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The Thirty Years of Adventure coffee table art book actually does this to some extent. No stats or maps or anything. But it gives a short run down of all the major settings with some evocative art. It doesn't go into enough depth for anyone to run a game, but as a resource to just give people...

I'm a Mystara fan from way back who doesn't play 4e (or 3.x e). I have to wonder what WotC could sell that would interest both me and a new-ish 4e player who isn't particularly familiar with Mystara. Would a book that is 9/10ths 4e character builds for the setting interest either of us...

Erol Otus' artwork IS D&D to me. But I imagine the art direction will be - and should be - whatever is most likely to get a 13-15 year old boy to open the book.

I play in a B/X campaign right now, and aside from old edition .pdf's (back when they were available) have bought two, maybe three, new D&D products from the license holder of the D&D brand over the last 15 or so years. I do, however, frequently purchase new rpg materials, for D&D-ish clones...

No doubt at all. This same disconnect is present in late-1e and 2e as most infamously exhibited in the Dragonlance modules "obscure death" rule for certain pcs and npcs. The D&D support materials changed with the general shift in fantasy literature - that began in the late '70s and culminated...

If Bob's a grown up, I'll treat Bob like he's a grown up that understands the rules of the game and can somehow find a way to entertain himself for a few minutes while the other players take their turns.

It completely depends. I'm not going to run over my 5 year old son when playing basketball. I'm going to teach him how to play and make sure he has fun. I'm going to compete hard against my brother, though. Because if we allow each other to make layup after layup, it's no fun. If my...

In both of your cases, the "do over" is openly expressed and agreed to by all the participants. They are not done in secret.

I don't like fudging as a player or a DM. I want things rolled in the open to the greatest extent possible. If rolling in the open ends in a result we, as a group, don't like, we can discuss it and change it if needed. But it's a group decision and everyone knows what's happening.

That's true. But I've seen a lot of perplexed "why do these guys who liked [Old Game] not like [New Game That Isn't All That Much Like Old Game]?" type of posts before. We need to know why lapsed players lapsed in the first place. Your earlier post seemed to envision players who were...

For what it's worth, the gamer you describe in your post fits the guys who created OSRIC to an absolute tee. They came back to gaming in their mid-30s, found modern games wanting, and went back to what they liked when they were kids. EDIT: The thing is, I find that retro-clone players like...

This point was raised by me and others when Mearls had a similar column awhile back. One of the big issues with complexity dials or layers or whatever you want to call it is presentation. If you bury your 90 pages of lowest level complexity rules in 450 pages of rule books filled with...

I think one issue is how much many of us rpg'ers associate being gamers with being consumers of gaming materials. To many of us, purchasing more product is a big part of the hobby. Thus when product we like stops being produced, we feel like we're being forced from participating in a major...

I think the Gothic influences of early D&D got there by way of Universal and Hammer horror films, EC comics, Lovecraft and Lovecraft pastiches. I think it's especially underappreciated how much those Universal monster movies contributed to the mish-mash that was early D&D.

This finally out? I really liked the first box. I remember looking through the playtest rules for the second box, but can't remember a thing about them. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on the finished product.

Depending on the DM's style, ability scores may be relatively unimportant in B/X D&D and OD&D. If the DM isn't calling for rolls against ability scores all the time, you might go whole sessions where your strength, intelligence or whatever score never comes up. It is entirely possible to play...

WotC didn't burn the village down to save it. WotC built a new village on top of the one that burned down.

Let me try this one more time, and see if you can't try reading my post without inserting words that I didn't write into it... Why would you (or anyone) prefer WotC to make "D&D 5e" instead of "WotC's new FRPG"? It's the answer to that question that I don't understand.

I have found, while converting various 3.x adventures to 1e and B/X D&D that the conversion effort is significant enough to be of no less effort than simply making my own adventures. The devil really is in the details. Movement rates, areas of effect, duration of spells and magical effects...

I think you're reading more hostility into my original post than I meant to convey. I was trying to express confusion more than anything. I really don't understand the drive to be on the edition treadmill. You do raise a legitimate point, and re-reading my original post, I see that I didn't...