Cygnia Posted December 17, 2023 Report Share Posted December 17, 2023 What's sad is I've just gotten the hardbacks for some new games I backed on Kickstarter -- but no one I know really wants to play them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted December 17, 2023 Report Share Posted December 17, 2023 On 12/15/2023 at 2:36 PM, Old Man said: As the RPG world becomes more fragmented, rules systems are going to trend lighter simply because players are going to have to learn new systems just to play anything. It looks like only Paizo will have the critical mass to support a super complicated ruleset once Hasbro/WOTC are done self immolating. I think you see a trend in lighter rules because of people’s attention spans. A buddy went to try out the new Alpha Strike game for Battletech. I asked him how it went and he told me it was fun. 20mins 4 turns and the game was over. Though he rather play Classic. I picked up the box set then 1) The minis are the same for either system. 2) I can convince my kids to play AS probably more often that Classic. And really it’s another reason why Basic Fantasy has gotten played more often at my house. My youngest had a friend over, he wanted to play and in 15 mins. the dice were rolling and it wasn’t too difficult to explain. Yes, I understand how limited BF is compared to Hero but when you don’t play that often? The limitations aren’t so bad. Plus with the Advantage/Disadvantage rule imported and I as a FM feel comfortable to wing stuff. You can actually do more than what is written. Rich McGee and Old Man 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted December 17, 2023 Report Share Posted December 17, 2023 The difficulty is that magazines are essentially dead (even Popular Science and National Geographic have closed down), and there's not a viable online alternative. Particularly with modern culture where short form video is all anyone has an attention span for. Rich McGee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted December 17, 2023 Report Share Posted December 17, 2023 4 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said: A buddy went to try out the new Alpha Strike game for Battletech. I asked him how it went and he told me it was fun. 20mins 4 turns and the game was over. Though he rather play Classic. I picked up the box set then 1) The minis are the same for either system. 2) I can convince my kids to play AS probably more often that Classic. The other significant appeal to AS is that people with gigantic collections of minis can hope to play games that actually use a company or three of them without having to commit an entire day or more to the project. Classic BT's still my preference as well, but pushing around more than a lance or two per side can get pretty draggy, while AS has a sweet spot that starts at a company and goes up from there once you're used to it. I never let myself over-purchase figs for BT, but I know plenty of more dedicated fans who have multiple regiments in their collections. Reminds me of the tradeoff between complexity and detail versus grand scale and abstraction that Task Force Games used to showcase with Star Fleet Battles compared to Starfire. Lawnmower Boy and Ninja-Bear 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted December 17, 2023 Report Share Posted December 17, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Christopher R Taylor said: The difficulty is that magazines are essentially dead (even Popular Science and National Geographic have closed down), and there's not a viable online alternative. I'd contend that some of the better blogs out there are providing a somewhat decent alternative. Many of them post the equivalent of an old magazine article once or twice a week, and there are still countless blogs out there doing that. They rarely match the professional level of overall quality the better gaming mags did, but they're also free to peruse. Also some very nostalgic and fairly professional looking e-zines for various gaming IPs, not least of which include Traveller and Star Frontiers. There's also been a bit of a boom in zine format gaming material over the last few years, partly due to the lockdown spurring creative endeavors in general. We're seeing at least one major month-long cooperative zine crowdfunding event a year, and there were two in 2023 owing to scheduling. How long the fad keeps up is anyone's guess, but there have been some pretty impressive products as a result. That said, I miss the glory days of gaming periodicals, but there's no likelihood they'll ever return as they once were. The money's just not there any more, if it ever really was. Edited December 17, 2023 by Rich McGee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted December 18, 2023 Report Share Posted December 18, 2023 After laying off a bunch of staff a couple of weeks before Christmas (while their CEO nets a multimillion dollar bonus), WOTC is advertising for a digital retouching artist: Quote 2+ years of next level knowledge of Photoshop with a competence for digital retouching and digital compositing. Use your digital retouching wizardry to extend cropped characters and adjust visual elements due to legal and art direction requirements. Hunger to challenge yourself by evolving new processes, and seeking answers to the unknown. Absolutely none of this is code for "we are replacing our artists with Midjourney and need someone to fix weird hands." Rich McGee, Christopher R Taylor, Ninja-Bear and 2 others 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted December 18, 2023 Report Share Posted December 18, 2023 "...due to legal and art direction requirements." is the best part. Legal first, art second, just screams commitment to quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted January 15 Report Share Posted January 15 L. Marcus, Old Man and Scott Ruggels 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted January 18 Report Share Posted January 18 Steve, Scott Ruggels and Rich McGee 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted January 18 Report Share Posted January 18 Gameplay design by committee... Yuck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 1 hour ago, Ragitsu said: Gameplay design by committee... Yuck. In WotC's case, sure, yuck. Pure corporate greed at work. But there's nothing inherently wrong with a committee working on a game as long as it's composed of actual designers, or at least knowledgeable fans of the game/genre who are trying to create a good game instead of just maximizing profits. Collaboration is good for creativity. It's not even bad to have someone on the team who's looking at things from a marketing and manufacture POV, as long as they understand that profit is not the sole (or even primary) goal. Doesn't do much good to write your perfect game and then discover you'll have to charge so much for it that it's practically unsellable and no retailer will ever carry it. Monte Cook dances around the limits of that issue sometimes... Christopher R Taylor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 Nah, dude. The older I get, the more I come to realize that "fan" input is - the overwhelming majority of the time - gar-bahge. Duke Bushido 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 A fan of Sturgeon's Law, apparently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Ruggels Posted January 19 Author Report Share Posted January 19 13 hours ago, Rich McGee said: A fan of Sturgeon's Law, apparently. Who isn’t? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 2 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said: Who isn’t? I question the exact percentage, but not the principle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 3 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said: Who isn’t? I might be if I knew what it was. 😁 Rich McGee and Duke Bushido 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 15 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said: I might be if I knew what it was. 😁 It's actually got an interesting history, and could equally well be credited to Rudyard Kipling if you're slightly more optimistic about the general quality of everything that exists. I find it mildly depressing that relatively few living people have ever read anything by Theodore Sturgeon aside from his Law (or Revelation, if you prefer), and I don't think Kipling is doing much better these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 15 minutes ago, Rich McGee said: It's actually got an interesting history, and could equally well be credited to Rudyard Kipling if you're slightly more optimistic about the general quality of everything that exists. I find it mildly depressing that relatively few living people have ever read anything by Theodore Sturgeon aside from his Law (or Revelation, if you prefer), and I don't think Kipling is doing much better these days. "Naughty boy, I've never Kipled before!" DentArthurDent, Rich McGee, Lawnmower Boy and 1 other 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 17 hours ago, Rich McGee said: A fan of Sturgeon's Law, apparently. Even worse, with the ease of access permitted by a wider (electronic) forum, there are non-fans with their cause-of-the-moment who..."contribute". These are folks with a passing interest in the hobby at best (even that is an extremely generous appraisal) and a knack for inflating their numbers. Folks who either cannot or will not separate fantasy from reality while they tilt at windmills and ardently attempt to convince others that they should feel guilty about chopping up orcs, gathering coin, saving princesses and whatever the **** else topic is trending in the most en vogue online article. If it's not simply a matter of individuals having precious little else to do with their time, then they are those who stand to profit - one way or another - from the faux-controversy fomented by these contrived "issues". Predictably, as it gets filtered, excessively analyzed and approved through a real-world (and frequently twenty-first century Western) anthropocentric lens, tabletop gaming gets watered down a little more in the never ending quest to traverse that boundless field of eggshells. Scott Ruggels 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 As you said, nah, dude. Duke Bushido 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Ruggels Posted January 20 Author Report Share Posted January 20 On 1/19/2024 at 12:14 PM, Ragitsu said: Even worse, with the ease of access permitted by a wider (electronic) forum, there are non-fans with their cause-of-the-moment who..."contribute". These are folks with a passing interest in the hobby at best (even that is an extremely generous appraisal) and a knack for inflating their numbers. Folks who either cannot or will not separate fantasy from reality while they tilt at windmills and ardently attempt to convince others that they should feel guilty about chopping up orcs, gathering coin, saving princesses and whatever the **** else topic is trending in the most en vogue online article. If it's not simply a matter of individuals having precious little else to do with their time, then they are those who stand to profit - one way or another - from the faux-controversy fomented by these contrived "issues". Predictably, as it gets filtered, excessively analyzed and approved through a real-world (and frequently twenty-first century Western) anthropocentric lens, tabletop gaming gets watered down a little more in the never ending quest to traverse that boundless field of eggshells. And they wander through fandoms one by one, to make sure the geek world complies. Ragitsu and Duke Bushido 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted January 21 Report Share Posted January 21 Is it still called One D&D? I haven’t really been following. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asperion Posted January 21 Report Share Posted January 21 9 hours ago, Steve said: Is it still called One D&D? I haven’t really been following. Have not followed official talk, but tubers I follow haven't been been using OneDnD for several months. They claim that Wizards has gone back to 5e and are not going for the entire edition thing. The topic of what edition this is will be irrelevant, it will be all dnd, and that includes ALL ttrpgs not just Wizards material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 Steve, Old Man, L. Marcus and 3 others 1 1 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted January 31 Report Share Posted January 31 This is interesting... Hasbro Seeks to Sell IP “DND” and Has Had Preliminary Contact with Tencent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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