Recent content by PHATsakk43

Volo's Guide to Monsters is probably the best or second best 5E non-core book. I probably use Xanathar's a bit more though. VGtM has a very old-school 2E feel to it I'll have to admit.

From the consensus of "best" it appears that 2E was the majority of people's jam. Certainly is mine, if I can only get people to play 5E with me.

It was truly elucidating. I really feel that Dragon #79 has been explained in such thoughtful and complete manner after seeing this pop up from when I last followed this thread, in August of last year.

@JLowder thanks for the reply. If no one else thanks you for Jergal, well, thanks.

@JLowder thanks for chiming in. I suppose with the insight that you’re providing, it does add some much needed clarity to the discussion. As someone who got into the game around 1990, it really felt like TSR was a juggernaut. I was completely blindsided by the bankruptcy and acquisition by...

I think this gets to a good point. It doesn’t seem that TSR was loosing out on the IP side, but on the publishing and distribution side. To be honest, I posted a while back that had the company focused on a few core products in the game sphere and instead focused their efforts on the...

GDW was hit because while D&D wasn’t a path way to devil worship, it was the gateway drug to TTRPGs.

I can attest that D&D was absolutely equated with Satanism when I was getting into the game in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I hid my copy of B/X Basic books with their covers torn off in folders with my Playboy stash, and was actually far more afraid of my guardians finding D&D stuff than...

If I were to assign alignment, I’d give it a solid Lawful-Neutral. I’ve never had any issues there, but it’s not a place I felt particularly comfortable. It seems well moderated and ran. Definitely not anything personally against DF. I just personally like the “vibe” at enworld, rpg.net, &...

Being wrong doesn’t mean that those who are angry for a logical fallacy don’t stop being angry when it’s pointed out. People have been righteously indignant before social media.

It’s weird, I honestly can remember when the internet was basically just game, car, firearm, & computer “fandoms” for a lack of a better term. Social media actually did more damage than anything to those forums. I’ve gotten out of the “official” social media and went back to the boards in the...

As a greasemonkey who was involved in many Web 1.0 & 2.0 car forums, the hostility towards people posting a question that had already been asked was very intense. Bumping and thread-necro was likewise a good way to get banned or booted. I’ve only recently gotten into general TTRPG forums with...

Given some of the things that Gary was responding to, I also have gained some sympathy for his latter position. There was, for instance an open letter suggesting that TSR was ripping off the gaming community by selling “75¢ worth of Xeroxed copy for $10.” Then suggesting that everyone should...

Yeah, one of the biggest takeaways I got from reading through some of the Alarums & Excursions back-and-forths between Gary and others was how much contempt there was even then. It seemed like it was still a minority, but there was obviously a vocal one that didn’t really want someone in Geneva...

Help? Seriously, like she was a board member, shareholder, and a company officer. She knew what was going on and that Gary was not able to get the Blume's out, because neither he personally, nor the credit of TSR was able to meet the Blume's demands. Even in with the most generous story in...