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Because if I, say, need to remind myself what the save DC to maintain a Concentration spell is, I need to flip to the Magic section of the 2014 PHB, then skim it until I find the rule. While with the 2024 rules, I just go to the C section of the Rules Glossary. The PHB, as the primary book of...

Aw, no more funny disclaimers!

The Egbert case in 1979 drove tremendous growth in 1980 and 1981. The Satanic Panic is a later phenomenon that continued to dog TSR through the mid-80s. As mentioned in the latest episode, Gygax's appearance on 60 Minutes with Pat Pulling of BADD (founded in 1983) was in 1985, a month before he...

The fact that they were once credited indicates that WotC, at least, at one time conceded that they had made some kind of contribution. That depends on your definition of wrong, I think. Are they morally or ethically wrong? Probably not, based on what we know. It's WotC's prerogative to credit...

I’d be happy to be mad about this, but who do I get mad at? “WotC” doesn’t cut it, because there are more people there not involved with this decision than there are who were involved with it.

About an hour after my post, I got another notification, and this time it was there. I suspect there may have been some issue with the initial upload, so it was deleted and re-uploaded. Back to the subject of the general podcast, two things I thought were pretty interesting. One was, how just...

Anyone know what’s going on with the latest episode? I got a notification and saw the ep (“Dispel Magic”) in my Apple podcast app, but when I got home and opened the app to listen to it, the new episode was gone.

Eh, from a D&D perspective? I don't think that Chris Cocks is going to be spending a whole lotta time micromanaging D&D. Chris Cocks became CEO of Hasbro in February, 2022. Prior to that, he was President and COO of WotC. As I recall, Kyle Brink said changes to the OGL were already in the works...

It is not my position, but allowing for the maximum degree of good faith, I think what some people considered as backwards compatible was essentially switching out the 2014 PHB classes/species with later, improved versions from Tasha's and Xanathar's, plus a healthy smattering of errata for...

It's been interesting hearing about the mid-80s troubles for the company, and how much Gygax's royalties were a factor. Including their payment hampering the company, their non-payment contributing to the rift between Kevin Blume and Gygax, and their deferral leading to Gygax being able to take...

I could imagine a (far) future where WotC (or whoever controls D&D) changes the rules of the game to better fit a VTT (ex. making combat or character creation exceedingly complex for OTT play, because everything is automated on the VTT). But I think that would only happen after they made the...

Agreed on all points. With regard to the third point, even if people in WotC pushed back on it, I think it would have been difficult at the time to make a good case that changing the OGL in the ways they had planned would create a big backlash by end-users. The royalties provisions would not...

I'm pretty sure there are folks talking about this in the "When We Were Wizards" podcast, but I don't recall who or in what episode(s). However, there is this Wired article about B3 Palace of the Silver Princess, with these quotes from former editor Stephen Sullivan:

There’s something to be said for the late 70s/early 80s style of play that is not “story” focused, and deals primarily with no-holds-barred challenges to the players. IMO, everything Gygax had to write about that style was bettered by Mike Carr in B1, both in explanation of the concept and...

To be clear, I’m not talking about how his writing was received by the audience, but rather how it was handled in production. A number of early TSR folks have mentioned that Gary’s text was not edited like other writers’ would be.

My take is that Gygax could have been a clearer and more effective writer, and still maintained his unique style, if only he’d been properly edited. But his words were practically Scripture, to be proofread, yes, but to be edited, never.

There's not much that I agree with Pedantic on, but I think he gets to the point here. IMO, "Rule of Cool" is absolutely necessary to run DM-based resolution in games. If a player suggests something that is plausible and/or feasible within the genre we are playing in, and furthermore is Cool...

The 150 mil budget still mystifies me. The actor salaries were not that high, there were no extended reshoots, and it was not a CGI heavy movie, so where did the money go? It was shot in Ireland from April to August, 2021. Apparently, Ireland had a limited lockdown from February to May during...

No, they can't, but nor are they told to. They are told to determine encounters and events that take the characters from the beginning to the end. They are not told to determine the outcome of those encounters and events, and are in fact specifically told not to do so, but to let the outcome of...

My experience as well. Perhaps what I should say is that, the people who will generally want to use a Custom Background are experienced players who have the books, while they are generally not going to be used by new or casual players. Particularly those who are borrowing a book.