D&D General Kobold Press Going Down a Dark Road

[Snarf Zagyg]

Unless of course you're not young and they've moved on from you.

Well, yeah. But guess what?

If you want to play 5e, you can! Or, heck, you can play AD&D. Or OD&D. Or any of a number of retroclones. If you don't like the new hotness, don't play it- but don't complain about the kids having a good time on the lawn. Let them enjoy themselves.


...just like you used to.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

There are always exceptions to any trend, and people always trot them out to refute a point.

Who is the exception? You or I? You made a sweeping statement on behalf of and entire population that I happen to be a part of claiming it it viewed such and such thus.

A producer of a product, does not really care about any individual customer, they care about populations of customers. They mostly care about the population that will translate fandom in to purchases, in the case of a hobby provider like WoTC.
They run popularity contests for features added to the game, so we know for a fact that they care about the consensus opinion of those that fill in their UA surveys.
We also so know (from a recent online interview in Jeremy Crawford) that they monitor the online commentariat. And that same interview strongly implied that they do other unspecified market research.

I would love the know the age profile of the new 5e cohort. If they were teens and college age I nearly would have expected the game to have peaked. If they are older and more demography broadly based then this thing could have real legs.

As for the old timers like you and I, we are liking the Mountain Men watching the wagons on the Oregon Trail.
Hell, some of us may be more like the native population watching those same wagons.

 

[mamba]

I have no doubt those things generated visibility and interest, but you generally need to have a group that you're playing with in order to create sustained engagement. Of course, you could abet that even without a group by also making the books interesting to read on their own

Having a grognard in a group is not a requirement for a group to form. When I started playing in the 1e days, I simply started a group and it was the first time for all of us. Pretty sure that is frequently the case. Even when it is not, it can be someone who has played the game for a few years and is not a grognard...

As to what grognard means, it probably is loosely defined. To me it is someone who has been around a while and longs for the days past. Maybe by now there is such a thing as a 4e grognard, my interpretation allows for it, but on Youtube I mostly encounter OSR ones.

"Someone who enjoys playing older war-games or roleplaying games, or older versions of such games, when newer ones are available." is a definition I found, that mirrors mine pretty well. In any case they are unhappy with the current game and long for an earlier edition. So the point of them introducing players to not-5e instead of 5e still stands.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

As to what grognard means, it probably is loosely defined. To me it is someone who has been around a while and longs for the days past. Maybe by now there is such a thing as a 4e grognard, my interpretation allows for it, but on Youtube I mostly encounter OSR ones.

Given the etymology of grognard (grumbling), I think that 4e fans are definitely eligible for AARP grognard status.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well, yeah. But guess what?

If you want to play 5e, you can! Or, heck, you can play AD&D. Or OD&D. Or any of a number of retroclones. If you don't like the new hotness, don't play it- but don't complain about the kids having a good time on the lawn. Let them enjoy themselves.


...just like you used to.

Again, this is a group hobby. You can't play without players, and the further away they move from older preferences, the harder it is to find players that will engage in something that isn't the new hotness.

 

[mamba]

Given the etymology of grognard (grumbling), I think that 4e fans are definitely eligible for AARP grognard status.

agreed, it's just that I do not encounter them anywhere but on this forum

 

[UngeheuerLich]

If that second sentence is what you are saying, then I am not sure how it follows from the Kobold Press post. OGL is not mentioned anywhere, and what is mentioned does not have anything to do with that controversy

Black flag was created in response to to OGL controvery. So they are now trying to get as many people from that event as possible. By telling them it is the only way to keep it in print, they might get one or two more customers.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Black flag was created in response to to OGL controvery. So they are now trying to get as many people from that event as possible. By telling them it is the only way to keep it in print, they might get one or two more customers.

One D&D and Black Flag seem to be going in rather different directions from the 2014 rules. I don't blame for them for characterizing 6e as a different game that is replacing 5e.

 

[Reef]

Again, this is a group hobby. You can't play without players, and the further away they move from older preferences, the harder it is to find players that will engage in something that isn't the new hotness.

Well, yeah. Welcome to being old. I don’t expect the new hotness to cater to me. I’ve long come to terms with the fact I’m no longer the prime target demographic for…well, anything anymore.

If D&D suddenly turns into a game I don’t like (hasn’t happened yet), I’ll still have all my previous editions. And maybe my group won’t be full of young whippersnappers, but im guessing I’ll still be playing with the people I have right now.

But complaining that they are making changes to attract young people at the expense of us old folk would be like me screaming about the lack of hair metal on my MTV…

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Again, this is a group hobby. You can't play without players, and the further away they move from older preferences, the harder it is to find players that will engage in something that isn't the new hotness.

That's a you problem, not a D&D problem.

I have to admit, though, it does take some chutzpah to say that unlike all the other TTRPGs out there, D&D is in trouble because people have a lot of difficulty finding other people to game with. So, there's that?