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For the past few years, WotC's communications on the game's future have been strikingly anti-innovative. They don't exactly frame it that way, but that's what they are doing by declaring that 5e is the system going forward, except now it is just "D&D", and any changes will be small and...

Exandria is my favourite campaign setting, by far, and a worthy successor to Greyhawk, while also incorporating most of the classic tropes of other D&D settings, particularly the Forgotten Realms. It's essentially an 21st century version of the classic high fantasy setting. Much like Greyhawk...

I don't want D&D to wildly innovate. I think its inertia is a feature - there's a lot of value in having a common denominator for the hobby. It brings people in, and gives smaller, nimbler creators something to innovate from. One of my favourite aspects of 5e is that it felt familiar to someone...

Got around to the Elder Brain from a D&L stretch goals:

Well, maybe not Wizkids, but what about Enworld???? Can we expect the Big Book of Forum Posts, coming soon?

This is correct. Their unpainted miniatures used to be around half the price (or less) of the painted ones (example: I bought the current gargantuan WK Kraken, unpainted, for $29.99 CAD, maybe five years ago). Given the poor quality of the painting, I would still recommend unpainted, but in...

No. You just do not know the facts. I don’t think you understand what Medieval Romance is. A tale like Sir Gawain was completely understood to be fantastical and set in the legendary past by its contemporary audience. Gawain stories had been around for centuries. Nobody actually expected to meet...

WotC did swoop in and gobble up a big part of the VTT market. With Maps as a feature on DDB they likely have a much larger user base than all other VTTs combined. Why would they be interested in Roll20?

No, it's the progenitor for fantasy. You are just completely wrong. Not only did Tolkien not "despise medieval romance," he taught it and worked on it. I am looking at my copy of his esteemed translation of Sir Gawain, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo on my shelf right now. He was an acclaimed expert on...

WotC does partner with both of those VTTs!

I think people definitely want a VTT, because Maps has been a huge hit. They just don't want a VTT that they need a high end computer to run and that takes significant time and effort to learn and apply. I mean, a few do, and they're a niche that is well served by products like Foundry. But Maps...

House of the Dragon is scripted. Each episode is about an hour. Each season is, what, 8 episodes? Ten? In the entire amount of time that House of the Dragon spent on a full season, Campaign 4 got through little more than a funeral. Campaign 4 is already almost as long as all of HotD. If...

Yes. Plenty. No, medieval romance is a specific genre, out of which modern fantasy has directly grown. And medieval romance was a lot more than just "feel good fiction." It involves specific tropes that are now staples of fantasy. This is not exactly a hot take; it's pretty obvious. "Medieval...

D&D achieved long term sustainability long ago, but I certainly agree that DDB is already a game-changer for WotC, not only because it give them a strong platform for direct sales, but it allows them significant control over 5e by letting them gatekeep who has access. It basically gives them...

Obviously. My point is that their statement doesn't really tell us anything - they are glossing up the positives and ignoring the negatives. It's PR, not information.

I'm a big proponent of the updated rules and a massive fan of DDB. I'm not shocked that it seems to be doing well. At the same time, I'm not sure that these vague statements really tell us much of anything. You'll note, for example, that they make a point of glossing up the positive impact of...

I disagree. Mainstream fantasy is pretty obsessed with tropes and plots inspired by medieval romance. Heroes on quests, mythical creatures, kingdoms to be won, magic, etc.

There are plenty of fantasy series that aren't backwards looking. They just aren't the ones that are focused on pseudo-medieval and mythic archetypes (most of the genre, but not all of it). Not sure I agree about Abercrombie - his books are graphic and dark, but he's still writing about kings...

My very first favourite science fiction TV series was Logan's Run, but I was pretty little and I fear that if I watched it again I would have very different feelings. So I'm not going to watch it again! Same goes for Buck Rogers (Erin Gray will always have a special place in my heart as one of...