Comments on: D&D5 and Internet Outrage

By: S. John Ross

S. John Ross — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 21:56:31 +0000

I noticed the irony of nobody being upset about me, too But as Tim Hall points out, my obnoxious-internet-brat years were a long time ago, when I was an obnoxious internet brat. For better or worse, I’m just a mostly-mellow old RPG craftsman nowadays, focusing on celebrating the positive aspects of gaming (and declining to comment on the rest) that the Internet Persona bearing my name is no longer a point of particular division or even concern. Which is, I can attest, a good thing. Zak and the Pundit are being demonized in large part because they’re deliberately very public.

By: Michael Orton

Michael Orton — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 16:55:33 +0000

I most certainly agree there is no one size fits all RPG system.

However, one you know what you are doing creating a low level character takes about 5 mins in any decent system. Once you have the hook it is easy.

The last pseudo-D&D character I created was summarised by the tag line “Good Magian Fire Worshiper”. Anyone who had ever played Arabian Nights knew everything necessary about what he could do and who his hunters were (everyone, for one of two reasons…)

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 10:46:08 +0000

A cynic would suggest a game needs a new edition every five to seven years that takes changing fashions of game design into account in order to sell the game again to people who already own it.

More seriously, there is no “one-size-fits-all” perfect game for any given genre and play style. There is a place for games where you don’t need a spreadsheet to create a beginning character (the downside of detailed systems like RQ, GURPS or for that matter D&D 3e). DnD5 boasts that you can create a character and start playing in five minutes flat.

By: Michael Orton

Michael Orton — Sat, 26 Jul 2014 21:57:44 +0000

Having avoided all D&D systems after the second edition, I’m somewhat bemused.

Which genres are they aiming this edition at?
In what way is it superior to RQ2 for fantasy? Hero Systen for Superheros, Torg for Action…

I hope to GM some Timemaster in about a decade or so, but I doubt I will play much RPG till then.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 07:44:21 +0000

I noticed that and remembered his infamous Pyramid Online meltdown. But that was many years ago.

I see D&D5′s one paragraph on inclusivity has really pissed off the hard-core homophobic bigots as well. If you judge D&D5e purely on who it’s pissed-off, it’s doing remarkably well.

By: Amadan

Amadan — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 01:33:27 +0000

I remember S. John Ross as being an obnoxious, polarizing figure, but I guess he never pissed off any SJ Warriors.