Mike Mearls comments on design

[The Ubbergeek]

It's not just D&D, but the WHOLE RPG hobby who ages out. It's not just marketting hot air.

 

[JVisgaitis]

Um, what the hell are quest cards? I haven't been as up to date on this as I've been doing Warhammer in the interim, but I don't see any threads on it.

 

[The Little Raven]

Um, what the hell are quest cards? I haven't been as up to date on this as I've been doing Warhammer in the interim, but I don't see any threads on it.

A suggested bookkeeping technique that allows you to simply hand a 3x5 card to your players that contains a quest they have been offered, along with the reward for said quest, for quick reference and a plain way to track goals.

 

[BryonD]

You also have to understand that it's a pragmatic move to keep the hobby alive.

I dispute your implication that I don't understand.

There was a poll in the General forum that asked "How many played 1e?" and over 80% of ENworld had. WotC needs to be able to get new gamers in, or in ten years, the hobby's going to die. And trying to market to a younger crowd is going to alienate the older crowd - it's damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Also, 3rd ed brought many D&D players who had abandoned 2e back into the fold, so it's possible that 4e will bring old D&D players.

Yes, and it is also possible that it will lose players.

I think a lot of the comparisons to 1E and gaming in the 80s are deeply flawed because the marketplace and alternatives are so completely different. I think a lot of the old 1e players who are gone now would have never played D&D in the first place if the alternatives they have now had been real then. Nothing is going to bring them back.

I'm not damning them for trying to attract younger players. And I don't think in my case that it is at all predetermined that an effort to draw younger players would alienate me.
But it isn't "younger" that is the key that is being talked about. The key hook being touted is simplicity. And from the pieces seen so far, the price of increased simplicity is running too high (for me). That is a totally different issue.

 

[JVisgaitis]

A suggested bookkeeping technique that allows you to simply hand a 3x5 card to your players that contains a quest they have been offered, along with the reward for said quest, for quick reference and a plain way to track goals.

Weird. Was this in a blog post? I'm trying to find info on this at Wizard's site, but its impossible.

 

[mxyzplk]

Definitely a good response and lots of good information. I've been leanign to anti-4e, but maybe it is jsut the marketing. I have and like Iron Heroes and think Mearls is good, and Jonathan Tweet is my god; I love Over the Edge. I gove Bruce Cordell props for The Killing Jar and Gates of Firestorm Peak. I'd love to be able to "trust them" on 4e; it's just that the tidbits we've heard seem to form into a Godawful Voltron of a game.

 

[Rechan]

Weird. Was this in a blog post? I'm trying to find info on this at Wizard's site, but its impossible.

No. It was in "Design and Development: Quests".

 

[Rechan]

I dispute your implication that I don't understand.

Thin skin much? I wasn't implying that you don't understand. I was imploring you to take that more into consideration.

Yes, and it is also possible that it will lose players.

I all ready said that it would lose some people.

I'm not damning them for trying to attract younger players. And I don't think in my case that it is at all predetermined that an effort to draw younger players would alienate me.
But it isn't "younger" that is the key that is being talked about. The key hook being touted is simplicity. And from the pieces seen so far, the price of increased simplicity is running too high (for me). That is a totally different issue.

Eh? Simplicity isn't for newer gamers. I run 3.5 and I beg for simplicity.

 

[JoeGKushner]

A suggested bookkeeping technique that allows you to simply hand a 3x5 card to your players that contains a quest they have been offered, along with the reward for said quest, for quick reference and a plain way to track goals.

Not trying to get flamed here but that sounds a lot like a quest log in say, Guild Wars.

Her'es your quest.

Here's the XP and items you'll get if you do it.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

i wonder if D&D always had the OPPOSITE problem.... They always aim for subtile complexity. Is the game TOO complex?

Don't that cost possible D&D players?

Are not the hardcore gamers with the same complains a part of the problem - what they see as good complexity is in reality confuse and hard to get for the newcommers or less hardcoe gamers?

if we listen to such a complain, is D&D shooting itself in the foot? Did something got lost in all those years?

notice the iconic grognard here, that Diaglo guy, praises 0D&D's SIMPLICITY. It says something.