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How many people do you think are actually pen & paper D&D game designers on the WotC payroll as FTE’s? I think about 20-25. The deep kernel of D&D is a small company.

I went with “Core Rules only”, specific DM permission on request for any other ruled when I restarted D&D in 1996 (with AD&D because 2e annoyed me). I suspect a lot of DM’s (no idea on percentage) have gotten fed up with rules bloat over the decades and appreciate WotC basically supporting that...

Yeah. I read in The NY Times today about how Disney is blowing it on the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) by not only making too much content, but making it so complicated and obscure, it’s inaccessible to new customers, leaving an audience of only the ardent, and even they need refreshers at...

Yes on the first part. No idea what you’re talking about on the second.. I suspect your claim of “highest selling” needs a lot of asterisks.

I hope you’re right, but you never know.

Disagree on both counts. That seems highly unlikely. Maybe with non-inflation adjusted USD, like how Hollywood likes to claim “record” box office for things like Avatar, that actually sold far fewer seats than the real top blockbuster movies like “Gone with the Wind“ and the original “Star...

Well, 2nd or 3rd Golden Age, I agree i’s the popularity and broad mainstream appeal that defines it. Fair. I assume Hasbro will continue to causes crises for D&D and burn the brand, one way or another, until it’s about as dead as 2e in 1997. But it’s an assumption, and currently looks far...

Agree with your definition. Disagree with your timeline. To me, the Golden Ages were: Golden Age: 1978-1987. Began with AD&D hardcovers systematizing booklets and magazines. Ended with 2e era. I posit everything that makes D&D great is from this era. Golden Phoenix era: 2001-2005...

I tend to agree, but I think 5e was a large improvement on 4e - and walked back much of it. But that’s for you and me. I still DM 3.5e, because I like it best and think of it as the final iteration of AD&D. For the for-profit IP owner (currently Hasbro, but I hope that changes), they have to...

No one told me about this election.

Your community and mine seem to disagree on whether the Druid is acceptable. And in general about how much to whinge that rules are “unacceptable“. In 3e/3.5e, I’ve DM’d druids, and the Druid player, me the DM, and the other players never had any problem with RAW for the class. 4e I don’t...

New isn’t alway better. Fads are often crap. Some old ideas - whether good or not - come back as retro cool. I’d say most of what makes D&D great is classic stuff - some of it older than RPG’s, like the concepts of make believe, playing war, elves, spells, werewolves that it brought together...

Agree on the past. I’m not sure I know precisely what may happen in 2024 though. You have 100% been paying more attention to that than me, but my Hasbro trust gauge is on “E”.

I’d say 5e was roughly 75% 3.5e or earlier (recalling a design principle of 3e was to retain the 10 core things that made earlier D&D versions “D&D”, some of which 4e dropped), 10% 4e, and 15% new stuff. I hope 2024 is 90+% 5e.

To pick one, Goliaths. 5e would be #1 with or without them. No one would miss them if they were never put in D&D.

Larian did this with BG3. It can be done. But someone somewhere is no doubt complaining about it.

My preferred system is 3.5e. I’ve “spawned” two new DM’s in 2023 alone, who also prefer and run 3.5e - one who started with AD&D, the other younger than 5e. We’ve all played 5e and think “it’s fine”. My point is, even people who aren’t 5e fans like it well enough to play it if that’s what’s...

AD&D 1e had psionics. You rolled for it. But presumably a different version in the 2e splatbook.

I don’t think D&D actually “needs” any of those things. I like the bard and simple relationship of ability scores to modifiers, which both came from 3e innovation. I tolerate the sorcerer, also from 3e, but I don’t think it added much to the game. The rest, I don’t even like. Yes. Because...

I suspect you’re right. I suspect Hasbro wants to go fully digital (no more books) using subscriptions. And in-house video games, though so far Dark Alliance - which I think sucked but technically was functional - is the best they have to show for massive spending across multiple studios...