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Same here. Basic stuff like how many spells a wizard has in their spellbook at level 1 is buried in paragraphs of text. It's ridiculous. And no, putting that in a wall of text does not spark the imagination or make the learning the game more immersive.

I think Paizo have learned that "D&D but crunchier and with more scope for PC optimization" isn't nearly as big of a market as it was 10 years ago. The growth in the RPG hobby has been almost entirely in people who are more interested in story and socializing, rather than the types who buy...

While I agree that 5E only really has about 20 pages of rules that a player needs to learn in order to play, I disagree that the natural language used to present those rules makes the game more accessible. It's the format and layout of the rules, rather than their scope or complexity, that makes...

I already said, I enjoy learning new systems. You enjoy learning new systems. Most of the people on this forum enjoy learning new systems. It's the muggles who don't. And because of the peculiar nature of this hobby, a typical group consists of a hyper-nerd (like us), a moderately engaged...

None of my current group, or my last group, are into anime. We’re all 50ish, so it’s more something our kids are into. The tone and assumptions of our D&D games are about as far from anime as you can get.

I can. Because I like learning about rules and systems. Most people don't. Just like most people don't like changing the oil in their cars, even though some weirdos do. I'm not sure why you regard this like some kind of problem that needs to be fixed. If it's a problem at all in the RPG hobby...

Because most people dislike readings rules and learning new systems. Those of us who do - who buy multiple RPGs a year, post about them on forums, and dissect and analyze their mechanics - we are weirdos. Even by the standards of people who play tabletop games we're weirdos. Out of the dozens...

Combat optimization became a central element with the parallel release of 3rd edition and the growth of online forums. The fact some communities of longtime players intensely disliked 3e, to the point where you were not allowed to even mention that edition, shows that the game was not always...

Critics also have to be somewhat detached from the book or movie they’re reviewing so they can analyze it. Their job is to think deliberately about elements that most readers/viewers don’t think about at all. If you look at this forum, you see the same thing with games; most of us who post here...

I was jealous of kids who had access to Dragon from the library. We unsuccessfully lobbied our school library to get a subscription. And not to derail the thread, but what was it like being a kid growing up playing D&D in Lake Geneva at that time? Did you go to the famous TSR store? Play in the...

I don’t know if it has been mentioned yet, but the English version of the Gnomes coffee table book was released in 1977 and became a big best-seller. It wouldn’t surprise me if that played into the inclusion of gnomes as a playable race in AD&D. Gygax was throwing all sorts of stuff from the...

They were. If you played D&D in 1980 there was a very high probability you also played Squad Leader, Kingmaker, Titan, and Divine Right.

I bought that issue at release. What a trip down memory lane. Divine Right was highly popular at the time, and I remember enjoying the article about Mivioir, one of the more powerful nations in the game and one I enjoyed playing. Looking at the dates of these early issues always throws me for a...

At the end of a soccer match, a sports reporter can craft the match into a story. However, the players are not deliberately collaborating in crafting a story while they’re running around the field trying to put the ball in the net. They’re just trying to score more goals than their opponent. I...

For my part, the quantity of books published isn’t disappointing so much as the narrowness of the content. Mega-campaigns and the occasional spurt of new player options... that’s about it. WotC publishes almost nothing to support DMs who run their own campaign settings and adventures. Books of...

We could identify 7 or 8 strategies WotC have employed with the release and support of 5E (system, artwork, marketing, release tempo, etc). It‘s impossible to identify which of those are responsible for the success of D&D, or even how much WotC strategies are responsible relative to external...

This is the way we ran things as well. Nothing tabulated until an adventure/module was complete. For longer adventures that might be 5 or 6 sessions. Then the DM handed the players a list of all the treasure acquired. While the players carried out a draft of treasure and magic items, the DM...

Or they care about games as games at the table. The char build game only became a thing in D&D with 3rd edition. To an earlier generation of players, getting through the Tomb of Horrors alive, using a pregen character, was a true test of player skill. Char op is an element of the game that some...

One thing I have trouble understanding is why - if so many players out there really do help develop the setting, craft collaborative stories, and make rulings on the mechanics - there's such a shortage of GMs? Because a player doing all that stuff is 80 per cent of the way to being a GM.

This is a great point. A player may be reluctant to raise a criticism or judgement of another player’s wishes because, absent the defined role of GM, it could come across as personal. It‘s why a soccer play may be reluctant to call out a teammate who complains to referee all the time - best to...