I, too, own a lot of systems I won’t but mine for ideas. That is a fair point. I heard that the Shadowdark tables are awesome and do want to check them out at some point.
For some reason, I can’t get past several key points of PF2. The tight math, sliding bounded accuracy, and level adding to skills makes me feel like a player has less control over their character. I understand that placing points is more complex but to me it’s what makes characters less unique.
That’s not to say there isn’t great stuff in PF2. I do like how they do multi classing so their main class doesn’t lose capstone abilities, I like not all monsters have AoO, and now that there is more material, characters can be exactly what the player wants. (I already use the three action economy in my PF1 game from Unchained.)
I was surprised the Pinkertons still exist under that name!
I think that it’s too bad we haven’t heard the other side. As far as I know, the only story we have is the person who had them show up at his door. He has reason to blow it up. I still think it was heavy handed compared to a phone call or email, though, so as a base, no matter how much the story might have been exaggerated, it’s not a great look.
Count me as another one who thinks there’s no goddamn chance D&D is gonna disappear anytime soon. For every gamer brought into gaming through Critical Role, there are a hundred gamers brought in through Stranger Things, and there’s no sign at all that the final season is gonna stop talking about D&D.
And yeah, D&D isn’t the only game out there, but they own the space in mainstream culture.
I spent the weekend at my favorite annual event: a bunch of us gather at a state park, cook communal meals, stay in unpowered and unwatered cabins, and game our asses off for 4 days straight. It’s freaking glorious. Over the weekend, I played:
Fiasco (a bunch of teenagers working at a mall do drug deals and embezzle money, and it does not go well)
Blades in the Dark (a minor noble house must thwart the assassination attempt at their masquerade ball)
Wanderhome (anthropomorphic animals explore a gentle, pastoral land – nearly every player at this table, including me, teared up with unexpected emotion)
Chum (Sharknanigans, an international children’s media conglomerate, genetically modifies sharks to look like their adorable cartoon characters, and then they escape and start eating everyone)
Pasion de las Pasiones (A telenovela game with weddings, betrayals, secret twins, trysts in old chapels, and pleasure yachts)
You’ll notice a lack of Dungeons and Dragons on there. In fact, the closest to D&D is Swords of the Serpentine, and that’s only like a third or fourth cousin.
But when folks asked what I was doing this weekend, they were confused until I rephrased: “We play a lot of games that are kind of like Dungeons and Dragons.” Then they got it and told me, “Have so much fun with your D&D group!”
When WOTC stumbles, it’s like a tree falling in an oak forest: there’s sunlight for something else to grow in that spot. Maybe you’ll get a cool maple or ash tree. But the forest is still an oak forest, and that’s not changing anytime soon.
I looked up “Critical Role” when it was mentioned here to see if it was another name for Stranger Things. I’m sure Stranger Things has been important in the recent popularity of d&d.
FWIW, I left something out from my description of all the games I played over the weekend. There was no D&D at all at the camp. But on my four hour drive there, and my four hour drive back, I listed to Critical Role’s podcast.
Like a lot of my favorite games, it’s very player-dependent. If you play with a group of folks who want to win–who are focused on making optimal decisions and steering things toward a victory condition–it’s going to be wretched. If you play with people who freeze up, or who don’t have any ideas, or who won’t roleplay, it’s going to be dull as shit.
But if you play with a group of folks who love throwing themselves into characters and making decisions that aren’t wise so much as they’re fascinating, it’s ridiculously fun.
In this game, I channeled Devi from Never Have I Ever, only working at a Spencer’s Gifts. After I got fired, I stole a check for $9,995 from the store’s safe and erased the “Pay to the Order Of” name, replacing it with my own, and used a big chunk of cash to give lavish gifts to my friends.
That’s a terrible idea–just like it was a terrible idea for the druggie to sell drugs to the stressed-out parents in line for the kids to sit on Santa’s lap, or for the store-owner’s son to run a side hustle in Satanic paraphernalia out of the shop. But all our bad decisions–coupled with some absurd roleplay and some delightful bit characters–made for pure joy.
There was a player at the table who I’d never met before, and I wasn’t sure whether she’d be any fun. But from the first time she opened her mouth (as the teenage Satanic weed-dealer) and started gushing about Taylor Swift (excuse me, “Tay-tay”) in this big-mouthed valley-girl drawl, I was like, “This game is gonna fuckin rock.” That’s what you’re looking for in Fiasco.
I was, of course, caught and put in juvie. In Fiasco, that’s as close as you get to a victory condition.
My one and only experience with Fiasco was with such a group – it was about five years ago, and we still talk about how much crazy fun that session was.
I agree; I think that it does require that sort of player to make that game play well.
Even with a mediocre group, D&D can still be pretty fun. The mechanics of rolling dice and killing monsters is a bit like glorified Yahtzee, and if nobody roleplays at all, I can amuse myself with the clicketyclackety of the plastic polyhedra.
But all the games in that bulleted list (except Wingspan) only really work if players are throwing themselves into the game with abandon. The mechanics aren’t that interesting by themselves; they facilitate the fun rather than providing the fun, if that makes sense.
If y’all enjoyed Fiasco, I heartily recommend all the other games on that list, with a special shoutout to Pasion De Las Pasiones, maybe the most bonkers idea for an RPG I’ve ever heard of. It was sublime. One example: “secret twin” is a character class. If you play the secret twin, you choose another PC who’s your twin (with the player’s consent). Your main power is called “That was me!” and it lets you declare after any scene involving the other character that it was secretly you in that scene all along. HOW COOL IS THAT???
I mean, it does bill itself as a game about “people with powerful ambition and poor impulse control.” If you love Coen Brothers movies and think that A Simple Plan is the understated geniuswerk of Sam Raimi’s career, you’re the right kind of player. But everybody has to be on board with that kind of aesthetic (or whatever tone you want to play). I’ve always wanted to create a Being John Malkovich-type plot for Fiasco but then you have to find people who have both that level of unhinged creativity and a willingness to embrace the absurd idiocy and self-destructiveness in their character without being a complete murder-hobo.
Note that is a Vid from “Professor DM”, a guy who used to write for the dragon, and is now getting his clicks from spreading WotC hate and pushing his competing FRPG. He is about as baised a source as you can find.
Here is the real story:
PAWTUCKET, R.I.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS), a global play and entertainment company, has been named one of the 2022 World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices. This prestigious award recognizes companies for leadership in key ESG areas including business ethics and compliance, ethical sourcing and human rights, environmental sustainability, and social impact across global communities.
> Hasbro Recognized as One of World’s Most Ethical Companies for the 11th Consecutive Year > > Tweet this
Hasbro has been recognized by Ethisphere for 11 consecutive years – and is one of only four honorees in the consumer products industry. In 2022, 136 honorees were recognized spanning 22 countries and 45 industries.
Again Hasbro did not “bully” a Youtuber, and the whole thing about how eviiiiillll the Pinkertons are is about a hundred years out of date.
Well, here are the 2023 World’s Most Ethical Companies (that have nominated themselves into the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance):
If Accenture, Booz Allen, Eli Lilly, Frontera Energy, and Allstate are in the list, I think you’d be better off to be on another list far away. But hey, if you can’t be ethical, you can at least scrub your sins off with a lot of money and a for-profit company that issues “ethics” awards for pay. Also, you can buy yourself a lairdship in Scotland and prance around in a kilt, but don’t expect to get a warm welcome in Alba.
This is exactly the experience I have, with my sub-20 daughters (and their friends) as well as 20-somethings I know. CR was never the gateway for any of them, they were already into roleplaying, from their parents, from very TT-like computer games, and just general nerd cultural osmosis.
No mention of subsidiary Wizards of the Coast but some belt tightening in their less profitable rope-playing game products and services is likely forthcoming.
There have been a few WotC employees, including Mike Mearls, who have said they were laid off. Well, not laid off. They said they’re no longer with the company.
