Agreed. It's entirely caused by two parties fighting one another: - The authoritarian Wizards/Hasbro ownership that wants to commercialize and streamline the i

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).