Where are the fault lines?

[Guest 85555]

Without turning this into an edition war, what are the fault lines in the fan base that wizards will need to bridge in order to unite everyone under a new edition? Let's say you have a group of players who each hail from a different edition and are representative of that edition's fans. What problems will you run into trying to customize a game they can all enjoy.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Bridge building - they need to repair damaged relations.

They already took the first, very big, step - inviting the public to see see what is going on, rather then giving them what turned out for many to be an unpleasant surprise.

They also need to mend bridges with the 3PP, which will be harder now - WotC has already burned them twice. (Once with the manner chosen to revoke the D20 STL, and once with the terms of the GSL.) I wouldn't want to take the chance if I were a publisher.

Game wise, I am set with Pathfinder, and have been since the APG came out. (That was the point where Pathfinder became more than just a replacement for 3.X for me.) I am not at all certain what WotC could do to reclaim me as a GM.

Losing Paizo was a major misstep for WotC in regards to 4e.

Heck - a weird (and highly unlikely) idea, WotC licensing the rights to convert Pathfinder APs to 5e. Let 5e players rejoice in the happy sound of goblins singing 'we be goblins, you be food'....

The Auld Grump

 

[Umbran]

Sometimes it seems to me that the biggest gulf to span is people identifying themselves as "player of game X" rather than just "gamer".

 

[Crazy Jerome]

To see the major fault lines, think of things that even your own groups don't want to do the same way. If there are things you want to do some times and not others, you can bet money that there will be groups that prefer one or the other almost exclusively.

For me, one such example is the degree of emphasis on tactical fiddly bits and/or the grid. Not that I can't work around it, because I can run 4E off the grid more than I do on. But unlike, say, the very pleasant experience of 4E adventure preparation, running off the grid is something that I have to work at. And it is something I bring from my own experience, not something that is really explained well in the game. And really, this isn't even by campaign or a dislike of the tactical fiddly bits. When you've got a huge boss fight at a key moment in a campaign, those can be fun even for people who otherwise don't care for them. But getting an important but not crucial fight handled in 20-40 minutes is also fun.

And then I read what other people say about this topic and see pretty impassioned pleas to have tactical fights on the grid and equally impassioned to not have them.

 

[keterys]

Sometimes it seems to me that the biggest gulf to span is people identifying themselves as "player of game X" rather than just "gamer".

Yep. People get committed to particular slices of games almost as if they were political parties or religions.

It's okay to disagree with certain aspects of a game, like the game overall more than another (or any other) game, but be willing to look at a house rule, or a version of that same game that has some differences.

Certainly, I don't feel like I'm betraying anybody when I play Dresden Files or Arkham Horror or whatever, even as I write an adventure for 4E, or tinker with a homebrew rules light D&D system with elements of FATE.

Just being a gamer, getting my game on.

 

[billd91]

Sometimes it seems to me that the biggest gulf to span is people identifying themselves as "player of game X" rather than just "gamer".

I don't think there's anything wrong with being both a D&D player and a gamer in general. Having people ID as a particular game player is what every game company wants, bar none. Hell, it's what every company trying to build brand loyalty wants. You want them to identify with your products, your services, your company. It's how you get return customers, good word of mouth. You want them to be gamers, sure, but if you're WotC it doesn't help you if they're CoC players and not D&D players nearly as much as if they ID as D&D players.

You just have to recognize the power of that identification and that it can come around to bite you if you build it up and then cross it.

 

[BryonD]

Sometimes it seems to me that the biggest gulf to span is people identifying themselves as "player of game X" rather than just "gamer".

I am sure that is true "sometimes". But it would be a gross overstatement to call it that in general.

I am a gamer.
I have been a player of AD&D.
I have been a player of GURPS.
I have been a player of 3E.
I am a player of Pathfinder.

I have played multiple games at times, but as I've gotten older my tendency to play one primary game has grown.
But even now I am a player of Pathfinder only because I find it to be the highest available standard for producing the game experience I demand.
If 5E is better I *WILL* switch.
If Joe's game shack comes out with a better game (and finds a way to make it get noticed in the marketplace.....) I *WILL* switch.

I have ZERO loyalty to any game.
I am a player of Pathfinder does nothing to define my fault lines. My fault lines do everything to define me as player of Pathfinder.

 

[billd91]

So where are the fault lines? Here's a huge one:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/new-horizons/316187-hopes-5e-fighter.html

What sort of fantasy do you want to have in your game? One in which magic is really magical or only as instrumental as other combat options? Or cast in the other direction, one in which a man with a sword can manipulate reality as much as master of arcane lore? Or sidestep it so that they may have different levels of game reality alteration, but their players have the same level of narrative altering?

 

[Wormwood]

Sometimes it seems to me that the biggest gulf to span is people identifying themselves as "player of game X" rather than just "gamer".

Umbran speaks the deep wisdom here.

 

[rogueattorney]

Sometimes it seems to me that the biggest gulf to span is people identifying themselves as "player of game X" rather than just "gamer".

It goes the other way, too. Until very recently, WotC has often gone out of its way to exclude players of prior editions from their D&D tent.