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It's difficult to have a meaningful debate against concepts like "all of them" and "it's pretty rare" without any concrete examples. I run four companies, and none of them overcharges customers or underpays workers. The notion that someone should be paid "as much the value their labor is...

That seems like a bit of an extreme extrapolation on my argument. I'm sure there are endless instances of companies acting unethically. I never said otherwise. I simply said that it isn't an effective strategy for generating and maximizing profits in the long term. How are Enron's profits...

Generally, no. Or at least, those strategies only work for brief periods. If you overcharge customers, you're inviting competition and profits will shrink. If you underpay workers, you're inviting a disengaged workforce who deliver poor-quality results, again damaging profits in the long term...

Let's agree to disagree. Companies that ignore the wants and needs of their customers are simply inviting their competitors to steal their business. The existence of Pathfinder is a pretty good testament to that fact. A basic concept in corporate strategy is that the only path to profitability...

Do we need to use pejoratives like labeling shareholders as "greedy"? I wish we could move away from the notion that being a profitable company somehow makes you evil. D&D used to be owned by an unprofitable company. That was not a better scenario. I'd need to double check the composition of my...

For sure, but only in terms of magnitude. If we're using videogame analogies, what's the difference between DLC and microtransaction? Size, basically, but otherwise it's the same thing in the sense that it's an optional expense. One of the cool things about microtransactions is that it can make...

Would this be much different than it's ever been? Since '74, D&D players have been given the option of buying the core rules and stopping there. OR, they could keep spending money on additional rulebooks, adventures, miniatures, dice, novels, et cetera ad infinitum. But nothing beyond the core...

I feel like it's well-established that psionics is a subclass, not a class. So maybe we will see psionics in the PHB but as a subclass, or a handful of subclasses. Psion and soulknife maybe, as subclasses of wizard and rogue.

"In the depths of the precipice stands a locked metal door at the end of a long metal hall guarded by fierce metal men. Find this door and open it." The words echo in your mind, ever since you entered this forsaken place, compelling you to delve deeper, though horrors beyond imagination await...

I hope Goodman Games doesn't get into trouble with DC Comics over that Night of the Bog Beast cover.

It wouldn't become "illegal", but it could be grounds for lawsuit depending on how that nation recognizes international copyright law. That's highly unlikely, though. If you're interested, do some reading on the Berne Convention. It established the basic framework for global copywrite law, and...

flumph on a t-shirt

I think that would be 'misplaced'. I can see a niche for the misplacer beast, though. Sort of a feline minion for the ethereal filcher.

microscopic

I think that has a lot to do with how difficult it is for companies to differentiate their product in a crowded market like fantasy gaming. Look at Games Workshop and how they've rebranded the "traditional" fantasy tropes like elves and orcs into aelfs and orruks, all so that they can have...

I feel like there should be something about balance and the underlying math model that facilitates it. In games like chess or Monopoly, balance isn't an issue because all players start off exactly the same. But in RPGs, with the added element of character creation, you can't assume equality. And...

Great point. That falls into the "fail forward" design philosophy. You don't write an adventure where failure is impossible, rather you empower the DM to keep things rolling even when a failure occurs.

While empty rolls are well-avoided, it's great to sprinkle other rolls, like skill and ability checks, liberally throughout. I find it's a great way to bring the adventure background, which often the PCs don't get to see much of, into the foreground. Give the druid a chance to notice something...

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