Dungeons & Dragons turns 50 this year, and there’s a lot planned for it
Dungeons & Dragons turns 50 this year, and there’s a lot planned for it
It started with "a new line of miniatures rules" and became a global phenomenon.
WOTC is an evil company that is trying to milk D&D fans for all of their money as they tank their product quality. Highly recommend people who want to play D&D explore one of the several other fantasy rpg systems that are out there.
I cannot stress this enough. They are owned by Hasbro. Last year was a massive win for both Dnd and Magic the Gathering yet they still layed off thousands of the people that made this possible. Even Sven Wincke of Larian who developed Baldur's Gate 3 said he couldn't even properly thank the DnD people he worked with because they were gone short after release. BG3 is probably the best game of the decade if not more and MTG is more popular than ever yet the people making them still get fired. Meanwhile, Hasbro and WOTC CEO's personally made millions in salary and bonuses.
So no, you are not supporting workers and artists by buying their products. You are proving them right.
Between that and the OGL shitshow, I've been doing my best to stop giving them money. I'll even see new merch and think to myself "man if only WotC had just stfu, I would totally buy that".
I've already invested a ton of money into many different RPGs over the past year though, and Free League Publishing is by my far my favorite new publisher.
Agreed, and in my bias toward them I will shamelessly mention the MCDM RPG that's currently in development. They are very open and showcasing their process, and I think their attitude not only regarding TTRPGs but also in terms of business practices is very healthy and commendable.
Yes, MCDM is a great one. Also recommend Pathfinder 2e if you want something that exists today.
Always been a much bigger fan of Steve Jackson Games and GURPS
GURPS people always recommend it but never explain why. What's actually good about it compared to something like Pathfinder 2e? It seems to me it would be really hard to find players. With Pathfinder I can at least tell my players it shares a legacy with D&D so they were receptive to switching systems.
Is there anything GURPS does particularly well over other systems? I know hardly anything about it. With PF2e there are a few easy-to-rattle-off features that drew me to it like the three action economy and better tools for game balancing as a GM.
If this report is correct, then it can only mean that I am ... old?
There's different measurements of old.
How your body works
How you see society
If you play with THAC0
Other than stamps and a documentary, not much in this article living up to the title.
No one at Wizards was around for DnD ten years ago, much less fifty.
To heck with WotC! Play Shadow of the Demon Lord/Weird Wizard
This is the best summary I could come up with:
With this letter, written by Gary Gygax to wargaming zine publisher Jim Lurvey, one of the founders of what would become TSR announced that a January 1974 release for Dungeons & Dragons was forthcoming.
You could argue whether a final draft, printing, announcement, sale, or first session counts as the true "birth" of D&D, but we have to go with something, and Peterson's reasoning seems fairly sound.
Books like Xanathar's Guide to Everything and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything will be codified and unified by a new sourcebook at some point, but all of it will be compatible with 5th Edition material.
And there's a 500-plus-page non-fiction book, The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1976, with research help from the aforementioned Peterson, containing never-before-seen correspondence between co-creators Gygax and Dave Arneson.
My cousin and I spent large parts of one summer attempting to play Marvel Super Heroes without understanding its D&D roots (or that it would always be a bit awkward with just two people).
And, of course, every video game, comic, novel, and other media I consumed that made a point of explaining how different classes worked, or the theory behind spells, owed something to D&D—by way of J.R.R.
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