What would WotC need to do to win back the disenchanted?

[Raven Crowking]

Page 5 of this thread says otherwise.

I thought that was clarified as a request for a new edition that moves back towards traditional D&D? In which case, Page 5 of this thread does not say otherwise.

I suspect that D&D editions are like movie sequels -- if the edition/sequel has an odd number, it is more likely to be widely accepted than if it has an even number. There are always exceptions....Empire Strikes Back is better than Star Wars or Return of the Jedi, for example.

In any event, I am not at all sure that "the game sells". Or at least, that the game sells anywhere near where hopes/projections had expected it to sell. The Essentials line, the market share of Pathfinder, the layoffs, etc., may be indications to the contrary.

We don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if 5e came sooner than expected, and moved in the direction of earlier editions. After all, it has been suggested that the Essentials line is already a move in this direction.

Time will tell. It always does.


RC


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[crazy_cat]

So how could Wizards best extend an olive branch to us, the Disenchanted?

I don't know about everybody else, but I've got a pretty busy weekend lined up so if somebody from WOTC could come round and cut the grass and do my garden that would be much appreciated

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Let's see, I got kicked to the curb because, beside playing D&D since '74, I didn't fit the target demographic anymore and they want the snot nose kid and his buddies from down the block at their game table now and not me.

I tell you, they are everywhere. I even know a 16-year-old that bought a reaper miniature not long ago. They are everywhere.

 

[Dausuul]

I suspect that D&D editions are like movie sequels -- if the edition/sequel has an odd number, it is more likely to be widely accepted than if it has an even number. There are always exceptions....Empire Strikes Back is better than Star Wars or Return of the Jedi, for example.

"Empire Strikes Back" is Episode V.

Edited to add, on a more serious note: More to the point, 4E is a massive batch of experiments in new mechanics and approaches to the game. I'm not sure that's how it was intended, but it's what happened. And as with any massive batch of experiments, some turned out well, and some... not so much. So it's no surprise that 5E would involve "reverting" the things that didn't fly.

Edited to add further, to TheYeti1775: Episodes I and II? Never heard of 'em. There were only three Star Wars movies, Lucas just gave them peculiar numbers.

 

[TheYeti1775]

What could WOTC do ...

Let's see, I got kicked to the curb because, beside playing D&D since '74, I didn't fit the target demographic anymore and they want the snot nose kid and his buddies from down the block at their game table now and not me.

To add insult to injury, they killed the FR with that damnable spellplague and the mega timeline jump, which to me, it is like shooting my dog.

Message received and understood. I'll keep off the lawn.

Doesn't really help the OP. It's a question of what could bring you back to the fold, not what kicked you to the curb.

Besides you know your group didn't have to accept the spellplague as written. I know many campaigns that simply ignored it and are still using the Gray Box for it's Realmslore.

 

[Mallus]

Multiquote go!

Yeah, the game text always at least suggests, and often describes, a world. In the case of D&D it's a world that seems somewhat like our own. Horses act like horses, swords like swords, physical objects move in the same way.

This is a really important point. To the extent a realistic (or verisimilitudenous -- God that's hard to type after a few pints at lunch) world is created, it's created using text, narration, descriptions in plain speech. The world described by the game's mechanics, especially when treated as a kind of 'physics', is nonsensical, if you give it more than a moments consideration.

Verisimilitude might mean writerly tricks...

This is the best way to think of how verisimilitude/realism is produced. Tricks/techniques/signifiers which help to create the illusion of the familiar world of actual experience. If your looking for the semblance of realism in a bunch of algorithms (simple enough to be usable at the gaming table), you're looking in the wrong place.

They are the first generation of D&D books that are actually boring to me.

Everything after the 1e rules where deadly dull to me, and the AD&D rules where only interesting inasmuch as they, much like the writing of Frank Herbert, constantly had me debating 'is this good prose or bad?'. I'd rather take my inspiration from prose stylists like Jack Vance himself, and not the 1e DMG.

It works on oozes.

Perhaps the fighter is dangling their most tasty, protein-rich bits at the ooze? Note: I have now, and sadly not for the first time, creeped myself out.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Perhaps the fighter is dangling their most tasty, protein-rich bits at the ooze? Note: I have now, and sadly not for the first time, creeped myself out.

Ah, yes, the dreaded Teabag Ooze.

 

[Mallus]

Ah, yes, the dreaded Teabag Ooze.

That's either my next PC or the next monster I throw at my group when my turn to DM comes back around.

 

[AllisterH]

Personally...I'm kinda amused that WOTC is being faulted for trying to appeal to a new generation of gamers who have grown up on anime and videogames...

I mean, AD&D would never try to be hip by stealing something from popular culture like say a tv show about some white guy playing a monk in a western setting....

 

[Umbran]

Let's see, I got kicked to the curb because, beside playing D&D since '74, I didn't fit the target demographic anymore and they want the snot nose kid and his buddies from down the block at their game table now and not me.

Well, it isn't you, specifically. It's your age bracket.

You've been playing since '74. You're middle-aged. You're in with all the folks who have college debts, mortgages, and kids. Quite frankly, in your age bracket folks have major choices - there's almost nothing considered really disposable income. On top of that, with the family commitments, you probably don't have time to play anyway. Marketing to you is a losing proposition.

The snot-nosed kid, on the other hand - every cent he's got can be squandered on drek, and he's got oodles of spare time.