Hussar
Legend
I kinda sorta stumbled across an interesting observation in the past few days. I was reading (un)reason's excellent Let's Read the Entire Run thread and he mentioned this little tidbit from Dragon 66, it's in a letter from EGG:
Later, in one of the "Where has the Magic Gone" Forked Threads, there is a lively discussion about what is said in the 2e DMG:
Now, a thought hit me. What would happen if Mike Mearls had written either of these two bits in a recent Dragon magazine? There would be a mad rush of vitriol being spilled all over the forums. How dare he dictate my campaign world to me, would be the rallying cry.
Yet, EGG flat out dictates your world to you and no one raises an eyebrow. Zeb Cook does the same thing and is lauded by some for maintaining the mystery of magic items.
At what point did game designers go from "Guys who want to make my game better" to "Those bastards who are trying to ruin MY game!"?
Does it go all the way back to the launch of 3e? When so many people simply refused to accept 3e as a "viable" version of D&D? The buyout of WOTC by Hasbro? 3.5? The end of print Dungeon/Dragon? Announcement of 4e? When did we stop trusting the game designers?
Heck, in a recent thread I saw someone decrying the verbiage in WOTC design blogs. The "Cloudwatching" blog IIRC. To the point where they accused WOTC of editing the blog after the fact to make it look like they weren't being so negative. The truly weird thing to me was that people actually took this seriously. Some posters actually found it easier to believe that WOTC would, after the fact, go back and edit a blog post to remove any "incriminating" evidence rather than believe that some random anonymous person on the internet would over react.
I just find the whole thing endless facinating in a trainwreck, car accident on the side of the road sort of way.
So, I put it to you, when did "game designer" become synonymous with "something icky I scraped off my shoe"?
Gary writes in to say that the reasons firearms are not found in Official AD&D Worlds is because the physics of the universe do not allow for gunpowder and similar explosives. Burning stuff simply burns, it doesn't exert outward pressure. (so steam power won't work either) Experiments on those lines will simply do sod-all. If you want blasting effects, you'll have to use magic. And that's final.
Later, in one of the "Where has the Magic Gone" Forked Threads, there is a lively discussion about what is said in the 2e DMG:
Originally Posted by Imaro View Post
Here's another excerpt from AD&D 2e I thought was interesting as far as this discussion goes...from the DMG...
Buying Magical Items
As player characters earn more money and begin facing greater dangers, some of them will begin wondering where they can buy magical items. Using 20th-century, real-world economics, they will figure there must be stores that buy and sell such goods. Naturally they will want to find and patronize such stores. However, no magical stores exist.
Before the DM goes rushing off to create magical item shops, consider the player characters and their behavior. Just how often do player characters sell those potions and scrolls they find? Cast in a sword +1? Unload a horn of blasting or a ring of free action?
More often than not, player characters save such items. Certainly they don't give away one-use items. One can never have too many potions of healing or scrolls with extra spells. Sooner or later the character might run out. Already have a sword +1? Maybe a henchman or hireling could use such a weapon (and develop a greater respect for his master). Give up the only horn of blasting the party has? Not very likely at all.
It is reasonable to assume that if the player characters aren't giving up their goods, neither are any non-player characters. And if adventurers aren't selling their finds, then there isn't enough trade in magical items to sustain such a business.
Even if the characters do occasionally sell a magical item, setting up a magic shop is not a good idea. Where is the sense of adventure in going into a store and buying a sword +1? Haggling over the price of a wand? Player characters should feel like adventurers, not merchants or greengrocers.
Consider this as well: If a wizard or priest can buy any item he needs, why should he waste time attempting to make the item himself? Magical item research is an important role-playing element in the game, and opening a magic emporium kills it. There is a far different sense of pride on the player's part when using a wand his character has made, or found after perilous adventure, as opposed to one he just bought.
Finally, buying and trading magic presumes a large number of magical items in the society. This lessens the DM's control over the whole business. Logically-minded players will point out the inconsistency of a well-stocked magic shop in a campaign otherwise sparse in such rewards.
Now, a thought hit me. What would happen if Mike Mearls had written either of these two bits in a recent Dragon magazine? There would be a mad rush of vitriol being spilled all over the forums. How dare he dictate my campaign world to me, would be the rallying cry.
Yet, EGG flat out dictates your world to you and no one raises an eyebrow. Zeb Cook does the same thing and is lauded by some for maintaining the mystery of magic items.
At what point did game designers go from "Guys who want to make my game better" to "Those bastards who are trying to ruin MY game!"?
Does it go all the way back to the launch of 3e? When so many people simply refused to accept 3e as a "viable" version of D&D? The buyout of WOTC by Hasbro? 3.5? The end of print Dungeon/Dragon? Announcement of 4e? When did we stop trusting the game designers?
Heck, in a recent thread I saw someone decrying the verbiage in WOTC design blogs. The "Cloudwatching" blog IIRC. To the point where they accused WOTC of editing the blog after the fact to make it look like they weren't being so negative. The truly weird thing to me was that people actually took this seriously. Some posters actually found it easier to believe that WOTC would, after the fact, go back and edit a blog post to remove any "incriminating" evidence rather than believe that some random anonymous person on the internet would over react.
I just find the whole thing endless facinating in a trainwreck, car accident on the side of the road sort of way.
So, I put it to you, when did "game designer" become synonymous with "something icky I scraped off my shoe"?