Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
D&D Historian Ben Riggs on TSR's Salaries in the 1990s
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 8508479" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>That's not a good thing. AD&D 1E is a masterpiece of terrible, thoughtless, quasi-design. Some of it approaches anti-design.</p><p></p><p>I don't really buy it. I think you're expanding essentially a single comment into a whole systemic problem when there's ample evidence as to what the problem actually is, which is that they're producing half-baked games (mechanically at least).</p><p></p><p>The other issue is re: committee is that, for all their faults, no WotC game I can think of feels "designed by committee". It's not an uncommon feeling, note, with games of all kinds. Usually you see two things - confused or contradictory mechanics (like stuff included that doesn't need to be but is someone's pet), and the mechanics are extremely safe (because no-one could agree on riskier ones). You might sorta argue that for 3E, but I don't think for 4E or 5E or most other WotC games. If that was really the problem I'd expect to see at least some of them have this issue - but it tends towards the opposite, if anything. The mechanics aren't contradictory nor excessively safe (not even 5E, dropping bonuses/penalties in favour of Advantage/Disadvantage was huge).</p><p></p><p>Whereas virtually all of them, as noted, share this "half-baked" feel. They're cohesive, but in the way that a draft for playtesting say, a year or six months before it's due to go to the printer would be. I'm willing to believe some had problems with "getting people on the same page". But I think you agree that all leads back to the same place - management culture at WotC. Leadership is what gets people on the same page, and if someone fails to do that, it's likely that there wasn't a cohesive vision and/or there was a failure of leadership on two levels - first the guy leading, then the guy who appointed the guy.</p><p></p><p>I think it's mostly down to the culture saying "You're done" at a point before they're actually done. Resource-wise, whilst I agree they shouldn't be doing this, I don't think it's a problem you can fix with resources. It requires management to be willing to wait longer for something to be genuinely finished i.e. "When its done", and I think it's pretty clear WotC does not believe in "When its done" (it may now, but certainly up to 5E's release it did not).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 8508479, member: 18"] That's not a good thing. AD&D 1E is a masterpiece of terrible, thoughtless, quasi-design. Some of it approaches anti-design. I don't really buy it. I think you're expanding essentially a single comment into a whole systemic problem when there's ample evidence as to what the problem actually is, which is that they're producing half-baked games (mechanically at least). The other issue is re: committee is that, for all their faults, no WotC game I can think of feels "designed by committee". It's not an uncommon feeling, note, with games of all kinds. Usually you see two things - confused or contradictory mechanics (like stuff included that doesn't need to be but is someone's pet), and the mechanics are extremely safe (because no-one could agree on riskier ones). You might sorta argue that for 3E, but I don't think for 4E or 5E or most other WotC games. If that was really the problem I'd expect to see at least some of them have this issue - but it tends towards the opposite, if anything. The mechanics aren't contradictory nor excessively safe (not even 5E, dropping bonuses/penalties in favour of Advantage/Disadvantage was huge). Whereas virtually all of them, as noted, share this "half-baked" feel. They're cohesive, but in the way that a draft for playtesting say, a year or six months before it's due to go to the printer would be. I'm willing to believe some had problems with "getting people on the same page". But I think you agree that all leads back to the same place - management culture at WotC. Leadership is what gets people on the same page, and if someone fails to do that, it's likely that there wasn't a cohesive vision and/or there was a failure of leadership on two levels - first the guy leading, then the guy who appointed the guy. I think it's mostly down to the culture saying "You're done" at a point before they're actually done. Resource-wise, whilst I agree they shouldn't be doing this, I don't think it's a problem you can fix with resources. It requires management to be willing to wait longer for something to be genuinely finished i.e. "When its done", and I think it's pretty clear WotC does not believe in "When its done" (it may now, but certainly up to 5E's release it did not). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
D&D Historian Ben Riggs on TSR's Salaries in the 1990s
Top