D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

[Faolyn]

Even when that individual or small group has it correct* and the masses do not? Science, for one thing, would not have got far without specific people at different times taking a stand saying "Yes I'm right and all of you are wrong".

* - as opposed to merely thinking they have it correct.

I think you'd have to show that the individual or small group has it correct and the masses do not.

Which you almost certainly can't do, because I'd wager about 99% of gatekeeping is based purely on one's opinion of what makes up the "real" thing.

 

[Minigiant]

I certainly wouldn't object to them being in a book.

The issue is the tendency for the D&D community to not care if that book to be good quality nor early.

New Stuff often is either designed poorly or come out when the edition is dying. Or both.

 

[Faolyn]

gay dwarves baking cookies, etc.)

What if they were Discworld dwarfs who were baking war cookies.

Or maybe they were female dwarfs who were properly depicted as being bearded.

 

[Zardnaar]

The conservatism.is "how deep into splat".

There is a conservatism.in D&D that something is splat and thus:

1. It's low priority
2. It's doesn't matter if it's well designed
3. It's material that can wait or let third parties handle it and thus
   1. never tie it back into official products
   2. only support it once
   3. never come back to it even if it's popular.

It's basically why the monk always sucks and why new classes and races that are popular but often remain wonky.

Splats more niche stuff imho popular stuff will be added to core or in major splats later on. Bladedancers come to mind.

Eberron got made. Not my thing as such but I've bought it regardless because of its execution. I wouldn't add artificers to core though.

I don't like Dragonlance or Ravenloft much I don't object to their existence and I don't expect everyone to like say original Darksun.

Its basically a popularity contest essentially.

 

[Zardnaar]

Well, if for no other reason than she's riding a unicorn...

When it comes to art, I like what I like and don't like what I don't like. Problem is, what I like and-or don't like can change from day to day depending on a bunch of factors not least of which is the mood I happen to be in at the time.

Sometimes, for example, I look at the 1e art and think it's damn cool. Other times I look at the same art and think "bleah".

That said, there's certain general themes in the art of different editions that either please me or annoy me. An example of one that annoyed me immensely was the 3e-era phase - both in art and in minis - that had everyone carrying ridiculously oversized weapons.

3E art has aged poorly alongside 4E tbh. Pathfinder as well. Pathfinder cartography is still nice. All imho of course.

WAR being a big offender. So it's going to come down to if you like that style or not. I do not lol.

He's not bad as such I can't do it so no reason to dump on his art all the time or insult those who do like it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The issue is the tendency for the D&D community to not care if that book to be good quality nor early.

New Stuff often is either designed poorly or come out when the edition is dying. Or both.

Good thing I have my own version then.

 

[Zardnaar]

Late edition cycle is when experimental stuff comes out.

Peak edition is usually mid cycle imho.

Most late stuff doesn't stand test of time.

 

[AnotherGuy]

3E art has aged poorly alongside 4E tbh. Pathfinder as well. Pathfinder cartography is still nice. All imho of course.

To be clear in 3e you're not referring to the MM right, or do you also think its art is not great?

 

[Zardnaar]

To be clear in 3e you're not referring to the MM right, or do you also think its art is not great?

MM has aged better. More dungeon punk vibe, sepia town, brown covers with windows, oversized weapons and WAR specifically.

 

[Minigiant]

Splats more niche stuff imho popular stuff will be added to core or in major splats later on. Bladedancers come to mind.

Eberron got made. Not my thing as such but I've bought it regardless because of its execution. I wouldn't add artificers to core though.

I don't like Dragonlance or Ravenloft much I don't object to their existence and I don't expect everyone to like say original Darksun.

Its basically a popularity contest essentially.

Popular stuff often are half heartedly designed if they don't line up with the conservative view in D&D and many RPGs.

If you are lucky, it's accidentally good like druid. Or accidentally mid like artificer.

But most of the time you get monkified or sorcererized. Something non-traditional designed bad or boring that takes almost a decade to be fixed.