Mearls' Legends and Lore (or, "All Roads Lead to Rome, Redux")

[darjr]

I like the sentiments in the article. I think I mostly agree.

I love that the OGL is there and the clones exist. I think and hope that there is a conscious and well meaning lack of interference.

As I read the article, however, I have this erge to follow along and read the forward that Gary signed. To learn from that history myself, to play with and study the original material, even if only in PDF. WotC owes me nothing, but I would like WotC to complete Mearls sentiment and make available the older editions.

 

[thedungeondelver]

Nobody has been marginalized.

Of course not! I mean it's not like WotC discontinued the sales by third parties of games people liked, or pinned their whole marketing strategy for the release of 4e on "nobody back then played right" with loltacular ads making fun of previous editions, or like anyone's running around calling people out as paranoid delusionals.

Yeah, no, that's not marginalizing in the least.

 

[Mark CMG]

Nobody has been marginalized.

Your post becomes ironic after this statement. Seriously, the three points I outlined are so easy for WotC to fix if they truly want the type of harmony desired in the article. The name calling and whatnot is beneath those working toward that harmony. As a fellow community member I ask you to desist.

 

[Nagol]

<snip>

But it's all D&D. If I want to play an earlier edition (and sometimes I do) I already own them. I don't need some company to "re-release" stuff that I already have to make me feel good about my choices. Geez- the entire point of D&D is you don't need official content.. you can come up with your own stuff fairly easily! I don't need new players to have a background in the history of D&D- because back when this was all new? There was no history. Everything was new thne. Everything is new now. If 5th edition came out and I didn't like it, it wouldn't take away what I already have. It wouldn't stop me from loving D&D or playing it however I liked.

<snip>

You may have a copy of everything in the previous editions you want. I may have a copy of everything I want.

That new guy over there -- you know, the new player you've invited and is having fun playing that older game? Maybe he wants a copy too, especially since he's been talking about wanting to run a game! Having access to content is not about those who already have it; it's about those who never had that chance.

Ah well, I'm sure that looking for second-hand copies is perfectly fine.

 

[UniversalMonster]

I'm not calling anyone names. I'm just tired of all of the negativity.. aren't you? It's been constant for nearly three years now.

If the evidence of being marginalized amounts to "they stopped selling a certain thing" then yes, it's a fantasy. If the evidence is that they ran insulting ads that told people they were playing wrong.. I've been here the whole time, and I don't remember being insulted even a single time. Maybe that was an interpretive step someone else made? Again..a fantasy. A fantasy where someone made the most negative and self-loathing interpretation possible.. and then just held it close to their heart for 3 years running.

I also think it's highly unlikely they'll make "older editions available".. what would the point of that be? You can already get them (and stuff that basically goes out of it's way to look like them) elsewhere. I've been running D&D Encounters.. I'm at the beginning of something set in the "ghost Tower of Inverness", and finished up another thing called "Keep on the Borderlands". I have an adventure on my shelf that I got in the mail called "Village of Hommlet" and another one called "Tomb of Horrors.." Clearly they haven't turned their back on the past. But they aren;t a used bookstore. They aren't going to go back in their time machine and suddenly start selling TSR stuff again. Time only works in one direction.

 

[Umbran]

All that stands between us and harmony is everyone else abandoning their preferences and agreeing with mine.

What stands between us and harmony is our own willingness to be jerks about having different preferences. You don't need to like a particular game, or what a company does. You have to like your fellow gamers enough to treat them well, to consider them before the needs of "winning" an argument on the internet.

 

[UniversalMonster]

You may have a copy of everything in the previous editions you want. I may have a copy of everything I want.

That new guy over there -- you know, the new player you've invited and is having fun playing that older game? Maybe he wants a copy too, especially since he's been talking about wanting to run a game! Having access to content is not about those who already have it; it's about those who never had that chance.

Ah well, I'm sure that looking for second-hand copies is perfectly fine.

Maybe someone will make a D&D retro-clone and put it upon the internet for free one day.

I just don't think this happens very often. The history of the hobby is interesting, but in the end, it's still history.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I don't for a second think anything remotely like this will happen, but just for kicks....

That message could be laying the groundwork for next month's announcement that 5E is coming and they are going back to bring in all the simulation/OGL/D20 fans they lost. It would be interesting to see how many people stuck to their "unity and acceptance" position.

There would be some strenuous disagreement with that direction, and it would be voiced. There might be a few people who screamed bloody murder. There might even be some disingenious payback for the last three years of frequently spewed nonsense. People are people.

Me, I'd check out 5E on its own merits. Maybe it would be a nice blend of some of the improvements that I like in 4E, with some other stuff. Its not like I stopped liking early 3E/AE or Basic when the later versions arrived. If I didn't like it, I'd not buy it, or buy very little of it. Three years out, I sure as heck wouldn't be telling people that they were playing a board game (or Mother May I, or whatever the equivalent would be for this hypothetical 5E). I really never thought sour grapes accomplished much.

 

[Mark CMG]

I'm not calling anyone names.

The vitriol of your previous posts could be taken that way.

I'm just tired of all of the negativity.. aren't you?

It's why I have outlined three positive steps WotC can take. Their reasoning for ceasing to sell PDFs was that current edition PDFs were being pirated, so there is little reason to not sell past edition PDFs. Current WotC employees seem to be regular players of past editions, if I am reading the blogs correctly, so it is a simple matter to occasionally release something (free or otherwise) for one of the earlier editions. When doing so, and since WotC knows the OGL inside and out, it is a simple matter to text box a few of the things in those releases and include them in the OGC pool. These are simple, positive steps and I am surprised you or anyone would see them as otherwise. Get behind them, champion them, they do you no harm and would go a long way to achieving the harmony sought in the article.

 

[BryonD]

There would be some strenuous disagreement with that direction, and it would be voiced. There might be a few people who screamed bloody murder. There might even be some disingenious payback for the last three years of frequently spewed nonsense. People are people.

Me, I'd check out 5E on its own merits. Maybe it would be a nice blend of some of the improvements that I like in 4E, with some other stuff. Its not like I stopped liking early 3E/AE or Basic when the later versions arrived. If I didn't like it, I'd not buy it, or buy very little of it. Three years out, I sure as heck wouldn't be telling people that they were playing a board game (or Mother May I, or whatever the equivalent would be for this hypothetical 5E). I really never thought sour grapes accomplished much.

If 5E came out and it was hugely popular, the debates would end in relatively short order.

If 5e came out and it further divided the market, the people who didn't switch to it still would not be switched in three years and would still be welcome to express their points of view.