NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Drammattex" data-source="post: 6091935" data-attributes="member: 55363">Thanks, [MENTION=336]D'karr[/MENTION]!I'm entering this discussion late, but here are a few thoughts on what I've skimmed.As for whether WotC can create compelling content, I'm not in a fair position to judge. I should also clarify that I'm a freelancer; I live in Chicago instead of Seattle; I work a 9-5 job where I'm paid to listen to people complain about things. So, <a href="http://stevesgamerblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/prior-offenses-or-steve-townshend-d.html" target="_blank">while these are my D&D credits</a>, I'm not actually "WotC." One observation I've made while freelancing is this: I used think of WotC the way people talk about WotC on forums--like it's an entity with a personality who makes decisions. Same with Paizo. In my experience, it's nothing like that at all. I have no idea who or what WotC is. I worked with Mike (Mearls) and found a kindred spirit, a guy who loved D&D and had brilliant design ideas. I worked with James Wyatt and found another kindred spirit--an exceptionally creative, empathetic, down to earth guy with deep ideas. I worked with Rodney Thompson, a thoroughly literate gamer with a head for game mechanics and structure. I worked with Chris Perkins, a wildly creative man with an inexhaustible supply of inspiration. And those are just a handful of designers--not to mention editors, producers, past greats like Steve Schubert and Rich Baker and Rob Heinsoo and SRM (now Paizo) all the rest.  All those folks are very smart and immensely talented. I know the discussion concerns what WotC could/should have done better, or whether they can write compelling content. But what I'm saying is, it's not a "they." And the people involved actually do great stuff. That's not to say that everything that's come out has been to my taste. I'm a different writer, so I write games according to what I value and what I think is important. Mostly, that all comes down to creating an immersive experience for a group of people in the most efficient manner possible. That's not what everyone loves about RPGs, but that's where my heart is. Anyway, it's all subjective. As for me and 5e: I hope it's awesome. If it turns out that it's not to my taste, I've come to accept that I have 4 other editions of the game to play. I've also come to accept that I love and hate all of them for different reasons. I've also come to accept that the rules don't know as well as they think they know, and that if I want dwarves to be 56th level wizards in AD&D, I can change that and feel good about it. I've also come to accept that I lose interest in EVERY edition of D&D after a time, and that's not the game's fault. That's me being a human being. However...I've also come to accept that I regain interest in D&D, and even other versions of D&D after some time away. So there's not much at stake for me in the success or failure of the next edition (but I hope it's awesome).<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />-Steve</blockquote>

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