An RPG Monopoly

I'm not talking about the boardgame, I'm talking about WizBro's marketing tactics.

Access to original Dungeons and Dragons materials was one of the main casualties of WizBros decision to suspend the distribution of electronic copies of their IP.

WizBros decision to suspend electronic distribution of old Dungeons and Dragons materials was NOT just an effort to protect their intellectual property from straying into the public domain, it was a deliberate act to stifle the original rules and its subsequent releases.

If you remember, at the time they promised that a new form of DRM was being planned.

It’s been a long time since it all went down, and nothing has come to light.

HOWEVER 4e eBooks are still flooding the torrent scene, the vast majority aren’t simply scans but true PDF’s of the actual material being released in print form.

I (personally) find that rather suspect.

It’s further proof (for me at least) that WizBro are a heartless corporation trying to FORCE people into playing what they want, and suppressing the true Dungeons & Dragons game and spirit.

Those bastards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I do not think proof is necessary. They act the part all too well without hiding their incriminating acts. They are out to make money; by stifling the free opposition they can do that all the better. 4E is a subscription service you pay to them to stay up to date. It is like Magic: The Gathering. They make older sets illegal to play by new rules and then restrict their supply. Only when they are creatively dry do they reprint old material (Tomb of Horrors 4E, Castle Ravenloft, Dark Sun, etc.).

WotC are no less treacherous now than TSR was during 2nd Edition. At least now WotC has creative continuity. Ultimately, when Gary left TSR DnD ceased to be a labor of love to become a hard business. Look at the difference in the products. Under Gary there were more adventures, places to play, under subsequent leadership the higher-priced rulebooks dominated. Why produce an adventure for $5.99 when we can sell them a new manual for $34.99?

3.5 was an atrocity to me. 3.0 at least held some of the flavor of game I remember, but 3.5 nailed the coffin shut. It became less about "what makes sense" and more about "how is it balanced?" They took the reins of control from the DM, a little at a time, until it evolved into 4E, where the DM is barely necessary.

Even Pathfinder, to me, is not anything like DnD is supposed to be. It's about combat, plain and simple. With a complex skills system you put less emphasis on what your character can do and more on what he CANNOT do. The tiers of difficulty are senseless. They create a problem where one is not needed! If you fail a Climb check by 5 ranks you generate a problem that was not there before. The DM no longer has to say, "It is windy, the climb may be hard." Now if you fail the check, the problem happens. Furthermore, how can you explain a +19 to Perception? Is it passive? Sometimes. You have to make checks, by the rules, even when not being opposed, because if you fail something happens to oppose you. It's a waste of time and it ruins role-playing.

I mean, a Blacksmith can only become a better Blacksmith by raising his Craft skill. Now, the only way, by the rules, to do this is to kill monsters. So a third level fighter, by killing goblins, can be a better Blacksmith than first level expert who has been doing the job for ten years, just because he has slain enemies.

By their logic, and I do understand it is a fantasy game with loose associations to reality, that I could learn to drive a stick-shift by going out into the woods and hunting deer with a crossbow. I could go do that, right now.

Castles & Crusades rules!

Hahahahahahahahaha!!! Just by those rules alone,the world would be populated solely by adventurers,cause there would'nt be anyone around who could do shit!I'd have loved to see the first inhabitants of the path-finder world as they tried to figure out make a simple wooden club or to make fire..bet it took a lot of bare-fisted smilodon hunting to get that far in the ladder of human/demi-human evolution.

Balance, TRUE balance does not come from a ruleset - and it shouldn't.

It should come from the DM/CC/GM (or whatever).

In making EVERYONE the same (as in 4th) who CARES what anyone plays, all that matters is how quickly you can kill things and garner XP.

Magic Users (or Wizards if you prefer) & Clerics SHOULD be awesomly powerful at higher levels, it makes up for them being wimpy early on. Barbarians should be the toughest Warriors around, and only Thieves should be good at thievery - I'm not saying no one can attempt to steal - just that only members of the Thief class should excell at it.

Why change anything to do with D&D to the extent they have, strong archetypes and dilineations between the classes was its strength and its selling point.

The blurring started with the introduction of Feats, and has reached an almost 'diseased' level in 4e - Daily Abilities, At Will Abilities, Encounter Abilities - its fucking ridiculous.

As for skills, I have ONLY ever allowed PC's to increase Non-Class Skills if the Character takes a "Time Out" to train in or work with the specific skill.

C&C is brilliant, but the more I run it the more "holes" start to appear. Holes that were never there for me with AD&D 1e.

I am of the pass/fail concept of skills. Either you pass or you fail. The only time you have to try, however, is when exceptional circumstances present themselves. As for crafts and shit, I use the nonweapon profs from AD&D, I just do not associate rolls with them. You either know it or you fucking don't.

I believe Paladins and Clerics should be amongst the most powerful classes. They carry great strength, they are a weapon of their freaking deity. However, the morality of playing such a character dictates their powers. 3.5 pretty much removed racial and alignment role-playing. Pathfinder's world setting, Golarian, is literally the pinnacle of this. Anyone can be anything regardless of race or alignment. Hell, in their new adventure path a LG Paladin is a starter character along with a LE fighter/wizard.

Does the "character" part even matter anymore? It's all about "builds" and "aoe's" and "dps" now.

Fuck WoW.

I don't want to play an analog video game. I want my talking my way out of situation shit! I do not want a freaking Diplomacy check, where I can make my worst enemy my best friend by taking two feats and crunching my skill points and then rolling an 8 or higher.

The owner of a local game store said to me that he liked 4E because even stupid players could do just as well.

There is a term for that: communism.

This whole "balance" thing really REALLY yanks my dick - its NOT A FUCKING WARGAME.

An RPG should work because the rules a "representative" of a given mileu with its own inherrant strengths and weaknesses.

Try rolling a character for Traveller, no two in any given Traveller party are "balanced" - far from it.

Yet people don't bitch and whine like childish little fuck-wits about Traveller - so why pick on fucking D&D/AD&D!

I think it's now refferred to as "OBAM-UNISM"

I would gladly live in a socialist state. People vilify socialism without even understanding it.

Me too"if" it we're socialized!