Ryan Dancey, the spiritual father of the OGL and in many minds the guy who saved D&D is on ENWorld speaking his mind.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/columns/299860-4-hours-w-rsd-who-am-i-2.html
and some commentary here, http://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2011/01/ryand-on-4e.html
Now Ryan is a very knowledgeable guy but he has been accused of Dooming and Glooming in the past (see here as one example). But he does make a very good point and one WotC needs to answer a bit better.
If I were a noob getting into D&D4, where should I start? The obvious answer is "the Red Box", but the trouble is the Red Box doesn't look anything like the rest of the line.
If I were not such a noob and want to get started with D&D4 then where do I start? Essentials? PHB?
These questions are trivial to me and really anyone that reads this blog, but they are not trivial to someone with 20 bucks to spend and wants to play D&D. They could buy any game, WotC needs to be clear (and clear to whom is also a good question) what someone needs to buy.
Now I *think* that what WotC wanted to have happen is have everyone go to Essentials. Which is fine and I can see that. Can everyone?
Here is a quasi-related question that I would like to hear some thoughts on.
If D&D were discontinued what effect would that have on the RPG landscape?
Conventional wisdom says that as D&D goes, so goes the industry. The same had been said of IBM too. But is that still true today?
ETA: A similar post by Jason Vey.
http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/01/d-demise-would-be-good-for-industry.html
9 comments:
D&D did disappear, essentially, at the tail end of the TSR days and prior to 3E. That was a time of great diversity and innovation in RPGs and the rise of White Wolf. Something like that might well happen again.
I don't think that if D&D goes the whole industry will crumble however; it will hurt the industry. How much so is questionable but I think there is enough out there to fill the gap that D&D would leave behind.
http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/01/d-demise-would-be-good-for-industry.html
That's all I have to say about that ;).
Dancey sure does know how to get the RPG world talking. I wrote about this today as well.
By the way, awesome post title by the way.
If D&D "died" then someone else would pick it up. Someone who loved D&D, and knew the hobby, and wouldn't be hobbled by the idiotic corporate-speak at Hasbro. In short, someone would come along and save D&D from WotC.
I like what apresvie said. There was a time of great diversity in the hobby. There was innovation. Then along came the OGL and the D&D juggernaut, and everyone started turning out "their brother's D&D campaign" books. I think we've largely forgotten those days, pre-1997. It would nice to see a little implosion, and perhaps some innovation.
Little to nothing for present gamers.
I can see it might be difficult for the future first-time gamer or someone trying to play in a particular product setting in a few years time, but like Ross and apresvie said, there is a history of the game being abandoned and edition adherents taking to heart the "products of your imagination" concept...
I'm not sure what would happen. Does the name Dungeons and Dragons still ressonate as heavily with kids today as it did in the 80's? I think Pathfinder is doing a good job and it'd be interesting to see if Pathfinder and Paizo could stand up and fill that void. I'm not sure yet as I don't know what ressonates game wise with the kids today and my own children are too young and will be too highly tainted by my Old School gaming.
Something that will be interesting to see in the next ten to fifteen years will be if the current crop of Grognards kids will have an impact on gaming. I remember being a kid in the 80's and stuff from my parents generation starting to appear again as the kids appropriated some of the older generation's youth culture. I guess only time will tell.
If D&D disappeared? I'd play Pathfinder.
Which is what I'm doing anyway.
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