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Has he recently released hard numbers? Based on figures posted here and there, I'd be shocked if they've sold 5000 copies. (And that's including the massively discounted $1.35 PDFs they were selling a couple weeks ago.) I'd probably have a stroke if they've sold more than 10,000. For WotC and...

What lesson? That you can create a bestselling game by placing yourself at the apex of the largest amount of support material ever produced for a roleplaying game in history? Because that's what happened. And then it happened again when WotC abandoned that apex and left a massive vacuum for...

It's not going to happen. (1) The actual retro market is incredibly minuscule compared to the existing D&D and Pathfinder markets. Most of that market is incredibly conservative and you're never going to make any appreciable inroads in picking them up. (2) 3.5/Pathfinder gamers generally like...

You're free to play however you like at your own table. But you made an assertion about what other people do and don't find disruptive at their tables which was false. And you got called on it. Sorry if that upsets you. Good example. That's the kind of thing that even...

I'd appreciate it if you gained a little tolerance for elemental rhetorical techniques. Thanks. (I'd take your "outrage" more seriously if your original post hadn't been a thinly veiled group attack and your reply wasn't completely off-topic.) Isn't that the exact same answer both before and...

Not really. The D20 market did exactly what Ryan Dancey was saying he wanted it to do before 3rd Edition was released. What changed was the leadership at WotC. The new leadership disliked the OGL and, as a result, they failed to capitalize on it. (They nevertheless benefited from it. But they...

Maybe it's just that I'm primarily a GM, but this kind of mechanics-only focus is part of the problem. I'd find it disruptive no matter where it's coming from at the table. "I use Rainbow Blades." "Okay, but what are you actually doing?" "Using Rainbow Blades." "But what are you actually...

I think you mean "predictable and completely understandable". Particularly in the context of this thread. It's pretty easy to see why: From OD&D through AD&D2, games published under the D&D trademark shared a core gameplay with such little variation that people would routinely use products...

Are you playing your RPGs solo or something?

What you're struggling to put your thumb on here is that 4E features dissociated mechanics to a degree previously unprecedented in D&D. While such mechanics can often be explained post hoc, this process of explanation is distinctly different from that found in roleplaying game mechanics. This...

Here's the thing: Fudging is antithetical to everything I enjoy about roleplaying games. Is it hypothetically possible that some day I'll change my opinion about what I enjoy about roleplaying games? Sure. But until that day comes, fudging sucks and it's never going to happen when I'm running a...

11 cents per pawn. Pretty reasonable. I'll be holding out for the actual list of contents, however. A lot will depend on which creatures get multiple pawns and how many multiples we get.

I'm not really clear what you think this has to do with what I said. Hmm... You use the word "likewise" but claim to have no idea what the word "like" means? Curiouser and curiouser.

I'm not sure that's actually possible before the worldwide web. Games like Cowboys & Indians and other games of "let's pretend" go back for centuries. What primarily distinguishes RPGs from those games are rules for action resolution. Once you've got the worldwide web, those resolution...

No. You've still beaten the scenario as it was designed. Whether or not that design was any good is a separate question. I suspect this matters strongly if the scenario is (a) railroaded and/or (b) dependent on tactically-focused My Perfect Encounters(TM). That design methodology is incredibly...

Right. I think it boils down to motivation: If an NPC changes their plans or outlook because the situation suggests that they should, that's not fudging. If an NPC changes their plans because you, as a GM, want the change the outcome of the encounter, that's fudging. Or to put it another way...

My two bits: (1) When I , as a player, have realized that fudging is going on I simply disconnect from the experience and stop enjoying the game. This is not a conscious choice on my part; it's just the reaction that I have. (2) As a GM, I have observed that the most memorable moments are...

Ptolus, Tsar Rising, and Rappan Athuk Reloaded.

Ah. I see the confusion. "Theme park" is a specific term of art when used to describe MMOs. The idea is that there are specific rides (i.e. quests) that the players get on. WoW is pretty much the poster-boy for the entire genre. The term refers to actual theme parks, not a sim game from the '90s.

WoW is a theme-parrk MMO.