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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hatmatter" data-source="post: 8008756" data-attributes="member: 75077">I was just about to write a response to the interesting and provocative original post, when I read Li Shenron's post here. I really love the ideas expressed in the forums here at Enworld and have occupied hours reading and thinking about the communications that take place here. Of all the posts, this one from Li Shenron may be the most important one I have read (except for the opportunity to communicate with Gary Gygax when he began posting a year or so before he passed...I met him in my early 20s, but it was fun to read what he had to say 15 years later).When we think the solution to our problems is through purchasing a product, then we have likely succumbed to the the universal message of advertisement: there is a product or service that you can purchase that will fix your problem. Succumbing to this feeling can be fun (e.g. retail therapy), so I am not making this basic observation with any moral judgment. But consumerism is a mentality, a person can exhibit it even if that person does not have a dime to spend.It is not often discussed that one of the core, brilliant ideas contained within D&D and, by extension, table top role-playing games, is that it is a game of cooperative storytelling that doesn't need product to sustain. In the 1990s I LARPed in a Vampire game in different locations throughout NYC (including the Winter Garden at the base of the World Trade Center) where the sole mechanic was paper, rock, scissors. A D&D table top game could be played in perpetuity on a desert island with a few players using some similar mechanic for conflict resolution.Wizards of the Coast was correct and inspired when they decided to support Dungeons & Dragons primarily as a community-building phenomenon when the new iteration of rules came out in 2014. They were brilliant and even revolutionary when they released the OGL way back in 2000...I mean how many companies or corporations think like that? Even as they are a commercial entity, I think they get that the rpg community is a community first, bound by the thrill of cooperative storytelling and the expression of the imagination.I am sympathetic that Wizards needs money to exist and I have even occasionally purchased one of their products that didn't tickle my fancy simply to express a vote of support for them, but I have been delighted that their efforts have been to bring in new players and launch large new storylines rather than issue forth incessant product that people like the OP may have felt obligated in some way to purchase at first.Thinking about D&D, though, in terms of editions, extends this kind of commercial thinking. Again, as above, no judgment, if that is how one wants to look at the world (again, shopping can be fun). I wrote something similar in the "Last of the Editions" thread. I think the incessant focus on editions is, ultimately, a disservice to the development of storytelling potential. What little can be gained in terms of small mechanical improvements is offset through having to relaunch old product ideas in the new edition.We can probably learn from this guy, who has been DMing the same campaign for 39 years: <a href="https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/londoners-dungeons-and-dragons-game-has-been-swinging-swords-for-38-years" target="_blank">Londoner's Dungeons and Dragons game has lasted 38 years, and counting</a> (Of course, he scratches his commercial itch through collecting miniatures). His emphasis is on story, world exploration, and characters. I have heard him interviewed many times and he almost never mentions Wizards of the Coast or TSR products. He might incorporate new books that players bring into his game, but his energy goes to game mastering the story birthed at his table. Gary Gygax would be proud.Thank you, Li Shenron.</blockquote>

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