D&D General Deja Vu

[Lidgar]

I don't know, folks spend small fortunes on terrain and minis and dice... I think the slide into digital isn't as far to cross for a bridge as you may think.

Oh, I agree, and I have experience with both. For me however, I much prefer a more basic interface that enhances the player-DM interaction and experience versus lots of digital effects that distract from that interaction and eliminates some of the descriptive elements of the game.

 

[TerraDave]

I'm playing Wasteland 3 right now (Fallout clone) where you control a team of 6, each can have different modifiers, conditions and buffs. It would be a pain to trust the table. But it's a video game, so it just has to let you know what's going on.

Apparently that was exactly the thinking...in 1999. Which makes sense if you have played 3e.

 

[TerraDave]

I should note, reading through some of the replies, is that the goal is always to bring digital (mostly) in-house. D&D digital products go back to (at least) 2e, and there have been many successes, but usually with TSR/WotC playing a limited role.

Anyways, this is an idea that keeps getting latched onto.

 

[TerraDave]

Another kind of deja vu

How Soon We Forget

TSR, Inc., as a publisher of books, games, and game related products, recognizes the social responsibilities that a company such as TSR must...

grognardia.blogspot.com

 

[ph0rk]

A version of D&D designed and marketed as a pen and paper game, but its really meant as a stepping stone to online play. To make this happen, certain rules are streamlined and standardized, but new options are added to make the most of the computer-based interface. Electronic demos and initiatives are announced. The e-enhanced version of the game are touted, but it turns out that this is not just a nice add-on, but really the main goal.

Sound familiar….take 4e. The 3d VTT, the character creator, Gleemax, the very obvious concerns about WoW, standardized yet exception based design---with lots of potential exceptions.

But I am actually going back to 1999. Why did 3e streamline some things, but have all this fiddly complexity at the margins? Why did the first wave of PHBs have that CD? What were the Master Tools really about? It was all meant to feed a WotC D&D MMORG.

For 4e, it was just basically fail (I remember seeing an early public demo of the VTT, it crashed and crashed and crashed). For 3e, when Hasbro bought the company, and Pokemon peaked, D&D video game rights were licensed out. This is why Peter Adkinson quit. Oh, and instead of Master Tools, we got E-Tools.

I guess its hard to have a truly original idea. But its easy to fail in the same way.

(For sources, my best ones are buried on the way back machine, but I will find them, some day. Meanwhile you can check Peter Adkison’s entry on Wikipedia, and there is this: Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition )

DDB was already successful.

PR disasters aside, if they release an even adequate VTT linked to DDB, it would be tremendously successful and they could nickle an dime people for electronic tokens and templates til the cows come home.

 

[TerraDave]

DDB was already successful.

PR disasters aside, if they release an even adequate VTT linked to DDB, it would be tremendously successful and they could nickle an dime people for electronic tokens and templates til the cows come home.

And developed by a third party. But yes, but also, they want a lot more than nickels and dimes.