Dragon Con: A Sight of the Schism in action

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

"Bullet to the head" yes, multiple times in one of the podcasts.

It was also hilarious and I think I prefer them making jokes than being worry over people that react sensitive to this. D&D is NOT serious business.

 

[thedungeondelver]

Man.

I can't speak for anyone else's experience, but what got me hot under the collar was when back in late '98 early '99 when I started getting back in to D&D after a decade-plus hiatus, asking around, putting out feelers as to where to get books, looking for information (on the wretched rec.games.frp.dnd, and other places) and basically hitting a wall of "You'll switch to 3rd ed when it comes out. Just wait." and "God, why would you want to play that game?" and variations on "Gygax sucks" (I didn't even know Gary at that point and I found that irksome).

Well, needless to say I got books, I got modules, I got players, and I play the game I want. I also got sick of hearing the above, in different keys, but the same melody over and over.

I'm not so naive as to think anyone here might think that I think that "The other guys started it first" in the overall, but really? For me, yeah, yeah "they" did.

When the ad push for 4e came around, it was the same stuff...only this time out of the mouths of WotC themselves: D&D players have been doing it wrong all along, only now can you really play D&D right, "bullet in the head" and so on.

So push, and I push back.

Also? I as a 39 year old father of two, being the home-maker, I have very little gaming time. I wish I had more. Hell, I wish I could drive the Gaming RV around the country, pulling a trailer full of Dwarven Forge and painted minis, spreading the vintage D&D gospel!

But, I don't have that kind of free time. I have enough time for one game, every couple of weeks. Plus a little time in the week, on which I occasionally game, as of late, though, usually not.

Why should I spend the time I have to game playing something that right now, I find extremely onerous, on the off chance that I might start to like it or a later revision might make OK? At least with ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS I know that WotC won't release a supplement that will screw up a class, introduce a wholly unworkable spell or rule, and so on.

I guess that's where the split is for me.

I play what I play because I like it; I've complained about the things I don't like because in the past I've been told what I do like is sub-par.

 

[Roland55]

Well, orb + status effects basically is "save or die", which is why that's a bit confusing. I agree that if you picked up the 4e wizard expecting to play a blaster, you'd end up mighty depressed, though.

Lord, yes.

Which is why I've avoided that role entirely.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Lord, yes.

Which is why I've avoided that role entirely.

A good sign of a mature player is voluntarily not going unfun routes like this.

 

[Toben the Many]

Latecomer to the thread.

I did want to pop in and say that I was at DragonCon and had access to a lot of their gaming data. 4th Edition did indeed have a presence there, but only in the form of the RPGA. No "open" games of 4th Edition were running. Also, their RPGA numbers were down this year, while their Pathfinder Society tables sold out.

As far as the animosity between the editions...I can vouch the same thing. I encountered it anecdotally numerous times throughout the convention. People denigrating 4th Edition, etc, etc.

As others have said, this is has nothing to do with how well either of those two games are doing. It indicates neither success nor failure with either game. It does mean that 4th Edition does not seem to be popular with the "DragonCon" crowd.

One thing that a lot of the RPGA organizers speculated is that most of the Living Forgotten Realms games now are being played at home. This is (according to them) killing small, regional gaming conventions. If this is true, I think it would be rather sad. One awesome thing about the advent of 3rd Edition and the RPGA at that time was the explosion of small conventions and the opportunity to meet other gamers from around the country. That said, I have no idea what a good solution would be. Allowing RPGA games to be played at home is great and necessary. But it would be nice if we could give people who went to conventions some kind of carrot.

 

[Rechan]

It was also hilarious and I think I prefer them making jokes than being worry over people that react sensitive to this. D&D is NOT serious business.

How dare the people making a new version of something mention things they, and many of their users, did not like about the old version! Let alone make jokes.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Ahhh, and once again we have a case of "People who didn't have a problem tell people who did that they don't matter."

Classy!

 

[Roland55]

A good sign of a mature player is voluntarily not going unfun routes like this.

Mature? Debatable ...

Old? Yep.

Of course, if I could figure out all that status-y stuff ... and learn to enjoy it ... could be different.

 

[Mallus]

So push, and I push back.

Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Take your D&D preferences too seriously and the world laughs at you.

(well, okay, some people will laugh at you for playing D&D as an adult in the first place, but you get the idea...)

 

[billd91]

One thing that a lot of the RPGA organizers speculated is that most of the Living Forgotten Realms games now are being played at home. This is (according to them) killing small, regional gaming conventions. If this is true, I think it would be rather sad. One awesome thing about the advent of 3rd Edition and the RPGA at that time was the explosion of small conventions and the opportunity to meet other gamers from around the country. That said, I have no idea what a good solution would be. Allowing RPGA games to be played at home is great and necessary. But it would be nice if we could give people who went to conventions some kind of carrot.

I believe a large proportion of the LG games reported were home games as well. I don't have any citation but I seem to recall seeing a report that the majority of LG games were home games. So, if the speculation of the RPGA organizers is true, why would LFR be in decline at DragonCon compared to the home game? Or has it just not penetrated that particular community yet?