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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 6164650" data-attributes="member: 7006">What this article says to me is directly tied to the differences between people on the inside of Dungeons & Dragons and the outside of Dungeons & Dragons.  And truth be told... the people on the outside are the ones who are going to win this battle.Those of us on the inside of D&D know deep down in our hearts that every game and every campaign world is different.  My game isn't your game isn't his game isn't her game.  Every single aspect is different or can be made different if you so choose.  Each of our games is the ultimate form of "special snowflake" syndrome.  That's D&D's strength-- I can make the game into ANYTHING I want... and up through the 80s, that mantra held true.  Campaign settings up the wazoo, changing anything and everything.But guess what?  We don't live in that world anymore.  And all of our "special snowflake" ideals don't make money for people anymore in a "transmedia" world.Why?  Because like it or not... for the people outside our world... "Dungeons & Dragons" *is* ONE THING.  Just like World of Warcraft is one thing.  Just like Harry Potter is one thing.  Just like Game of Thrones is one thing.  Nobody on the outside realizes, knows, or cares that D&D can be anything and everything to any one of us.  We might think Forgotten Realms is millions of miles away from Eberron, which is millions of miles away from Dragonlance, which is millions of miles away from Nentir Vale... but to everybody else?  No.  They're all "D&D".  THAT'S the brand.  That's what they have to sell.  They can't market and sell Forgotten Realms *and* Eberron *and* Dragonlance *and* Nentir Vale *and* each DM's individual personal world.  It's not possible.  WotC can't sell our individual "special snowflake" worlds, because that's just a nebulous talking point to people who are on the outside.   They NEED to bring some cohesion to the game so that saying something is "Dungeons & Dragons" actually MEANS something.That might seem like an anathema to those of us on the inside... that they want to strip our individuality from our games and put us all into one giant group called "D&D players"... but in this day and age that HAS to happen if they want to be able to make the brand accessible to people.I mean hell... Paizo markets everything through their Golarion lens.  Pathfinder is Golarion, Golarion is Pathfinder.  And they do that because they know that the idea that "Pathfinder can be anything you want it to be!" doesn't work anymore.  Not in this day and age.Dungeons & Dragons is the brand.  Just like Transformers is the brand.  Just like the WWE is the brand.  One unifying vision that allows people on the outside to look at something and say immediately "that's a D&D product!"... rather than look at something and have us hope against hope they could possibly identify it as "that's a Dark Sun product!" or "that's a Ravenloft product!"But gods knows... the likeliness of THAT actually happening for anyone on the outside of our tight little circle is practically nil.  We might not like it... but we have to just suck it up that we can't remain special snowflakes and now have to be a part of group.D&D players.</blockquote>

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