D&D General What the Melf's Guide to Greyhawk Cover Might Look Like

Below is a quick mockup of the potential cover of Melf's Guide to Greyhawk based on the Jeff Easley art revealed at Gary Con, using the current D&D 5.5E trade dress. The fonts aren't quite right, but it gives an approximate look at what the book may look like when it is released.

 

[Mournblade94]

He's referencing a meme.

The Show Me on the Doll Meme: How a Tragic Legal Tool Became an Internet Staple

You’ve seen it. It’s usually a blurry screencap or a crude drawing of a generic plastic figure. Maybe someone is pointing a finger at it. The caption? Some...

ponderworthy.com

Fair enough I wouldn't have connected it to a south park episode I watched long ago. I thought it was just a connection to the doll itself used in therapy.

 

[Mecheon]

They didn't need to disparage the creator for a different cultural time.

Look, if the writer of Complete Book of Elves had to make an apology about it, well. Let's just say there's a lot more 2E books I think authors should be apologising for that have worse crimes than sucking up to elves like in that book

Some 3.5e ones, too. You can't just rename poisons and say 'they only work on evil people so its fine for good people to use these'.

 

[Clint_L]

I’m sure there are ‘grey haired grogs’ who feel abandoned and long for the heady days of 2e or what have you. But I’m not sure that market is as big as imagined. Because I’m just as sure there’s a lot of 50+ gamers (like me and mine) who are enjoying the heck out of 5e24 and have no issues with the current books.

We just started our fifth 5e campaign (and our second 5e24), and couldn’t be happier.

Now, I know this is just duelling anecdotes, as opposed to actual data. But every time I see posts about how us original old school gamers have been dissed, abandoned, and marginalized, and how WOTC has to win us all back, I cant help but think “Some of (maybe a lot of us) are already here.” I absolutely have no idea if the quietly ‘old and happy’ 5e gamer group is larger than the ‘old, loud, and grumpy’ one, but I just wanted to poke my head up and say we do exist.

Reporting for duty! My favourite version yet. Has enough 1e DNA to satisfy the younger me, but plays much better for the type of gaming I’ve always preferred. I’m 58 in a month.

Given that I love Greyhawk and I love the current game, I’m very excited for this book, which I will purchase on DDB.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I read it. Cover to cover.

I dont think Gygax is without fault but im not looking to read about it in a reprint of white box.

And Twitter and blue sky after that ran with it to tweet out more misconceptions about how the game was played.

It simply didn't add anything but controversy.

I read it too. I guess one sees what one brings to it, because I saw a love-letter to the game and to Gygax, that simply pointed out a few things that don't date well. Hardly controversial.

But yeah, social media certainly drummed up a lot of misconceptions.

 

[Infernal Teddy]

I’m sure there are ‘grey haired grogs’ who feel abandoned and long for the heady days of 2e or what have you. But I’m not sure that market is as big as imagined. Because I’m just as sure there’s a lot of 50+ gamers (like me and mine) who are enjoying the heck out of 5e24 and have no issues with the current books.

We just started our fifth 5e campaign (and our second 5e24), and couldn’t be happier.

Now, I know this is just duelling anecdotes, as opposed to actual data. But every time I see posts about how us original old school gamers have been dissed, abandoned, and marginalized, and how WOTC has to win us all back, I cant help but think “Some of (maybe a lot of us) are already here.” I absolutely have no idea if the quietly ‘old and happy’ 5e gamer group is larger than the ‘old, loud, and grumpy’ one, but I just wanted to poke my head up and say we do exist.

49 in the summer, so not quite that greybeardy yet, but 5.5e is my favorite edition of D&D to date

 

[VashVet]

Nobody else is responsible for it. All they needed was one of the disclaimers that are lame but ultimately harmless in front of older publications. They didn't need to disparage the creator for a different cultural time. Not many of those books are going to bought by newer gamers anyway, so it was ultimately useless because most of the older gamers don't worry about things people said in the past decades.

As mentioned, it was a book that was going to do more than simply present the original books - it was a history book and that provides analysis of the context both then and now. That is why it was not a “lame” disclaimer. When Disney or Warner Bros puts up a “lame” disclaimer about one of its cartoons from the 1940s, it is simply presenting the cartoon as it originally played.

Also, no one can speak to what most older gamers worry or don’t worry about. There is another thread here asking people to state their age. The average forum goer was born in the 70s. Clearly, people of different ages are not a monolith even on these boards, and certainly not enough to say “most of the older gamers.”

 

[Mournblade94]

I read it too. I guess one sees what one brings to it, because I saw a love-letter to the game and to Gygax, that simply pointed out a few things that don't date well. Hardly controversial.

But yeah, social media certain drummed up a lot of misconceptions.

The book history itself yes was done very well (I really dislike the term love letter more often than not it seems like an ironic term) Its the preface I take issue with. The preface was an apology for the old game. The book proper indeed was the love letter.

I read the preface in the book store then read the first chapter of the book. When I found out it was just the author being annoyingly apologetic in the preface and the book itself having good scholarship I bought it. The preface stains the book a bit. Instead of a 9.8 mint work it brings it down to a 9.2 near mint.

 

[Mournblade94]

As mentioned, it was a book that was going to do more than simply present the original books - it was a history book and that provides analysis of the context both then and now. That is why it was not a “lame” disclaimer. When Disney or Warner Bros puts up a “lame” disclaimer about one of its cartoons from the 1940s, it is simply presenting the cartoon as it originally played.

Also, no one can speak to what most older gamers worry or don’t worry about. There is another thread here asking people to state their age. The average forum goer was born in the 70s. Clearly, people of different ages are not a monolith even on these boards, and certainly not enough to say “most of the older gamers.”

Who actually thinks they are speaking for everyone? This isnt an academic forum.

Also the apology part was not in the book itself. It was in the preface. I cant remember where else in the book it was addressed except for the author apologizing for the old gaming population.

I said previously I read the preface and parts of the book in the store. I wasnt going to buy it because if the apology but the rest of the book was done well, and i found that surprising given the quality of the preface.

 

[Mournblade94]

Reporting for duty! My favourite version yet. Has enough 1e DNA to satisfy the younger me, but plays much better for the type of gaming I’ve always preferred. I’m 58 in a month.

Given that I love Greyhawk and I love the current game, I’m very excited for this book, which I will purchase on DDB.

I am pretty much in the 5e category as well. I usually buy hard copy and DDB. I do though like AD&D much more.