D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

[Incenjucar]

But why though? Why do you have to defend it? You could just ignore it, and let someone be wrong. What makes it worse than a misspelled word or a typo?

I think that's the heart of the matter.

The observation of falsehoods about things you have deep knowledge of and interest in can be very, very uncomfortable.

Nobody is going to start a schism war over it, but if people spent enough time talking about how Baldur's Gate 3 is a great Pathfinder game or the like someone would eventually go full arghlebarghle.

 

[CellarHeroes]

Unfortunately for those with your preferences, it has been found by empirical study in user experience that for most folks, art makes the book easier to use. Art works make solid "landmarks" for the mental map of where things are found in the book. "The rule I want is just a bit past the pic of the halfling being strangled by the marilith..." kind of thing.

Or the alternative...an index.

 

[Hussar]

/snip

I’d probably go with Shadow of the Weird Wizard personally, which is not really a 5e but pretty closely related. I am definitely curious about Mike Mearls’ take. From what I have seen he aligns very well with what I want.

Now, and I ask this in all honestly, if you went with whatever take suits you best, would you continue to post screed after screed complaining about how WotC isn't catering to you?

Because that's what we see now. People who aren't interested in WotC, playing new games that are fantastic. But, instead of telling me how great their new games are and how their new games are hitting all their happy buttons, instead we see ENDLESS posts and threads about how WotC is failing in one way or another. The endless negativity is just mind boggling. I guess I will never understand talking about stuff you don't like. If you don't like it, that's fantastic! Tell me about what you do like.

I believe it was @Piratecat that used the phrase, or something close, "I double dog dare you to tell me how great your game is without referencing any other game."

should I make the thread?

Oh good god no. Talk about chumming the waters. And, while that's tongue in cheek, it does hold a grain of truth. So many interesting topics become absolutely toxic and poisoned because for ever productive conversation, you have to wade through post after post after post of people venting their spleen.

 

[CellarHeroes]

The SRD is free and self-publishing sites are a thing. Just make your own book?

(A friend of mine in college used the university printers to make a binder book of the 3.5 SRD, printing a few pages at a time. He had the whole game in a 2" binder.)

I'm aware that this is an option, but the downside is that the company doesn't get my money. I'm saying that I would be happy to pay a lower price for this option.

 

[mamba]

Now, and I ask this in all honestly, if you went with whatever take suits you best, would you continue to post screed after screed complaining about how WotC isn't catering to you?

I don't think I am doing this now... which is not to say that I will never criticize D&D for something I do not like about it

 

[Azzy]

I'm thinking about in-person gaming. It sounds like you're talking about finding folks online? If so, yeah, that's not too difficult for the majority of systems. But if you want to sit down at a table?

No, that won't happen regardless of what game we're talking about.

I'll give you some context. I like running a lot of public games; I like the community RPGs offer, I like meeting new people, screening new players, and such. So I play (well, run really) at the FLGS of whatever area I'm in. I move around a fair bit. Whether you're in a big city or a small one, its super easy to find a 5e game this way. Most shops have a regular community already, they have a warhorn or the like, you can jump in.

But even in the big cities (I mean LA), you can't do this for anything other than 5e. I see people come in and try to advertise their PbtA or Blades or Dune or OSR game, and they get very little interest.

I've been able to get those games running, but you need to know the players first. The most reliable way is to network with the community, playing 5e exclusively, for several months, and then offer to run something new.

In the small cities I've been in, it takes longer.

I wonder how the people trying to get others to play, y'know—what's the sales pitch. (I've never had a FLGS to recruit others, so I have no idea how people post for players.) Would prefacing a LFG with a pitch that the game their trying to recruit is "like D&D, but..." ("with an old school flair", "science fiction instead of fantasy", "superheroes", "with an emphasis on narrative play", etc.)?

 

[Staffan]

Or the alternative...an index.

An index is good for when you have no clue where a particular thing is. Art is good for when you know roughly where something is but not its exact page. Plus, it's also good for breaking up what would otherwise be long walls of text, as well as illustrating game concepts. For example, if you're looking for the Use Magic Device rules in the 3.0 PHB, you'll know they're right next to the picture that also illustrates the effects of rolling a 1 on the check.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

But why though? Why do you have to defend it? You could just ignore it, and let someone be wrong. What makes it worse than a misspelled word or a typo?

I think that's the heart of the matter.

Because I am opposed to people using misinformation (or, more commonly, disinformation) to argue about things.

Lies left unopposed become "common knowledge." We have seen far, far too much of that IRL.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Unfortunately for those with your preferences, it has been found by empirical study in user experience that for most folks, art makes the book easier to use. Art works make solid "landmarks" for the mental map of where things are found in the book. "The rule I want is just a bit past the pic of the halfling being strangled by the marilith..." kind of thing.

I won't argue that, but I still feel the amount of art in books like 5.5 core is excessive, nevermind how one feels about the specific pieces.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Complaining about that to people who are not WotC does little to help that, though.

I can understand wanting to vent your frustrations, but doing so at people who don't share your personal preferences, and who have no clear power to change matters if they wanted to, isn't what we'd call constructively engaging.

Talking to WotC won't stop them having so much influence over the hobby and the industry either.