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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SlyFlourish" data-source="post: 9450268" data-attributes="member: 54840">I'm all caught up in the thread for the moment!I have a few points I'd like to throw at the wall.First, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNh8wk2ObPAR1UscVGIQPTDo0j_xXkoqA" target="_blank">this incredible series of interviews with former creators of D&D</a> for almost every edition is mind blowing and it gives inside views into a lot of the topics being discussed here. It's hosted by Peter Atkison, the former CEO of WOTC before Hasbro bought it. The interviews includes designers from 2nd edition to 5th edition talking about what happened and how their versions of D&D got made. It's totally fascinating. Both the 4th edition one and the 5th edition one have so many parallels and insights into what's happening at WOTC/Hasbro now.Regarding this incredible thread, I see a couple of points shooting past each other in the thread and I have some general observations.First, just because 5e came from D&D 5th edition to begin with doesn't mean it's the same thing now. Things can change. I argue 5e changed. 5e used to be the D&D 2014 rules and the 5.1 SRD and a bunch of D&D 5e compatible products. Now that has expanded. Now 5e means something different. Now 5e is an open platform for many different RPGs – independent core RPGs – generally compatible with one another including D&D 2014, D&D 2024, A5e, and Tales of the Valiant. These 5e variants operate independently from D&D 2014 and D&D 2024.That's now I see it. And I choose to see that because I don't like the idea of any one company dictating my happiness with 5e and RPGs. I have lots of options. It doesn't matter to me which is the most popular. I own the books to all of these systems. I have one group very much enjoying Level Up Advanced 5e. I have another excited for Tales of the Valiant. I have a third still playing D&D 2014. None of us care what the market share for D&D 2014 or D&D 2024 is (ok, I care, but it doesn't matter for our own games).You can decide to throw aside the idea of an independent 5e and demand that 5e == D&D but you're making that choice. You're choosing to tie the whole of 5e to just one company and whatever directions it takes with it. The rest of us aren't. I'm not – neither as a GM or as a publisher. I'll certainly be watching how the wind blows over the next year but I'm already writing products designed for 5e – all the 5es.I hear some people tie all of 5e to D&D because they don't like D&D or WOTC or Hasbro and are fine throwing all of 5e out My guess is they're not fans of 5e anyway.I hear others tying all of 5e to D&D because, I guess, they're huge fans of D&D, WOTC, and Hasbro regardless of how the company treated the brand and its customers in the past. They've tied their gaming identity to the whims of a single corporation. They have a playlist of layered defenses for Hasbro every time the company steps on a rake. That's fine, but you'll get what you get. You may love Hasbro but Hasbro doesn't love you back.For me? I love 5e as an independent open platform on which several systems and thousands of awesome supplements exist. I love the D&D brand and have since I was a teenager many decades ago. I love many of the products published by WOTC. I don't trust Hasbro because we shouldn't trust big publicly traded companies, because of its previous behavior, and because of the clear indication that the suits want to turn D&D into a continuous subscription revenue stream. I definitely respect the designers, developers, editors, and art directors working on D&D. I bet they don't trust Hasbro either.None of these opinions are in opposition for me. They all exist in superposition. I can love 5e. I can love D&D. I can respect the creative staff at WOTC. I can not trust Hasbro.I can love the RPG hobby. And I do.</blockquote>

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