Necromancer Games NOT going with current GSL.

[Jasperak]

Me.

My parents bought me the basic set in 1980, but they had never played the game. They probably thought their 10-year old would like a game with dragons in it.

They were right.

I'm choosing you to respond to because someone like you introduced me to D&D back around 1985-86.

If we posit that you are one person that picked up D&D on a whim or randomly, how many people did you introduce D&D/RPGs to? I have introduced around maybe a dozen or so with three or four that still play. Some of those brought others to play in our games. We could have scores that were introduced to the game by either me or someone directly connected to me. Those possible scores by word-of-mouth. One on a whim.

Is your experience the same?

 

[zoroaster100]

Wow. This news sucks. I really love 4e. But most of WOTC's adventures in the past have been several steps in quality below Paizo's. I was hoping Necromancer would help fill in the gap. Unless WOTC changes the GSL or drastically improves their adventures, this bodes ill for 4e. It doesn't matter how great the system is. If there are no good premade adventures, I think most DMs won't run the game. At least I won't, as I'm too busy to create adventures myself. Keep on the Shadowfell and Thunderspire Labryinth have been passable so far. The first Scales of War adventure path adventure was totally below acceptable quality in my opinion. So we'll see. If WOTC is not going to change the GSL, I hope they hire Paizo or Necromancer adventure designers to create official adventures.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Yes, a whole lot of it. On these forums, the Wizard boards, and RPG.NET, not to mention how venomous the Paizo boards have been. I've had people at my local gaming store do it (and get kicked out by the owner, as he doesn't tolerate people disrespecting other customers).

Hey, we're all nerds here.

Whether we like to admit it or not, recent events have caused a sizable split in the fan base. The word fan is short for fanatic, and some people will go to extremes to get people to agree with them. I personally have found this whole thing incredibly frustrating for several reasons, which I outlined in my earlier posts, but at the end of the day we're all gaming nerds. If you get together on a Friday or Saturday night to eat pizza, drink Mountain Dew, and pretend to kill orcs then more power to you, regardless of which system you're playing.

The key is that us nerds should at the very least agree to be civil to each other. Nothing is going to be gained by breaking out the switchblades every time someone from the opposite camp walks into a conversation.

 

[Jraynack]

Well, this is a turn . . . personally . . . for the worst, since I too enjoyed Necromancer's products and looked foward what was coming out for 4th.

However, professionally speaking (if I can call myself a professional), this might give smaller companies, like ours, a little more breathing room to show off our stuff. It's not that I complain living in the shadow of such giants, but it is nice to see the light of day every so often.

 

[Psion]

To be fair, 3.5-only and Pathfinder-only fans are often ignorant of how things in 4e actually work, and many base their "knowledge" on second-hand forum posts while stating that they will never even read or play the game. It's not an insult to point out that someone has no idea what they're talking about,

It's not an insult to point out a factual mistake.

It is rude to extrapolate and tell someone that they have "no idea what they are talking about".

 

[Rystil Arden]

I'm choosing you to respond to because someone like you introduced me to D&D back around 1985-86.

If we posit that you are one person that picked up D&D on a whim or randomly, how many people did you introduce D&D/RPGs to? I have introduced around maybe a dozen or so with three or four that still play. Some of those brought others to play in our games. We could have scores that were introduced to the game by either me or someone directly connected to me. Those possible scores by word-of-mouth. One on a whim.

Is your experience the same?

Oh, you're certainly right that word-of-mouth is quite important. It was just your question positing that no one here picked it up in another way that I could guess would be multiply refuted.

As for me, I introduced...let's see--5 people in my first group, then 3 more in the second, plus 10 younger players, then 14 more in the third and fourth groups. Soooo, 32 people (I'm sure I missed a few). Of those, a little under half still play.

 

[Henry]

Nothing is going to be gained by breaking out the switchblades every time someone from the opposite camp walks into a conversation.

...nothing except EXPERIENCE POINTS AND LOOT! Roll Initiative, you Cur!

I agree with the Drader.

 

[Gothmog]

What I would really like to know is how many people just went into a store to pick up a RPG to play. There is no significant marketing campaign for 4e. Every single person that I have talked to has said they were introduced to D&D and RPGs by someone else. That train goes all the way back to miniature wargamers, people that watched D&D cartoons, and Boy Scout leaders. Name recognition means nothing if nobody plays. If I go into my FLGS and they are playing Pathfinder, that's what I'm going to be introduced to. Has anyone that never played D&D gone into Borders of B&N and just bought D&D because some computer games were based off of it? D&D and RPGs in general are word-of-mouth hobbies. I would love to see marketing data that points otherwise.

To help clairify my point, is there anybody in this forum or on this site that started playing D&D and had not been introduced to it by someone that already played it?

Yep, I see your point here- people do tend to play what they are taught. However, because D&D is the granddaddy of RPGs, and because its the best supported with the most new releases, production quality, and a previously existant fanbase, its the game most likely to be played, bar none.

What I mean by "casual gamer" is someone who enjoys rpgs, but doesn't REALLY get into them like we do. Someone who games to spend time with friends, and who wants something easy and fun to play with minimal complication. There are game systems I like better than D&D and 4e, but they tend to be more complicated in some ways, more obscure, and MUCH harder to procure books and materials for. The casual gamer I referred to isn't going to spend the time to research 5 or 10 different games to find one that best fits his philosophical model of gaming. He's more than likely going to choose the game that is most accessible and most played- hence D&D, in whatever iteration its in.

 

[Rechan]

To help clairify my point, is there anybody in this forum or on this site that started playing D&D and had not been introduced to it by someone that already played it?

Me. I looked at 2e books in the book store all the time as a kid. I tried to play it multiple times, but never made any enroads because I couldn't really find people. By the time I got to HS, I had some opportunities, but I all ready had the 2e PHB and everything.

A guy in HS did turn me on to fantasy, fantasy novels, and RPGs in general, but he wasn't allowed to play D&D.

Then 3e came out, and I went to the internet, DMed my first game there.

 

[Vocenoctum]

To help clairify my point, is there anybody in this forum or on this site that started playing D&D and had not been introduced to it by someone that already played it?

I'll tack on my "bought an issue of dragon magazine blindly, then the boxed set to see what I had bought..."

Bought the boxed set at Zayre's, a department store long since deceased.