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I doubt someone would use the term 'disassociated mechanics' on their own. But sorry, it is a real thing. A long-time player of mine puts it more in terms of "the powers are cool and everything, but I prefer just to say what my characters does in the game world, and not be looking at my...

One problem with this model is customers badly underestimate how much invisible professional skill goes into making games, books, etc. All these see is the developer - the main creative author. They don't see the editor, the layout person, the proofer. Those are jobs that people rarely do out of...

Cool. So are you gonna make 'your own' fifth edition publicly available? Because if you are, I'd just like to throw it out there that I appreciate top-notch layout and editing. Also, lots of awesome artwork. Cheers!

Uh, I just gave the context. :erm:

Indeed. Just because something is cited by people engaged in edition warring doesn't mean it's source - or its purpose - is edition warring. I've just wrapped up a seven-month campaign of 4E Essentials with a group of long-time D&D players who never read forums, have never heard of 'edition...

True. But I was disputing the notion that people can't be bothered to get together face-to-face to play games anymore because of the convenience of digital gaming. My local boardgaming convention has grown in size from 200 to over 500 attendees in the space of eight years. Chat with the...

Setting based adventures with some meat on them. A huge ruined city with a regional wilderness around it and a big, fat dungeon beneath. A fey forest with dozens of lairs, NPCs, and weird encounters. A Gothic barony fought over by two warring contestants. A frozen island that's home to a lawless...

As I've said before, Essentials set the game on the trajectory WotC is continuing with 5E - simpler and more familiar - but it was too little too late; many D&Ders had already decided 4E wasn't for them. RAW isn't the game. Particularly when it comes to AD&D. The way it was played out in the...

All of the above applies to boardgames, and yet the boardgame industry and hobby are booming. Turns out that despite the marvels of technology, a lot of people still enjoy getting together face-to-face with friends and engaging their minds.

Put me in this camp. WotC showed in the late 4E era that it could do setting-based, non-epic-linear-story adventure material. The Neverwinter Nights campaign setting. Vor Rukoth. Madness at Gardmore Abbey. I had high hopes that approach would carry forward into 5E. Looks like I was wrong. WotC...

Hang on - so you're claiming millions of people play free story RPGs. Millions. Okay. If you say so.

If we're talking about tabletop roleplaying games, there most certainly are not more people playing today than during the peak of the fad in the 80s. B/X D&D and AD&D books sold in the millions. Pathfinder (the top dog today) sells in the hundreds of thousands. Historically, D&D outsells all...

On the contrary, I think D&D is more popular than you would think by reading forums. Far more people play D&D as a casual activity among friends, in their homes, than the community who talk about RPGs on forums or attend organized events. It's the hardcores who post on forums about class...

Most lapsed gamers are completely oblivious to the OSR. If you don't hang on RPG forums (and why would you if you're a lapsed D&D player), how would you even know games like Labyrinth Lord and Dungeon Crawl Classics exist? The OSR is an online forum community whose enthusiasm masks the fact that...

Fair point! A society, sure. But then we run into the issue of how socially integrated the game world is. An English ship's captain in the age of exploration may have a writ from Queen Elizabeth, but how much goodwill does that buy him when he's forced onto the shores of Madagascar? Or in D&D...

Of course it is. But that flies in the face of the narrative that 5E is engaged in an evenly-matched death struggle with Pathfinder. It's safe to say there a lot of gamers who hope 5E fails. Or that it at least proves less popular than Pathfinder or 4E. They'll interpret any sales data in the...

And that's not even counting the books bought through Chapters, who charge the same price online and had the books first.

Yep. Coming from a background of mainly AD&D, I like the complexity of 5E monsters.

A strong D&D 5E is good for Pathfinder. This hobby suffers relentless attrition of players who get older, get bored, move away from friends, have kids, etc. Pathfinder does not have anywhere close to the capacity to attract players completely new to the hobby that D&D has. Without a strong D&D...

While Adventure Path style linear adventures with heavily plotted stories and ready-made cut scenes may be a popular adventure model, I don't know that it's the only approach WotC needs to take to find a loyal audience. Some players on old-school sites, where 5E is being very well-received, are...