Top D&D designers join Critical Role after quitting Wizards of the Coast
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You know, I'm not surprised about that, and not in a good way. CR is part of RPG culture I'm not good with, and I'm totally unsurprised that people who were part of 5e are joining them.
All I can hope is that seeing Hasbro lose people will draw attention to other systems - or for Hasbro to make a marketing push on the Essence20 system in addition to (or instead of) d20.
What do you mean by RPG culture that you're not good with?
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WotC+D&D is like ~30-40% of Hasbro. The only other brand they have that's worth a similar amount is (ironically enough lmao) Monopoly.
The problem for Hasbro is that, right now, the company doesn't have that much in non WotC moneymakers and hasn't had it for years. There have been attempts by activist investors to push for having WotC demerged from Hasbro so WotC isn't subsidizing the rest of Hasbro. The across-the-board cuts were Hasbro leadership trying to placate investors, but they cut muscle and bone from WotC for some reason instead.
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Could you elaborate on the aspects of the RPG culture you have a problem with? I'm just curious.
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What do you mean by RPG culture that you're not good with?
I too, am curious. I could totally be on board with this comment, or I could totally not be on board with this comment. I do agree with the latter sentiment. There are some very creative and well thought-out systems out there.
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Could you elaborate on the aspects of the RPG culture you have a problem with? I'm just curious.
The commodification and the desire for mass appeal are the top-level issues I have. I feel uncomfortable when I see the modern D&D branding on stuff in "normal" stores. It takes away the community and puts Hasbro in the central role, rather than the network of GMs who should be the majority influence. If I wanted a hobby with a company in charge, I would play Warhammer.
Now, on the community side, my biggest issue is with things I see as derived from CR. The lack of respect for simple theatre of the mind is a direct issue with the way I've always run and played since I left D&D. The tolerance and even acceptance of paid DMing also pisses me off in ways that make it very hard for me to remain civil.
Those are the big ones. There's also the fact that D&D doesn't seem to have the offramps it had since AD&D1 (and which admittedly went downhill when the Forge went out of the spotlight).
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What do you mean by RPG culture that you're not good with?
I'm sorry, I only feel like typing it once, please look up-thread, or here:
https://kbin.melroy.org/m/[email protected]/t/995294/-/comment/7944352
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The commodification and the desire for mass appeal are the top-level issues I have. I feel uncomfortable when I see the modern D&D branding on stuff in "normal" stores. It takes away the community and puts Hasbro in the central role, rather than the network of GMs who should be the majority influence. If I wanted a hobby with a company in charge, I would play Warhammer.
Now, on the community side, my biggest issue is with things I see as derived from CR. The lack of respect for simple theatre of the mind is a direct issue with the way I've always run and played since I left D&D. The tolerance and even acceptance of paid DMing also pisses me off in ways that make it very hard for me to remain civil.
Those are the big ones. There's also the fact that D&D doesn't seem to have the offramps it had since AD&D1 (and which admittedly went downhill when the Forge went out of the spotlight).
Thank you for the reply. I was really into D&D a few years ago but my interest decreased when life shifted. I missed those days.
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They got the good ones
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Paid DMing infuriates me.
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Ok now do Magic
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Shoutout to Chris Perkins! I got to help playtest parts of 5E back in the day and he was the DM. Getting paid to play D&D is nice work if you can get it!
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Depends on who you talk to. I always thought the atmo was pretty chill. When I was there around 2010 as a contractor for a couple years they had a strange work schedule: 9-hr days Mon-Thurs and half day Friday - which was almost universally regarded as a screw-around day, along with at least half of Thursday.
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Depends on who you talk to. I always thought the atmo was pretty chill. When I was there around 2010 as a contractor for a couple years they had a strange work schedule: 9-hr days Mon-Thurs and half day Friday - which was almost universally regarded as a screw-around day, along with at least half of Thursday.
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From my understanding, they used to basically be the same as Games Workshop is today: If you talk to people who work there "off the record" (or they are pushing the equivalent of a youtube channel... shout out to Rogue Hobbies) you'll either get outright condemnation or LOTS of vague posting of a culture of theft and abuse.
But recent years have seen people get annoyed enough at the products that they now care about labor and we start to see a LOT more complaints.
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Internally, yea, but I was speaking more towards the decline of their products, not the treatment of staff, that was being discussed in the top comment.
Yeah, I guess that's pretty subjective overall. In any case, they're not so great now.
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I'm sorry, I only feel like typing it once, please look up-thread, or here:
https://kbin.melroy.org/m/[email protected]/t/995294/-/comment/7944352
This link goes to some login page for me when I click it
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TLDR I liked dnd before it was cool
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Good,
WotCHASBRO is a wretched hive of scum and villainy.FIFY
Either way, the money grab is why I didn't get back into MtG recently.
I considered sticking my toe in and was told "oh yeah, just buy a $90 commander precon and hop right in."
Yeah, no thanks.
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I really hope they're not putting their weight behind Daggerheart long term. That whole hope and fear system is so unappealing.
It's interesting and it seems like a good change for people that have done a lot of d&d but it's probably not going to be a complete replacement for 5e. It seems good for short campaigns but it only has one book out for now.
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People have been complaining about WotC's executive meddling in D&D and MTG for as long as I can remember, since before the 1999 Hasbro purchase. D&D 3e, mostly written after WotC acquired TSR but published shortly after Hasbro acquired WotC, was panned so badly that they dropped 3.5 just a couple years later. And 4e (including the first OGL fiasco) happened when Hasbro didn't care about WotC because they were all-in on the Michael Bay Transformers movie. In fact, up until Stranger Things and Critical Role, Hasbro seems to have considered WotC the "Magic: The Gathering Money Printer" and done most of their meddling on that side of the house.
I organized pen and paper RPG conventions back when D&D 4 came out. We banned D20 based games even then as a boycott of WotC.
