3 ms·

> The personal politicking of how D&D should/shouldn't be played is annoying And deeply stupid. Don't like a change? Ignore it. Don't like something that's inc

> The personal politicking of how D&D should/shouldn't be played is annoying And deeply stupid. Don't like a change? Ignore it. Don't like something that's included in RAW or official sourcebooks? Ignore it. There are no Correctness Police at your table, you can do WTFever you (and your players) want. Want obsidian-black always-evil Drow? Go nuts, nobody cares. Think that's horribly racist? Make them purple and not alignment-locked. Hell, make them albino. No one will stop you. Most of the politics-related changes have been really, really easy to just house-rule out of existence, and most of the things that bothered people about older editions or settings are similarly easy to modify without having to extensively change other parts of the system. It's just a bunch of noise that barely matters at all. Don't like this extinct creatures manual? Just... don't buy it or use it as a source for your games then? It's so easy. And yeah, dinosaurs and mammoths and shit have been in D&D basically forever. Some of its major influences were "lost world" fiction and Conan-style prehistorical fantasy, so of course those are in it. D&D doesn't draw primarily from e.g. Tolkien-style high fantasy where dinosaurs and such might seem out-of-place. A source book for extinct animals for D&D falls solidly within the spectrum of "totally normal D&D stuff".

smoldesu 4y ago
Agreed. It's entirely caused by two parties fighting one another: - The authoritarian Wizards/Hasbro ownership that wants to commercialize and streamline the image of D&D and - The ass-wack community of people playing who have no intention of changing the way they play Neither of these parties are particularly wrong, but they'd be better off without each other. Hasbro should focus less on appeasing older wargamers and let their streamlined product serve as an introduction for younger players, and community shouldn't worship WotC for repeatedly failing them. At the end of the day, the best solution is like you say - dust off your favorite edition rulebook and write everything from there. It's all just fantasy, you can mix-and-match whatever you want. However, the best fantasy isn't passive or ambient writing. It's thought-provoking stuff that uses powerful analogies to tell a powerful story. Shying away from real-world inspiration or conflict is the equivalent to failing as a fantasy author (in my book).

smoldesu 4y ago

Agreed. It's entirely caused by two parties fighting one another: - The authoritarian Wizards/Hasbro ownership that wants to commercialize and streamline the image of D&D and - The ass-wack community of people playing who have no intention of changing the way they play Neither of these parties are particularly wrong, but they'd be better off without each other. Hasbro should focus less on appeasing older wargamers and let their streamlined product serve as an introduction for younger players, and community shouldn't worship WotC for repeatedly failing them. At the end of the day, the best solution is like you say - dust off your favorite edition rulebook and write everything from there. It's all just fantasy, you can mix-and-match whatever you want. However, the best fantasy isn't passive or ambient writing. It's thought-provoking stuff that uses powerful analogies to tell a powerful story. Shying away from real-world inspiration or conflict is the equivalent to failing as a fantasy author (in my book).