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P.T. Barnum would be proud.

There is a RPG called Earthdawn that had a great system for magic items. The more you learned about the item, the more powerful it became. By learning the history of the item and perhaps following in the footsteps of the creator, you could unlock powers. Only the GM knew the extent of the...

I love 0e and 4e for their ease of DMing. My eventual interest in 5e will depend almost entirely on my experience as a DM.

I enjoyed the Warlord in 4e. I would like to see something similar in 5e, but I am okay with them being a tactical leader instead of a healer.

It's amazing how neutered the RPG world has become. Hollywood and video game companies know that Sex & Violence sells. Gygax and crew understood that too, but the 70s were a far more honest time than today. Strangely, the anti-nudity brigade claims that women will be offended by cheesecake...

I have never found TSR or WotC magic items to be "magical" enough for my tastes. The problem is as soon as you know everything an item can do, then it ceases to be magical and just another tool. Though the best D&D magic item chart was in the Diablo supplement. That was seriously awesome and...

Sadly by the rules of the Internet, we must now fight to death!!!! En garde Enrious! Which is insane. It's like saying our ice cream tastes like Chocolate and Vanilla. And if you really love Strawberry, it apparently will taste like Strawberry too. Ben & Jerry must not have the mad...

If I pick up 5e and it feels like 3e to me, then I will happily wait until 6e to look at more WotC product. If I pick up 5e and love it, then I don't care about any modular aspects designed to appeal to 3e fans. But I am odd case. I love 0e and 4e. I love 0e for the amazing flexibility and I...

It's not debatable. We live in an era of digital gaming. People expect to be able to play their favorite game 24/7 from home. If you can't give them that experience, your game will just be yet another dead tree product in the tiny, shrinking niche of TTRPGs. The money is in the digital realm...

I run Swords & Wizardry at our local Game Day and I advertise it as "Classic D&D". It's the best title for my heavily house ruled game. There is definitely a desire to come home. I did not enjoy 3e and bailed before 3.5. It was weird suddenly not being part of D&D which I had been since 1978...

Does Hasbro have a geriatrics department? Maybe 5e can be handled by the makers of Depends and Ensure since they can best appeal to D&D's aging demographic that 5e believes can save them.

You know why gamers fear changing editions? Because I come their house and burn all their old books! Yes, its time to admit it. I'm that Pyro Santa Claus who sneaks into houses of naughty gamers who don't immediately pre-order the newest edition and BLAMMO their old collection goes up in smoke...

They can pay attention to TSR. In the early 80s, TSR marketed and advertised AD&D in almost every corner of a teenage male's life. They did massive advertising. As a kid, D&D was the shiznack! Whether you played or not, you knew about D&D. 4e's "failure" has nothing to do with the system. WotC...

I want completely unbalanced combats and random, brutal psycho character death. And that's why I love 0e and Warhammer. As part of 5e's "modularity", I would like to see the DM choose the lethality of the campaign without feeling constrained by the rules. I was happy with the lethality of...

The D&D fanbase is hugely fragmented. 5e is only going to fragment the fanbase further. Also, since it will be a modular game, practically nobody is going to play the same version of 5e which then fragments the 5e fans from day one. The only thing that can unite D&Ders is a truly awesome and...

I like running Swords & Sorcery, not High Fantasy. In my 0e games, the magic user is tremendously powerful, but he must choose when to cast and mostly does not. It creates a different kind of world than my 4e game where the entire world is heavily infused with gonzo magic. I don't know how 5e...

Negative. The stated goals are impossible. What D&D needs is a heavily marketed VTT that lets people play D&D 24/7, but unlike MMOs, the VTT would offer a human element and the ability to have a character truly affect their game world in a big way. But instead of embracing the digital...

So we are not getting the VTT? AKA, the only thing that can possibly invigorate D&D in the current era? Wow. I guess Hasbro really has no faith in the D&D IP. I can't see 5e succeeding in their "please everyone" fantasy. They can't make it Old School enough to please Old Schoolers at the...

Even in the age of computerized character builders, I am shocked at how many 3e & 4e PC sheets are full of mistakes. Same with White Wolf and of course Hero. I won't ascribe "cheating" to most of them, but just honest mistakes and confusion about rules. That's why I audit PCs for most every...

Like most AD&D GMs, its common for Rifts GMs to have house rules, sometimes extensive house rules with those GMs who have been playing Palladium stuff for decades. And like some AD&D GMs, there are some Rifts GMs who play the game out of the book. Palladium games are very playable - especially...