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An observation...JRR Tolkien, JK Rowling, Terry Pratchett and Gary Gygax are giants of fantasy, and they all have something in common. Tolkien: Started with an elven language, made world and story from that. Character names, history and songs echo it. Pratchett: Most character and place names...

I don't care about the way you play 4E. 4E as a whole is irrelevant to me, except insofar as it is taking up space as to what currently passes for in-print D&D, and what it bodes for the future of the game.

A player in Gygax's group from the OD&D days is not in "any old time gaming group", and in a position to know what the designers intended. And also in a position to know how people actually played the game. You're the false authority here.

Thousands? How early are we talking? In the early days, fantasy minis mostly didn't even exist. They had enough trouble sourcing polyhedral dice. Where you gonna get your bugbears from, a booster pack? Why not pick up some M:tG cards while you're there? Better get on ebay while you're at...

A member of Gygax's group from back in the day has contradicted your interpretation.

The text of the OD&D books explicitly tells you that the rules do not assume use of miniatures! And the usual way to play was without them! All you've done is draw out assumptions based on what you're reading into the text based on what you want to believe, when the book itself and people who...

It was only called that "because we didn't know what else to call it", according to one of Gygax's players (RPG as a term hadn't been coined at that stage), and the text explicitly says that the rules don't assume the use of minis. And fantasy minis mostly did not exist back then, and the...

No, I think that it's niche game design, whereas D&D's game design used to support a broader church of play styles (probably more through good luck than good judgement). IMO it's extremist in design philosophy and resulting play style, and is viable I think in spite of that. Some will pat it...

This has been soundly refuted in other threads. OD&D didn't assume the use of miniatures, most didn't use them, and even said it didn't in the text. It offered little tactical options, and had swift combat resolution. 4E is the odd man out here, much as wishful thinking and assumption would...

I don't see the refutation, here. It's trading off of a name, yes I agree. But the game design has arguably changed quite dramatically from including a broad church of play styles to a rather narrow niche (e.g. long gamist tactical combats based on miniatures). It's a testament to the power...

From what we've heard of WOTC's sales related to the legal case, the majority of the former D&D audience are not buying 4E, with sales in the hundreds of thousands and the former audience estimated in the millions, from memory.

Nope. It only proves that the brand name is powerful. I think the majority would initially trust the book which has that name on it to be D&D. Some subset of the former audience would be happy with what was offered, and another maybe realise that it didn't do what it said on the tin in living...

I think you've got it backwards. Where it used to cater to a broad church, it now serves a niche taste, such that some of us don't even identify it as D&D anymore.

Why are they silly? Because you, a 4E fan, don't see anything to be saved from? An in-print 3E clone does represent saviour from the 4E game for some, make no mistake.

The 8-sided d4s here: em4miniatures SPECIALIST POLYDICE ...are bigger than regular 16mm d8s (they're about 18mm I think), so difficult to confuse with them. I've retired all caltrops in favour of them.

Yes....but be sure you bring this thing along for the ride: NPC Designer It's free, now, although the page doesn't say so. Essential software, do not miss.

They keep trying that. I see no-one recommending these incomplete and unsupported intro games, though, because they're obviously a bad deal when compared to "the real McCoy"...which you'll have to buy anyway, if you like them. As a thought experiment, I'd assume that people won't buy an...

Even Apple has it's iPod shuffles alongside it's other models as an entry to their line, though. Perhaps D&D needs an entry game that is not incomplete and unsupported, appearing as an obvious bait and switch for an upgrade to the fully supported game. For whatever reason, it hasn't really...

But D&D is not (or was not?) M:tG, and I understand that it's been done before successfully. I gather that the BECMI sets were a big success for TSR internationally, according to at least one former TSR staff member.

It's as "factual" as your "facts". This is priceless - you first hiding over at CM, then hiding behind the skirts of the moderators. Nothing more need be said, it speaks for itself. Now run along and abuse me over at CM, there's a good chap.