Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 4571231" data-attributes="member: 2067">I'm with ya. I do think they might be working out the details now (the barbarian was pretty neat, too, for the most part).I think this is one of the big reasons that the powers system needs to be burned to the ground and regrown using its own ashes, and that books like the Draconomicon are so much better than snoozers like Martial Power or the Monster Manual. It's a little more insidious than simply &quot;writing for the game,&quot; though. If you can't spark the imagination with your main product (which, in D&amp;D, is the core books), you're relying on someone else to fill in the gaps. That's work. Most people (those who don't already have a history of running table top RPGs, or who haven't been inspired by the good DMs that they've had) won't be willing to do that. They won't have a REASON to do that. It's too opaque and uninteresting. Reference books sell because they help clarify and organize information that already exists out there in the world. Everybody talks a language, so a dictionary is a useful reference. No one who is learning a language would pick up a dictionary and go &quot;this sounds like it would be fun to pronounce!&quot; though. The core books might be a useful reference (though this is debatable), but no one is going to want to play D&amp;D when they buy the core books. They're either going to be already into D&amp;D (via social networks or legacy or ad campaigns), or they're not going to be interested in it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 4571231, member: 2067"] I'm with ya. I do think they might be working out the details now (the barbarian was pretty neat, too, for the most part). I think this is one of the big reasons that the powers system needs to be burned to the ground and regrown using its own ashes, and that books like the Draconomicon are so much better than snoozers like Martial Power or the Monster Manual. It's a little more insidious than simply "writing for the game," though. If you can't spark the imagination with your main product (which, in D&D, is the core books), you're relying on someone else to fill in the gaps. That's work. Most people (those who don't already have a history of running table top RPGs, or who haven't been inspired by the good DMs that they've had) won't be willing to do that. They won't have a REASON to do that. It's too opaque and uninteresting. Reference books sell because they help clarify and organize information that already exists out there in the world. Everybody talks a language, so a dictionary is a useful reference. No one who is learning a language would pick up a dictionary and go "this sounds like it would be fun to pronounce!" though. The core books might be a useful reference (though this is debatable), but no one is going to want to play D&D when they buy the core books. They're either going to be already into D&D (via social networks or legacy or ad campaigns), or they're not going to be interested in it. [/QUOTE]

Verification