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This is a good point. In fact, the Hackmaster (4E) Gamemaster's Guide caused me to pause for thought the other week when I found the section on torture. It immediately made me think of the ramifications regarding the tone of the campaign that features such as a given (i.e. that it's AD&D as...

The riddle of the rust monster is that a lot of things that are fun, aren't fair, and a lot of things that are fair...aren't fun. But then, a lot of things that are unfair aren't fun, and a lot of things that are unfun aren't fair. It doesn't make sense. Wookiees living on Endor just does not...

April DRAGON Magazine issues, and many a DUNGEON Magazine adventure (e.g. singing ambulatory mushrooms, crabmen romances etc.) picked up the slack for 2E in this area, I think. And of course there was Dragonmirth in every issue...

Agreed...both D&D (pre-WOTC varieties) and AD&D are whimsy city. I was reading up on an Amulet of Caterpillar Control last night (for when you need to control 4-24 caterpillars, naturally), and the penny dropped on just how much has been left behind in the road towards codification. It's...

Rules Cyclopedia (BECM) Priests Spell Compendium 1-3 (2E) Wizards Spell Compendium 1-4 (2E) Encyclopedia Magica 1-4 (2E) Okay, that's eleven...but there is enough D&D playability to last multiple lifetimes there.

Bioware was an amazing company, and responsible for BG2. They took the cream of 2E and FR and turned it into something special. Because it's a computer game they have to be specific about details, and realise the realms in full colour. They also probably had a much bigger budget than WOTC...

Thunder Rift is perfect for your needs. It has one 32 page sourcebook, a bunch of adventures (which are best used as loose inspiration and rewritten if you use them at all, I don't really rate them)....and that's it. The things which make it good as a sandbox is that it is extremely small...

I'd have a look at Dungeon Squad!...the rules are about 3 pages and it invites extensive modification, not half because it's so easy to modify. It also takes the emphasis off the rules because they're so simple. Dungeon Squad - 1KM1KT Probably a bit clunky in terms of balance and not much...

I'm talking about perceptions, though. Even if you accept 1E with all it's warts (e.g. even if you decide that theives are outrageously underpowered and the rules supporting them are awkward by default, but that we'll make it work somehow, anyway), even if you do that.... ....if you let...

I'll go out on a limb here and say that specifically it's splatbooks offering PC ability powerups that kill editions. BECMI is unbalanced by the weapon mastery optional rules. Weapon masters can flatten encounters that would challenge a party not using the rules. 1E is unbalanced by Unearthed...

Only I'm not claiming that. You're just constructing a straw man for your own purposes there. I'm telling you that you're misunderstanding my post, and can't pin me down on that, because that's not what I meant. If you want a fight, you can attack my contention that 4E did "fire" a lot of...

No. I'll reword it so you can understand a little better. The gist of it was that the 3E designers were tempted to do more of a complete overhaul with 3E than they did (perhaps on the scale of 4E), but they didn't know whether such a dramatic departure would be accepted so they erred on the...

I didn't come up with this "fire the customer" thing out of thin air, but it is just rumor (my memory tells me that one of Ryan Dancey's posts or one of Monte Cook's blogs was probably the source, but I'm not sure, so don't quote me on that). The story as interpreted it goes that they were...

See, this strikes me as potentially the kind of superficial thinking that got D&D into this position. Hands up who was introduced to the game through friends? What does that imply? Phenomenons like Facebook (seemingly Gleemax), WoW (seemingly online tabletop), New York Times online (seemingly...

I saw some advertising professionals on a show on the advertising industry who disagree with you. The example they gave that even a church needs to advertise to and cater to it's existing follower base (i.e. the "hardcore") or they eventually leave. You need to work to keep the foundation...

Sorry Umbran, but I don't see it. He may as well have "offered thanks" to the creators of the internet, the PC, and AC/DC current for enabling this. If anyone's on the hook for what's "appropriate", a word of thanks (and IMO, in some cases, apology) to Gygax and Arneson from the 3E and 4E...

Didn't I tell you to lay off the psychobabble?

Oh come on, enough facetiousness and calling other geeks geeks, you geek. It's like student politics - viciously fought because so little is at stake. I suppose you can belittle the fanaticism of fans, but they're the ones buying your books. Maybe if you trivialise what you do enough, it...

Probably none, I doubt they're listening with any sympathy. No-one's going to slap their forehead after listening to someone written off as a "toxic customer" or someone "impossible to please" and recant most of "the design that will save D&D" that they've invested so much of themselves in...

I'm not sure that every "toxic customer" even wants a resolution or reacceptance. Yes, we are powerless, and you've already abandoned us, and some of us have refused to go gently into that dark night with nary a whimper. Saying you don't want us back anyway is kind of predictable given you're...