Eric Noah's Info

[Wulf Ratbane]

Amusement at Wulf's comments aside, I'm not convinced that a smaller-than-Hasbro / bigger-than-BadAxe company couldn't find a satisfying middle ground between slavish devotion to stockholders and taking out a second mortgage on your house to cover printing costs.

Right you are!

The best thing for Dungeons and Dragons is to get it out of the hands of a company who wants to see it wildly successful and back into the hands of someone who is content with mildly successful.

That way we won't have to put up with all the ridiculous 4e changes like more miniatures, or an emphasis on simple fun like dungeon delving, or any of a dozen ways to make it appeal to a new generation of kids raised on video games.

We need to keep this hobby solidly NICHE, just for us grognards, and if that means watching the hobby die, well, I say, SO BE IT.

 

[Turjan]

I think the new version of the Star Wars RPG will point the way. Everything I read about it points into the direction that it will be an attempt to further integrate the Star Wars minis game with the RPG. Let's see how that looks like.

As for 4e: If it's a relatively normal RPG, I will most probably look at it, although I will certainly never ever buy so much again as for 3.x. This is something for the next player generation . If it's some kind of collectible game, I'll give it a complete pass. This is one of the buying principles I strictly follow already now: I don't buy collectible stuff. No cards, no minis, no anything. 4e won't change that.

 

[Nellisir]

My question is that since the OGL is a forever license, wouldn't wotc have to make some pretty serious changes to the game in order to not be using open game mechanics?

WotC can end the d20 license, but not the OGL. They don't have to use the OGL to use their own material, however -- and everything WotC has done with the D&D name is their material.

Arcana Evolved, Iron Heros, Mutants & Masterminds, and Conan are all OGL games that won't be affected (legally) by 4e. Conan, Iron Heros, and Arcana Evolved are all very similar to core D&D.

Edit: And since Mr Pramas is posting, I'll add that while Mutants & Masterminds and True20 are less similar to core D&D as it stands, they are very, very, impressive systems that I really love. I'd pay serious money to give Steve Kenson a crack at designing the next D&D ruleset.

 

[ForceUser]

Right you are!

The best thing for Dungeons and Dragons is to get it out of the hands of a company who wants to see it wildly successful and back into the hands of someone who is content with mildly successful.

That way we won't have to put up with all the ridiculous 4e changes like more miniatures, or an emphasis on simple fun like dungeon delving, or any of a dozen ways to make it appeal to a new generation of kids raised on video games.

We need to keep this hobby solidly NICHE, just for us grognards, and if that means watching the hobby die, well, I say, SO BE IT.

You are my motherbleepin' rock star.

What's interesting to note, however, is the difference in attitudes this time around. When this was Eric Noah's 3E rumor site and he fed us tantalizing 3E tidbits, the scene was abuzz with excitement. Now, when the same rumormonger we know and love mentions 4E, it's aflame with indignation. I must say that I am amused.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Like BadAxe!

Et tu, pogre?

Vicious bastard.

 

[Pramas]

How does the whole OGL/D20 license thing work if WotC changes to 4E? Can companies like Green Ronin, Mongoose etc. still produce OGL or D20 books based on the 3.5 or 4E rules? Or is this coming edition change going to kill them?

It'd be up to WotC to put 4th edition into the System Reference Document. If they decline to do so, third party companies would have to make do with what's already there (the 3.0 and 3.5 rules, plus d20 Modern). This would not affect games like Mutants & Masterminds and True20, which already stand alone and have their own brand recognition, but would prevent companies like GR from riding the 4E wave.

On another note, all the talk about Hasbro making WotC do this or that is bunk. It's almost always the case that management decisions for WotC are made by WotC. I know it is convenient to blame a big faceless company like Hasbro when D&D goes in a direction you don't like, but I'd be willing to bet any strategic shifts coming down the pipe were conceived at WotC itself in response to problems in the RPG market at large.

 

[Nellisir]

I still say that an announcement next week at GenCon for an '07 release wouldn't surprise me at all.

'07 release has my money. I just don't see anything in the WotC pipeline that looks like a really serious effort; it's all filler. I'm less sure about Gen Con, but quite possibly.

 

[EricNoah]

What's interesting to note, however, is the difference in attitudes this time around. When this was Eric Noah's 3E rumor site and he fed us tantalizing 3E tidbits, the scene was abuzz with excitement. Now, when the same rumormonger we know and love mentions 4E, it's aflame with indignation. I must say that I am amused.

The irony is not lost on me at all. This must be what it was like for a firmly-entrenched 2E community when the 3E rumors were a-flyin'.

Always makes me wonder what will happen here... will we try to have it "both ways"? It will likely depend on how cross-compatible the two editions are. And who knows -- maybe WotC will come up with something so clever that we'll go, "Wow, it really is better than what we currently have."

 

[Faraer]

The best thing for Dungeons and Dragons is to get it out of the hands of a company who wants to see it wildly successful and back into the hands of someone who is content with mildly successful.

I agree with this: the need for high, immediate, and constant profits is no good for D&D, or for the Realms or Eberron.

That way we won't have to put up with all the ridiculous 4e changes like more miniatures, or an emphasis on simple fun like dungeon delving, or any of a dozen ways to make it appeal to a new generation of kids raised on video games.

We need to keep this hobby solidly NICHE, just for us grognards, and if that means watching the hobby die, well, I say, SO BE IT.

Wizards is the only company with the resources to mass-advertise D&D -- to adults, as RPGing, not to teenagers as something else -- and thus attempt to spread the popularity of the medium. But they've lacked the vision, thus far, to take that risk. Losing that chance will be worst thing that happens if Wizards moves out of RPGs.

 

[Turjan]

What's interesting to note, however, is the difference in attitudes this time around. When this was Eric Noah's 3E rumor site and he fed us tantalizing 3E tidbits, the scene was abuzz with excitement. Now, when the same rumormonger we know and love mentions 4E, it's aflame with indignation. I must say that I am amused.

What do you expect? The first time, it was people who were discontent with AD&D 2E. Now, it's people who are largly content with D&D 3.5. EN World may mutate to the Dragonsfoot of 3.x .