Top D&D designers join Critical Role after quitting Wizards of the Coast
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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.
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I love Christ Perkin and Jeremy Crawford. Who is even running D&D now? They are literally the only people I knew still on the project. They are both great. Were they forced out of WoTC?
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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.
What do you mean by this?
The tolerance and even acceptance of paid DMing also pisses me off in ways that make it very hard for me to remain civil.
Why? Running a game is work, and not every group that wants to play has a good GM. How is it any different than commissioning art of your character or buying an adventure module? Don't get me wrong, I prefer unpaid friends, but I'm blessed with multiple potential GMs in my group. Not everyone is so lucky, do they just not get to play? Or are they forced to nominate a GM who won't enjoy it and won't run an enjoyable game?
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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.
What do you mean by this?
The tolerance and even acceptance of paid DMing also pisses me off in ways that make it very hard for me to remain civil.
Why? Running a game is work, and not every group that wants to play has a good GM. How is it any different than commissioning art of your character or buying an adventure module? Don't get me wrong, I prefer unpaid friends, but I'm blessed with multiple potential GMs in my group. Not everyone is so lucky, do they just not get to play? Or are they forced to nominate a GM who won't enjoy it and won't run an enjoyable game?
What do you mean by this?
I mean that every time I've tried to run a game, either on tabletop (exceedingly rare now) or online, the demands from players are ridiculous compared to my expectations and what I set out as my intentions. I am not a voice actor. I'm decent at improv, but sometimes do need a moment to contemplate. I do not use images, music, battlemaps, miniatures, or any other equipment. Just dice, words, and imagination. This has gone from being the standard mode of play in the communities I'm accustomed to into a very niche thing that no one seems interested in anymore.
[Defense of Paid DMs]
At best, we'll have to agree to disagree. I'm going to address the points I think I can without overcoming apoplexy first.
There are hundreds if not thousands of GM guides available. If you cannot or will not put in that level of investment, then run something GM-less, or work together to GM the game. Gary called DMs 'referees', and I think that model still holds up - no ref in a game is responsible for the whole field at every moment. Real referees switch up and have things like VAR or other systems. If one guy in the group is good at designing traps, let him design the traps and run them. If one person is good at storytelling, let them present the story. The person who knows combat best should adjudicate it. This is a game of cooperative fun. So, cooperate. Either that, or try something like Fiasco, Shadowrun Anarchy, Microscope, Space Bounty Blues, or something like that, and then move into refereeing a rules-light system like The Black Hack or a PbtA. Don't be hemmed in by modern D&D (note that this ties into the 'D&D has fewer offramps' point above).
As far as the paid DM part, it's very simple: This is a creative hobby. This is the time we have free together as friends, and RPGs have been some of the very few things in my life that has been an escape from the soul-crushing burden of working and money changing hands for every damn thing. Paid DMs turn it into a business, not a fun experience, and I consider their existence toxic to the community. Because after all, if some other schlub is making money doing a thing, why shouldn't I charge money to do that thing? Why should I be the one doing free labor? And that's the problem. It turns what should be creative, cooperative, storytelling with guard rails into a discussion of labor and capital and investment and all the crap that I want to avoid in the world via the escapism of RPGs. That paid person isn't my friend anymore, he's a paid service provider. But what KPIs is he measured by? 'Fun' isn't quantifiable (much to Friend Computer's chagrin), so, what? XP per session? Loot? Some other valueless measure which inevitably means nothing?
In short - no. I will reiterate, I believe that paid DMing is toxic to the community as a whole. It turns what should be an exercise in building and developing friendships into building and developing a business. It takes the party away from being a group of friends or fellow-travelers into a group of customers receiving shared service from a provider. It's no different from the people you meet at the big table of a hibachi restaurant.
That's before we get into how incredibly elitist it is by definition. Paid DMing takes away from the grassroots elements of the game. It puts a paywall between the player and the game. Any of the paid DMs I've seen have their players basically sign non-compete agreements, so they can't just turn into a normal group without that DM - which means those players don't join the larger community. So in every way I can oppose it, in every way I can hate it, I do.
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I pick crit role every time, those goddamn Wizards lost the plot. They got Rincewind at the damn helm.
