D&D 4E My faith for 4e crumbles

[Mistwell]

I love D&D 3e. Not just because of the vast improvements in the rules, but also because it was made public. Other people could use the rules to create their own material. While it did produce a lot of rubbish, there were many things out there that were simply superb.

Now it seems that Wizards made a U-Turn and wants to fight that creativity with all their might. They want to keep D&D for themselves. *My* preciousss. Does anyone know about a bigger step backwards in the history of RPG?

I would wager my donkey that the next edition of D&D will not allow any third party to produce any content. Clearly Wizards had enough of being upstaged by others who proved that they know what they do.

Now that Wizards is getting rid of these sources, I can only surmise that they gave up on trying to make an ever better game. They clearly intent to get a D&D monopoly, so people have to take their stuff or not play anything at all.


But unless they're able to revoke the OGL, I think they have reckoned without their host.

I mean this in the kindest of tones: You sound insane. Biggest step back in the history of RPGs to move a couple of magazines online instead of print? Did you see the "steam tunnel crazies" news back in the 70s? The murders blamed on D&D? The D&D movie? The LARP craze? The spawning of FURRY RPGS!

Come on man, get some friggen perspective! If there were a Rictor Scale measuring steps back in RPGS, this would rank as about a 3.0 (light rolling waves for less than 30 seconds) compared to some of those other major disaster events.

 

[Agamon]

I think he's talking more generally about WotC taking back all of their IPs as they become available, not anything specifically, and the probablity that it means 4E won't be OGL. That is a step backwards. Your examples actually grew awareness in D&D and RPGs. Bad publicity is still publicity.

 

[Anti-Sean]

I think the word for that is "apophenia." Seeing the Virgin Mary in the french toast, etc.

Best. The Guess Who Album. Evar.

 

[Maggan]

I think he's talking more generally about WotC taking back all of their IPs as they become available, not anything specifically, and the probablity that it means 4E won't be OGL. That is a step backwards.

4e isn't even announced, so how could it be a step backwards already?

/M

 

[Hussar]

My pattern recognition circuits just kicked in.



Currently, we saw how they moved against Paizo, which is certainly not one of the rubbish peddlers.

But, the fly in this little soup of yours is the fact that Paizo weren't producing OGC content in Dungeon or Dragon. Rather they were using WOTC IP to push their magazines. In other words, they were peddling WOTC's own stuff.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

You have a donkey?

Wait, I wanted to say "bet my ass"

And I thought it's hard to find RPG-stuff in Germany without amazon... :/

Nah. Dragonworld's got it all, with decent prices and fast shipping.

The biggest step backwards I have seen have been connected to the press oversensationalising a murder here in Sweden, blaming it on RPGs. That was huge, and proved that we are still viewed as a fair target for speculation.

I wouldn't define that as a step backwards. It was a set back, maybe, but nothing the RPG industry itself initiated.

I heard several stories about murders that were blamed on roleplaying. I remember one being someone all into dark themes, and when they found out that he happened to play Vampire, they found their scapegoat!

In the other I remember the killers claimed that the victim agreed to be killed: They said that they were playing some sort of mystery RPG, and the victim agreed that if he could not figure out the mystery, his life would be forfeit. The guys drugged and murdered not only the victim, but also his parents, and apparently they stole a not to small amount of money from the house.

 

[wayne62682]

Some points:

1) To my knowledge the cannot revoke the OGL. They can say "This edition of D&D is not OGL", but 3rd-party people can still produce for 3.5 on the 3.5 OGL. So even if 4e doesn't have the OGL (and I'm in the camp of thinking it won't), people can happily play 3.5 and buy 3.5 things.

2) Them bringing things back "into the fold" isn't a big deal for me, because I've never met any group that allowed non-WotC books at all for fear of them being hugely overpowered. Even Dragon mag's stuff, which said it was "100% official content" got vetoed because it was a magazine, not an actual book. I've been exposed to tolerance of 3rd-party material via this site, but the majority of folks will turn their nose at anything not produced by WotC as not being "real" D&D.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Nah. Dragonworld's got it all, with decent prices and fast shipping.

Indeed. While they don't always have everything you want in stock, they usually get the major releases very soon - and once they do have something in stock, you usually receive your order the day after you ordered it (unless you ordered it after the post offices have closed).

 

[WhatGravitas]

Indeed. While they don't always have everything you want in stock, they usually get the major releases very soon - and once they do have something in stock, you usually receive your order the day after you ordered it (unless you ordered it after the post offices have closed).

Yeah, that's for the advice (I guess I was spoiled by the Spiel'0X's in Essen)...

 

[hexgrid]

For me, having the publisher of a game be the only publisher of materials for the game isn't all that frightening an idea- it's the way things normally work. I wouldn't be bothered if 4e was 100% closed any more than I was bothered that 1e and 2e were closed (which is not at all.)