Are Gognards killing D&D?

[Lanefan]

I also think 4E will have a better set of tools to convey the stories that I have been telling since I started playing D&D a long, long time ago.

I hope this ends up the case for all of us. Even if the complete 4e toolkit doesn't get the job done, if it holds some useful tools we didn't have in the box before - or that serve as upgrades to what we did have - it'll be worthwhile.

Lane-"hey, who you calling a toolbox?"-fan

 

[Reynard]

I can't shake the gnawing hunch that a fluff product that's well designed, with a layout that actually facilitates game play, and that contains original, fun and thought provoking material would sell pretty well.

Personally, I think the "text book" approach to setting and other fluff books has to go. I think inspiring people requires something more immediate and visceral. Give me a coffee table style book on FR, say, with great art and things like dwarven epic poems, elven songs, letters home from soldiers during important wars in history and the like and I think you can convey a great deal more about a setting than you can with ten times the wordcount written like an encyclopedia. Sidebars with mechanical stuff, detailing only those things which deviate from the Core materials would round the thing out. From there, it is up to the group -- and every groups FR (or whatever) would look different, and that, IMO, is a good thing.