking advantage of someone who is trying to "break in" to more mainstream despite many credits to their name already in the same way so many companies have in the past. This should be criticized. They should be held to a higher standard. If WOTC didn't exist, they would be held to a higher standard.

Paizo has held back so much of their IP, whether it was through the OGL or ORC later. So much of it isn't stuff you can use, they just name it as their own. Sure the mechanics, which are ALREADY NOT COPYRIGHTABLE, they released. But the actual lore, the stuff that's actually theirs? So much of it they held back. Which, again, if WOTC does that they get so much criticism. When Paizo does it, not even a shrug or, like yourself, defending it. And again, this only came up because someone said Paizo was so much better than WOTC. I don't generally go after Paizo, I have no overall issues with them relative to other companies. They're just not better than WOTC and if they were the top dog we can see by their actions they don't behave any better overall.

 

[billd91]

But the actual lore, the stuff that's actually theirs? So much of it they held back. Which, again, if WOTC does that they get so much criticism. When Paizo does it, not even a shrug.

Who's doing so much complaining about WotC holding back lore IP?

 

[Retreater]

Heck, even I can say I have two writing credits. I'm hardly an established designer.
Compare WotC's pay to Matt Coville's staff, and you'll see the discrepancy. WotC is paying worse than TSR era design, even including inflation.
They use freelancers, give them little freedom in the design process, little pay, and don't give them access to their portfolio for future job applications.
Remember, this is the same company that bought their ethics award.