Only the Lonely: Why We Demand Official Product

[MichaelSomething]

What do the people who want official product do versus the people who don't want stuff to be published?

 

[Azzy]

What do the people who want official product do versus the people who don't want stuff to be published?

Give them sporks and have them fight to the death in gladitorial combat.

 

[Zardnaar]

Give them sporks and have them fight to the death in gladitorial combat.

Creampies. Death by cream pie.

Round 1 FIGHT.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Whether or not D&D is, or should be, a full medieval simulation has nothing to with D&D as art. D&D as your preference maybe, but not as art. Moreover, while the fact that WotC is actually a business might rub some people's rhubarb the wrong way, it is and business decisions will affect how they publish. I point this out pretty frequently, but that has nothing to do with my personal appreciation for the game.

In my personal aesthetic appreciation for the game, past and current, I would agree that it shouldn't be a full medieval simulation. Not for any kind of business reasons, but because the stories I want to tell have very little to do with the realities of the medieval period. I'd appreciate it if you didn't straw man my D&D aesthetics without having the first idea what they are.

I'm not arguing for D&D to become a medieval simulation, I'm arguing that it would be braver for WotC to stop thinking about the market and make whatever products they think are cool - whatever that means. If that includes a a medieval simulation, great. But saying a medieval simulation should not be made because it is inclusive is cowardly. I'm not arguing they shouldn't be inclusive if that is what they want and fits within their image of the setting they want to design. I'm saying, they should make what they want - everyone else be damned.

Poor business advice, but I have no attachments to Hasbro as a company. I'd rather see designer's creations that are a labor of love than a mass produced product. Many aspects of D&D today, such as the way errata had been handled, reek of corporatism.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Creampies. Death by cream pie.

Round 1 FIGHT.

The male combatants remove their pants.

 

[Zardnaar]

The male combatants remove their pants.

Derp I didn't go there.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Derp I didn't go there.

Always take it to the next level.

 

[pemerton]

it would be braver for WotC to stop thinking about the market and make whatever products they think are cool

There are RPG designers doing this. My personal recommendations would be Burning Wheel and anything by Vincent Baker or Greg Stafford

But WotC is a subsidiary of a public company. The market is where it's at.

 

[pemerton]

I want the same level of support as FR. End of story. It can be done, since it was done for FR and FR isn't any more specialized that GH is.

The same kinds as FR. They came up with backgrounds and subclasses for FR, they can just as easily do it for GH.

But GH has never had "support" remotely on the level of FR. I don't think that's about to change.

As far as sub-classes et al are concerned, as I said upthread I don't think they will be distinctly Greyhawk. Any more than the Purple Dragon Knight is distinctly FR. (I mean, the name is, but its abilities aren't.)

 

[pemerton]

You don't think GH is distinctive; fine. I'm saying that GH can be made distinctive if made with a certain tone and theme, a theme that I feel is represented in some GH material. You can argue it's not consistent in all GH material (and I think that's correct), but that doesn't make my POV wrong.

If I had to identify anything distinctive about GH I would say that it is pulp-y. It mixes elves, dwarves and orcs into "an age undreamed of".