If they had a free day...

[Sunseeker]

Mostly. D&D was built to emulate a particular style. For other styles, there are other games.

The last 30 years have expanded the world of fantasy fiction to a great degree, even the classics that D&D was originally designed to emulate have been expanded upon.

I appreciate that you guys like your 1e, AD&D, ect... But the simple fact of the matter is that you cannot realistically ignore two generations worth material unless you want 2 generations worth of players kept out of the game.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

OR, you can introduce two generations of players to fiction they never knew existed. We have a 14 year old and a 19 year old playing with us, and we introduce them to old, but new to them, books all the time. The 14 year old is absolutely in love with REH, ERB, and I've turned the 19 year old on to Phillip Jose Farmer. I'm not saying new stuff is bad, only that it doesn't emulate D&D very well. Harry Potter might make a fine rpg, but it'd make a poor D&D experience.

 

[howandwhy99]

Exercise is the #1 benefit for improving creativity and concentration. (Besides practice, of course. But they should be getting enough of that)

 

[Sunseeker]

OR, you can introduce two generations of players to fiction they never knew existed. We have a 14 year old and a 19 year old playing with us, and we introduce them to old, but new to them, books all the time. The 14 year old is absolutely in love with REH, ERB, and I've turned the 19 year old on to Phillip Jose Farmer. I'm not saying new stuff is bad, only that it doesn't emulate D&D very well. Harry Potter might make a fine rpg, but it'd make a poor D&D experience.

For someone who doesn't like Harry Potter.

For someone who likes Harry Potter, a similar styled adventure in the D&D system would be quite enjoyable.

See this is the problem with Appendix N, aside from alienating people who aren't familiar with that material, people who don't like that material, it expresses a very specific, opinion-based list of "what D&D is". There is no "wrong answer" to what D&D is, provided that the people in question are having fun.

Is it Harry Potter, young-kid-themed adventure?
Is it Twilight vampires living among us tween romance?
Is it LOTR of epic adventure?
Is it modern? Classical? Gritty? Heroic? Sciencey? Apocalyptic?

Yes. Yes to all of those things. While a lot of RPGs can EMULATE specific things, D&D combines many elements into a general high/low sci-fantasy-horror-epic-romance-adventure. It can be everything you want it to be with a little rigging.

Making D&D only able to ever be one thing, never changing, never adapting is a sure-fire way to kill it.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

For someone who doesn't like Harry Potter.

For someone who likes Harry Potter, a similar styled adventure in the D&D system would be quite enjoyable.

I like Harry Potter. I just don't want that in my D&D.

Making D&D only able to ever be one thing, never changing, never adapting is a sure-fire way to kill it.

Lots of games haven't changed in hundreds or thousands of years. Baseball is essentially the same game it was in 1900, minus a paragraph or two of errata.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Game of Thrones then. Not a lot of dungeon crawling, but if you're trying to say that we shouldn't try to accommodate fans of that series (book or TV) with D&D you do have a narrow view.

Once can say "read these books in Appendix N" is a good thing, because they're critical to understanding D&D's roots.

But one can also expect that if Gygax were writing a list today, he'd have some more books on it.

 

[Nytmare]

OR, you can introduce two generations of players to fiction they never knew existed.

I hate to continue the derail, but why should a company, focused on the short term goal of "trying to make money selling an rpg", waste their time trying to edify a couple of generations?

Lots of games haven't changed in hundreds or thousands of years. Baseball is essentially the same game it was in 1900, minus a paragraph or two of errata.

Number one, I would argue that it's more than a paragraph or two.

Number two, ignoring the logical fallacy of "if some games don't change, then no games should change", do you think that if baseball were to suffer flagging attendance and shrinking popularity, that they wouldn't/shouldn't change things around in order to raise attendance and increase popularity?

The introduction of stadiums, televised games, passing out gifts to people as they come in through the gates, redesigning uniforms, turning a blind eye to steroid use. You honestly don't think that the time honored tradition of American baseball would ever sully itself by changing with the times?

 

[Mournblade94]

For someone who doesn't like Harry Potter.

For someone who likes Harry Potter, a similar styled adventure in the D&D system would be quite enjoyable.

See this is the problem with Appendix N, aside from alienating people who aren't familiar with that material, people who don't like that material, it expresses a very specific, opinion-based list of "what D&D is". There is no "wrong answer" to what D&D is, provided that the people in question are having fun.

Is it Harry Potter, young-kid-themed adventure?
Is it Twilight vampires living among us tween romance?
Is it LOTR of epic adventure?
Is it modern? Classical? Gritty? Heroic? Sciencey? Apocalyptic?

Yes. Yes to all of those things. While a lot of RPGs can EMULATE specific things, D&D combines many elements into a general high/low sci-fantasy-horror-epic-romance-adventure. It can be everything you want it to be with a little rigging.

Making D&D only able to ever be one thing, never changing, never adapting is a sure-fire way to kill it.

The old appendix N cannot alienate anyone. if they don't like that material they probably do not like sword and sorcery and so should look for a different game.

It is a list of what D&D is, correct. But those sources in appendix N are all very different experiences. To say people 'do not like that material' means they are playing a game in the wrong genre.

Certainly there are things D&D is not. I agree Harry Potter could have a place in it. Twilight I doubt, any more than you could have Beverly hills 90210 D&D. I guess if you want to stick a troll under the bridge in Beverly hills you can claim to have a d&d there.

There was a time that I did not know many of the books in Appendix N. I would not have read them if not for D&D. Now I know the books. Similarly, if they focus on Appendix N they will inspire new generations to read the genre that is D&D.

Certainly more should be added to Appendix N. Game of Thrones, Lodoss Wars, Ninja Scroll, Wheel of Time, RA SALVATORE, and others. D&D however is a game representative of a genre.

Appendix N has 19th century writers, horror writers, sword and sorcery writers, and sci fi writers. If one 'does not like the books in appendix N' they are playing the wrong game.

 

[Sunseeker]

I like Harry Potter. I just don't want that in my D&D.

Good thing it's not YOUR D&D. It's mine, and his, and hers, and that other guys, and those nerds over there too.

D&D is a system in which a wide variety of sci-horror-dark-epic-adventure-fantasy is represented.

You are under no requirement to play a Harry Potter-themed adventure, but your games are not everyone else's game.

Lots of games haven't changed in hundreds or thousands of years. Baseball is essentially the same game it was in 1900, minus a paragraph or two of errata.

Poor comparison is poor. Baseball was never designed to be as variable as D&D. Making this comparison is like saying a cell-phone should never change because the hairbrush has never changed.

 

[Scribble]

Baseball is a lot older then RPGs which are, relatively new.

s others have mentioned, Baseball also went through a LARGE number of changes over the years some very substantial.

Aside from that- from stories I've heard of Gygax he seemed to be a very avid reader. If Appendix N had been online I bet he would have continued to update it.