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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jdrakeh" data-source="post: 4388329" data-attributes="member: 13892">This got me thinking that eratta for RPGs is, largely, a product of recent advances in communitcation, most notably the Internet. Back in the day, I know that some companies issued errata, but to get it you typically had to be part of an official mailing list or purchase a new product. A lot of companies simply didn't issue errata. And nobody seemed to care very much (if at all). IME, most people used to houserule the heck out of games like AD&D, but still loved them, warts and all. In fact, it always seemed to me that people happily houseruled games -- houserules were as much a party of the hobby as funky dice and snackfoods. Today, with the near instant availability of errata and the expectation that it will be delivered in such a manner, things seem to have changed a bit. Today, there seems to be a prevailing school of thought that when errata is released for a game, the game in question can be 'officially' declared 'broken' and, therefore, unplayable (despite the fact that the errata actually addresses the pitfalls that ostensibly 'break' the game). Up until that point, however, most folks seem totally oblivious to the fact that they're playing a 'broken' game -- and, like the old days, seem that they couldn't care less. I've come to the conclusion that errata, while ostensibly a consumer service, has really done a fair amount more to harm the hobby than to help it. I know that I've personally been spoiled by near instantaneous errata delivery and find myself longing for the days when I played my games in ignorant bliss of their brokenness. I really, really, miss those days. I'm certain that a lot of publishers who have to wade through thankless "Your products are error-riddled crap!" forum threads after releasing errata do, too. When I buy a game today and it seems to have some issues but lacks errata, I still think "Hey, I can fix this!" and am happy with my purchase. When I buy a game that seems to have some issues and the publisher releases a 30-page PDF full of official errata a few weeks later, I think "Dude! This game is borked! I can't believe that I wasted my money on this crap!" <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" />Judging by the screeds about errors in game books posted by other folks on numerous Internet forums over the years, I know I'm not alone in experiencing this phenomena. And, man, I hate myself for it. I'm making a decision right now to not indulge errata in the future, to go back to making up houserules, and to playing games as-written, out of the box. And, just for kicks, I'm adding a poll.</blockquote>

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