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It seems to me that a lot has been revealed in this playtest so far, with more being brought to the surface everyday, seems like. Why pile more material out there when the bugs are still being worked out on this batch? Mentioning Caves of Chaos got me to thinking. I have the playtest packet...

To you they're bad. Not to me. And I think that's the target audience. Why should it? What's wrong with a game directly appealing to a specific demographic? Appealing to a new crowd, younger or not, does not have to be a mission goal for every RPG, especially one that has directly and...

I preordered the Gold version of the book. It is, indeed, impressive and beautiful. Fantastic art leaps out. My personal favorite of the newer artists is Peter Mullen, whose work stands shoulder-to-shoulder with that of the classic artists who have work in the game. I think it's worthwhile to...

That also struck me as a little odd. Is it possible the person was just being snide about the use of Imperial units? I've seen some scorching reviews by Europeans of cookbooks written in the US that use Imperial units. Regardless, as you point out, it seems like a non-issue and a waste of a...

I could cite plenty of instances from literature like Lord of the Rings (not the movies, the books) or Conan or Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars books where the heroes catch a second wind or bring themselves back from the brink due to sheer willpower. Also, given that Gygax himself cited comic books...

D&D wasn't created to simulate D&D. It was created to simulate adventures in fantasy worlds like in Appendix N of the 1e DMG. There are few healers in any of those books. D&D simulating D&D is a weakness, not a strength, and is a more recent phenomenon that has limited the scope of the game.

What part do you disagree with? Because it's easy enough to cite the voluminous tales that don't include a healing character. I would hazard a guess that this trope came about only due to the influence of D&D and other RPGs. Certainly there are some examples pre-D&D, but they're rare. The point...

Which is fantastic. Adventuring parties without a healer of some kind along - like, say, a band of barbaric fighters or a dwarven infantry squad - should be able to push on in a D&D adventure as their literary and legendary counterparts do. Very few such tales ever have a specific "healer" or...

I'm sure they do see it as a positive that we're all examining what they say like it was the Tetragrammaton. As a gamer and their intended audience, I've definitely noticed and appreciated their coming out of their shell and engaging the audience directly. Reminds me of the early days of 3e...

Yep, I think you articulated it well. Still, one would think they'd have learned by now to be a bit more precise in what they say in interviews like that. I'm put in mind of the early assertion that they were working on an edition that would allow all editions to be played, and we saw people...

I understand the confusion, and I think what Mearls said isn't as clear as it could have been. What I took it to mean (and I could be wrong in my interpretation) when he said "[s]till, a guy who takes a combat-based is only marginally better than a character who takes a theme that focuses...

Even if Tweet had only worked on Ars Magica and nothing else, my interest would have been piqued. The amount of D&D experience of these two designers makes it even more intriguing.

Important, but not anywhere near the foundation or the most fun of the game. Playing the character is the foundation, subjecting it to the stresses of the world, seeing what needs to be improved and changed or replaced - much like playtesting a game system. D&D characters start out fairly weak...

I'm definitely on the Gygaxian side of the spectrum here. I think it's important to note that Gygax wrote with the assumption that the reader was mature and fairly well-read. He didn't talk down to his audience. I think that kind of assumption is welcomed by adults, and presents a positive...

Oh for God's sake...like I was serious. Good Lord. No, Umbran, not really. It's called "hyperbole." The point is that the decision should not have to take 4 years to make. No matter how it's rationalized, it should not take this long to decide to sell pdfs again.

The Manhattan Project took six years to make an atom bomb. WotC has taken something like half that time (or more, and counting) investigating digital versions of 30 year old modules. I think they've had the time to figure something out.

Yes, and my point was that they are effectively punishing people like me who don't pirate stuff. Why it's taking them so long to figure out that selling them again means free money is beyond me.

I'm talking about their back catalog stuff, from OD&D through 1e and 2e. Most of those were going for $5 each, which is usually a lot cheaper than you'll pay for vintage copies on eBay or Amazon.

I've said it often, but I'll say it again: I think it was a big mistake for WotC to pull those pdfs from sale. It couldn't have stemmed the tide of piracy; that will go on without the pdfs being available for sale, maybe even more so. So all it did was deprive people like me who are happy to buy...

Yeah, I get that now, it just wasn't clear that was the sticking point when I posted. I've been going under the assumption that Next would appear in 2013, probably at GenCon, given that WotC seems to have refocused on that con.