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<blockquote data-quote="Luce" data-source="post: 6126294" data-attributes="member: 29760">Hussar:From <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9294-The-State-of-Dungeons-Dragons-Future" target="_blank">http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9294-The-State-of-Dungeons-Dragons-Future</a>&quot;&quot;I have a theory about&nbsp; RPGs,&quot; Mearls said. &quot;When 2nd edition really got focused on story [in&nbsp; 1989], we had what I call the first era of RPG decadence and it was&nbsp; based on story. The idea that the DM is going to tell you a story, and&nbsp; you go from point A to point B to point C. The narrative is linear and&nbsp; [the DM is a] storyteller going to tell you a static story, and you&nbsp; would just get to roll dice occasionally. 3rd edition came out and said&nbsp; 'To Hell with that,' it's all about players, we're going to give you&nbsp; some really cool options, it's all flexibility in the DM and for the&nbsp; players, there's this meaningful choice.&nbsp;&quot;I think we've hit the second era of RPG decadence, and it's gone the&nbsp; opposite way,&quot; he continued. &quot;It's all about player power now - the DM&nbsp; is just the rules guy - and the DM can't contradict what the players&nbsp; say. [The game] is taking away from the DM, and that's where I worry&nbsp; because other types of games can do that better. I might as well play a&nbsp; board game, 'cause I'm just here enforcing the rules. Without the DM as&nbsp; the creative guy, what's the point?&quot;&nbsp;Mearls admits 4th edition might have gone too far in creating a&nbsp; perfectly balanced game. &quot;We've lost faith of what makes an RPG an RPG,&quot;&nbsp; he said, admitting that in trying to please gamers with a limited&nbsp; imagination, 4th edition might have punished those with an active one.&nbsp; &quot;There's this fear of the bad gaming group, where the game is so good&nbsp; that even playing with a bad gaming group, you'll still have fun.&quot;&nbsp;The result of this philosophy is that, perhaps more than ever before, gamers are playing different games than the official D&amp;D coming out of the Wizards of the Coast. &quot;What D&amp;D&nbsp; faces now with different editions and old school versus new school, and&nbsp; 3.5 versus 4th edition, it's like the comic book conundrum,&quot; Mearls&nbsp; said&quot;Not exactly WOTC publication, but words attributed to a lead designer.I am not saying that is the universal truth (I have seen plenty of 2e games which were not railroads, or 3e GMs which did not abide being relegated to a position of only a referee), but there must have been enough of a discontent to warrant him making those statements.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Luce, post: 6126294, member: 29760"] Hussar: From [url]http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9294-The-State-of-Dungeons-Dragons-Future[/url] " "I have a theory about RPGs," Mearls said. "When 2nd edition really got focused on story [in 1989], we had what I call the first era of RPG decadence and it was based on story. The idea that the DM is going to tell you a story, and you go from point A to point B to point C. The narrative is linear and [the DM is a] storyteller going to tell you a static story, and you would just get to roll dice occasionally. 3rd edition came out and said 'To Hell with that,' it's all about players, we're going to give you some really cool options, it's all flexibility in the DM and for the players, there's this meaningful choice. "I think we've hit the second era of RPG decadence, and it's gone the opposite way," he continued. "It's all about player power now - the DM is just the rules guy - and the DM can't contradict what the players say. [The game] is taking away from the DM, and that's where I worry because other types of games can do that better. I might as well play a board game, 'cause I'm just here enforcing the rules. Without the DM as the creative guy, what's the point?" Mearls admits 4th edition might have gone too far in creating a perfectly balanced game. "We've lost faith of what makes an RPG an RPG," he said, admitting that in trying to please gamers with a limited imagination, 4th edition might have punished those with an active one. "There's this fear of the bad gaming group, where the game is so good that even playing with a bad gaming group, you'll still have fun." The result of this philosophy is that, perhaps more than ever before, gamers are playing different games than the official [I]D&D[/I] coming out of the Wizards of the Coast. "What [I]D&D[/I] faces now with different editions and old school versus new school, and 3.5 versus 4th edition, it's like the comic book conundrum," Mearls said " Not exactly WOTC publication, but words attributed to a lead designer. I am not saying that is the universal truth (I have seen plenty of 2e games which were not railroads, or 3e GMs which did not abide being relegated to a position of only a referee), but there must have been enough of a discontent to warrant him making those statements. [/QUOTE]

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