Search results

Nobody but existing hobbyists cares about the mechanics. WotC cares about them to the exclusion of other things because it no longer has a framework to support creative initiatives outside of raw game design. People want to play heroes in imaginary worlds. WotC has no idea how to make the play...

I was speaking more about the rapid edition turnover. Palladium . . . sheesh. Not touching that one.

Yeah, in 2008. They're still around. Another example is of course WotC itself with Magic: The Gathering.

Many of these symptoms were actually there by 3.5. Basically, WotC avoided the so-called "supplement treadmill" for perhaps 3 years (and given how line management works this was probably contemplated as early as 2002). The company dropped brown softcovers pretty damned quick and eventually took...

In my plan? Four distinct demographic tiers get varying levels of support starting with tweens, who get a very accessible implementation of D&D similar to the red box concept, but without the dead end aspects of prior intro sets. Extensions of this set follow gamers through high school, and...

It's not what I heard from Eddy Webb after asking him point blank if Mage was cancelled and the game has upcoming electronic product. In the new model virtually everything is released that way first then moved to PoD so no game has conventional inventory beyond core books - and Vampire, Mage...

No, they haven't cancelled Mage. One Mage book came with an ambiguous afterword because WW hadn't quite figured out how they were going to present tabletop support. Even though I've written for the company including creating the most toolboxy things around, I dislike toolboxes. But even though...

It doesn't need to be that extreme. If the Strix do anything in books along a timeline contemporaneous with the default time of play, it's metaplot.

Okay. First, we need to face the fact that the D&D brand is a shambles thanks to mismanagement before its current ownership, misunderstanding of how it might be leveraged into other fields right up to the present, faddish thinking, a poor appreciation for D&D's strengths and recently by a...

This one is straight up mechanical. From 2nd on, Mage: The Ascension's spelllcasting difficulty ratings make high ranking magic less powerful than low ranking magic. Psychokinesis with Forces 2 rules. It might (depending on victim's Sta and defenses) only be beat with direct Pattern attacks...

As someone who worked on an SR book I can tell you that supplements and precedents created by plots are way more influential in that game than they ever were in the old World of Darkness. Some of this is extremely subtle, such as precedents in technology. Others have to do with the uncertain...

I'd date the first definite metaplot in AD&D to the Time of Troubles. DL was a straight book adaptation and a different kind of thing, but the Time of Troubles did things like forcibly change character classes through in-world events.

Metaplot is the single most common request/desire I hear from fans. Online fandom is far, far more opinionated about this than folks I meet at conventions, gatherings, etc. Throwing them out is generally a mistake in any game world where you desire investment in it as something with its own...

Well the facts seem to trump your speculations. 1) It isn't speculation to say that the demand exists because people are already buying iPads. If you were right, they wouldn't sell. 2) Tablets are shaping up to be cheaper than traditional computers when it comes to getting a device that does...

I read technology news. Every major consumer electronics manufacturer has tablets due in this period, and many of them are around $300 to try to compete with the iPad on price point. Meanwhile, if I recall correctly Apple will probably report that the iPad has shipped in excess of 28 million...

Sub-$300 capacitive tablets are pretty much going to murder this excuse by Q1-2 2011 at the latest.

Because I want to be able to create a blacksmith of superlative skill who does not also have the ability to waste orcs. Forcing me to create one sucks. PCs are the most talented at all skills in 3e because 3e's skill system is damaged to appease the egos of players who want to show up...

1) It's not unfair to comment on a history of not following through with promises. It is *irksome* that in both 3e and 4e, electronic support marketing was heavily focused on things they had not have built and did not deliver. Honestly, that sucks. 2) At this stage in the game, DDI has to be...

The trouble is that the commoner is also competent at adventuring related stuff. A 7th level commoner is better in a fight than most low level PCs. He's tougher than a 1st level fighter. A PC can be just as good (and probably better) without even performing the skill for a living. This is the...

Thanks to level dependent skills 3e needs commoners with levels to make better blacksmith than your cleric who dumps a few points in from time to time, and 4e needs the same ice to be twice more slippery for 20th level guys than 10th level guys.