Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Soggy Bits of Wisdom



Okay, it's only been 6 days and I am already tired of the grand brouhaha that the Dungeons & Dragons Next playtest stirred up. Six days isn't a lot of time, but it feels like 60 already. And it is enough time for me to decide the following:

WotC should just reprint all the classic editions and then lend support to the ones that sell the most.

Not that they can or will do that, but it's the only thing that seems to make sense anymore. I like what I see in the playtest doc, but it's interesting (and actually kind of damaging) toward my sense of goodwill to the hobby at large to watch the D&D crowd fight tooth and nail over every little thing. From those who despise the very paper the playtest doc gets printed on and want to salt the earth of the WotC offices on down to those who are completely ballistic about how this is clearly a move to embrace old school at the expense of all things 4E....it's a horrendous mess. And I see almost no one save for a few occasional lone voices of sanity crying into the maelstrom actually treating this like the playtest its supposed to be.

So I don't think this is going to be even remotely the "edition to unite them all" and I honestly have no good advice to offer WotC except, "support all old editions, to the best of your meager abilities."

Me? I'm going to stick to C&C and Pathfinder for now and quietly enjoy my participation in the DDN playtest on my own terms. On Pathfinder, while I'm kinda burned out on it, we're still having too much fun in the campaigns and if Pathfinder is sufficient to act as the rules medium then so be it. For C&C, it's just a clean, efficient and tight game design and the Trolls are just a really nice bunch of guys.
On the aforementioned C&C and Pathfinder, both have at their core a team of writers and designers who are surprisngly good for the most part at avoiding the conflict inherent in flame wars online. I'm going to completely abstain from all other editions and retroclones for the forseeable future, though I still plan to grab DCC. Sooooo very tired of all the endless rules arguments and conflict. This hobby is an oroborous eating its own tail.....!




Maybe I'll focus more on computer gaming...so much more peaceful in that neck of the hobby woods, right? Wait....what's this about fanrage over Mass Effect 3? Gahhhh!!! There's no escape! Except...maybe....to turn off the internet for a while....heh heh....bwah..hah! HAH! Click.

(Just kidding, internet, I could never quit you!)

2 comments:

  1. Mechwarrior Online is coming out in a couple of months if you like Battletech... :)

    http://mwomercs.com/

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  2. Heh, I do, actually....several of my gaming buddies locally are old Battletech fans and have been talking all about that one.

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