Comics' Sucking, and Other Reasons We Keep Buying Junk

Over at RPG Pundit's blog (he of the entirely too angry at the completely insignificant Forge Indie Storygames fame) has a bit of a rant about the return of Bruce Wayne as Batman.

(Well in the year I wrote this he was that.  Now he is an Alt Right Crazy.  I happened to see my old post here in 2025 and saw a few bits of language to clean up so I did so and just want to crack a joke at a nobody even though I'm less of a nobody and obviously nobody is likely to read this.  But I am doing it anyhow.)

You see, in the most recent X CRISIS series DC did to get people to buy more comics they offed Batman in a way giving him a totally obvious way not to really be dead, and thus he can come back, now with a new miniseries everyone will buy just because its apparently special another character who was killed is coming back.

As if the returns of Superman, Flash, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), and Captain America (Steve Rogers) among other big name comic book characters who have died and come back haven't shown us comic book characters will never, EVER stay dead as long as there is money to be made.

That's why superhero comics mostly suck.  Death doesn't matter.  Story doesn't matter.  Its just an endless IP holding pattern for movies, cartoons, toys, and videogames.

Nobody can stay dead because then you can't sell the character anymore.  And it OMG might confuse the majority of people who don't and won't read comics anyhow.

We can't even have their worlds be believable since it might confuse people if a world where aliens constantly visit Earth and we have super science too might actually be different than ours.  

Science fiction confuses people I guess.  Its like most fantasy worlds all basically still being middle ages with a modern morality lens and almost zero plausibility.  Like how castles still even exist given the types of monsters and magic in most fantasy worlds makes the expense and inconvenience of a castle pointless.

Heck, take Marvel.  NO MORE MUTANTS (From the House of M miniseries.  The Scarlet Witch having a silly emo moment uses super magic to de-mutant most of the Marvel Universe's mutants.  Except the most popular ones.  Except a few that were made normal until they found a way to get their powers back anyhow.) was possibly the dumbest major thing Marvel did to its world.  Since having lots of mutants mean Marvel earth is too far gone from our own and would confuse people.  

Because I guess all the fascinating tales that could be told are trumped by not appeasing people WHO AREN'T GONNA READ COMICS ANYHOW.  Yet the story beat of a world fearing overthrow by 200 mutants still makes sooo much sense even with government made super soldier projects, giant flying aircraft carriers, and even the odd god from myth hanging out.  Not to mention sorcerers, the Devil, Count Dracula and his MOONBASE (which is totally awesome by the way.  No wonder nobody bought the series this took place in.  Comic fans hate buying awesome books.) , gates to other worlds where all the superheroes got turned into zombies, ect, ect.

But Marvel and DC still get all the sales in comics so they see no reason not to keep putting out their junk.

And we seem to keep buying it.  And if people like me complain we are just miserable haters who should NEVER EVER say anything negative because we are hurting people's feelings who do like it, but don't have enough self esteem to enjoy it unless they think everyone else loves it too.

(Just look at RPGnet.  Bash most games and you are vilified.  Unless its Palladium which they have decreed open season on, yet anyone defending it is a big old fanboy trolljerk.  But if you say something negative about Exalted or whatever other flavor of the week product is out you are a jerk.  The Games Workshop fanboys are especially annoying the second anyone dares say anything about their beloved 87 million dollars in sales company who treats its customers and retailers like garbage.)

Much like how hobby games all keep buying the same small bit of product its OUR OWN DAMNED FAULTS.  If we would stop buying this crap in large enough numbers it would stop.

If the return of Bruce Wayne as Batman caused say, Batman sales to drop by 20-40% it would let them know to stop the revolving death door.  If Spider Man making a deal with Mephisto had caused sales to plummet it would have sent a message.

But humanity in general are flipping consumer addicts and thus we might as well lay back, close our eyes, and think of England.

Look at all the people angry over design decisions made in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Left for Dead 2.  Most of the people complaining STILL BOUGHT THE GAMES.  (Though in LfD2 the biggest complainers were all but bought off by the game's developer.  Ethics are overridden by free trips to play the game at the developer's studio I guess.)

And that's the biggest problem folks.  People might even complain.  But between the defenders of the corporation, and the complainers who buy the things they are unhappy about anyhow, it just encourages companies to keep doing it.

And they will.  Do you really think prices would keep going up on everything if we stopped buying it?  Do you think products would be increasingly shoddy if we still bought it?  Would TV shows keep having bad plots if we kept watching?


HELL NO.


Obviously the companies would never admit they were at fault, but if we as a people throughout the world would USE the power we seem to not care about having we could do amazing things.

RPGs and the Prices Thereof.

There has been a long running discussion about this topic. You see now many gaming books apparently all have to be full color hardback coffee table books. They also apparently need to cost 50-60 dollars and get replaced by a new incompatible edition every half decade or so.

To many (stupid) people this is a GOOD thing. Needless to say, RPGnetters proclaim it as such. But then again, according to them Exalted is the bestest RPG ever even though I have only heard of one actual campaign played. (Which does beat most of the games they praise over there. At least I have actually heard of people playing it and seeing the books on a shelf in the real world.)

Thus here are my (Now no longer) foul mouthed angry comments both to those people who agree with the RPG sales and pricing schemes, and to the industry (HA!) so they may know my thoughts, straight from my angry heart filled with disappointment and rage over the stupidity of the world.

If thinking RPGs cost too much and not buying the ones I think aren't a reasonable price for a book makes me a bad person?

Well I shall wear that title with pride.

Can we not as gamers, but as people in general stop being (or acting like thanks to credit cards) knuckleheads with more money than sense? I was raised with the concept of "value of a dollar", yet it seems many people in fact were not.

This means I like to get my money's worth. And 60 bucks for a game book that I probably won't ever get to play anyhow because OMG it apparently needs to be full color and hardback instead of being an easily read gaming manual is not a good deal, especially when RPGnet boneheads and their ilk now think we should have to replace everything with a new edition every 3-6 years.

Please to be stopping these incredibly DUMB actions. Use the games we already own. Don't happily buy every new edition they come out with. Ignore the "Me too!" products. Take advantage of what you already have. Heck, come up with some homebrews and houserules on your own as it really is a big part of the fun of the game.

Thank you.

Nostalgia and Gaming

Lately with the utter abortion that is D&D 4th edition, there has been a lot of outcry against those of us who prefer older editions of D&D, and like all edition wars, just against anyone DARING to not rebuy everything they already own because its a NEW EDITION and somehow magically better than what you were already having fun with.

We folks who like the older games are considered to be dinosaurs, or rose tinted nostalgia freaks who are convincing themselves the old game is better and refusing to let go of the past.

This is retarded, and if you think the above statement is true, YOU are retarded. (And you also probably think Fox News is fair and balanced.)

A thing I have thought of that should be obvious is we are not yet in a world where we own nothing and its all EULAs, virtual bits and bytes on an iPhone/Kindle/ect yet.

And RPGs especially are a print product. Print can survive for a very long time if you treat it right. I have been rereading some old Ninja High School comics I read in high school and they still look great some 18 years later. The 3d issue still worked sublimely.

We have the option of playing any damned RPG we own or buy off of ebay.

I don't need Mekton Zeta with its massive worksheet of mech design. I have lovely light and streamlined Mekton 2 with its Ben Dunn cover, and Waltrip Brothers interior art. I like it better than Zeta, so why bother?

I never got to run Paranoia 2nd back in the day and still haven't really had enough people and the right group for Paranoia. Why would I drop MORE money for the NEW edition when I won't get to run that one either and I ALREADY liked what I had?

If something works, why flippin replace it?

Some people drive old cars. Why? They like the looks. They like the power of the machine. They like that they can maintain it on their own without needing a certified mechanic's computer diagnostic station. (There are tales of PREGNANT women totally repairing the old VW Bugs including pulling out the entire engine block with a couple of tools and a small winch.)

In some cases we discover the older stuff later and realize how much BETTER it was before it was mucked about in the quest for profit or megadetail being added that few people wanted. (See Starfleet Battles and Advanced Squad Leader.)

Heck, I discovered classic rock in the early 90s as the pop radio I was mostly listening to just became nothing but butt. R&B, lame love songs, and Rap sucked ass to me for the most part. And this station I had heard on the bus to school was playing some really good music. Zeppelin, the Doors, the Who, Pink Floyd. It wasn't nostalgia. I hadn't heard most of these songs. My mom only had Country on at home, and I didn't hear much music at friend's houses either.

I discovered greatness LATER. It was awesome stuff I was deprived of, much of which came out before I was even born.

Old school doesn't always mean nostalgia. Sometimes they got it right out of the gate, and later "evolution" merely made the game an overcomplicated, unplayable mess.

To be sure there are some newer games that are vastly superior to their originals. Tunnels & Trolls 7.5 grabbed me in a way 5.0 totally failed to. Warhammer 40K 5th edition is without a doubt better than the cheesefest 2nd edition, and is an excellent refinement of the good ideas from 3rd and 4th. (Though I note here that almost nobody I have played 40K with in the last 18 months ever played 2nd edition. The massive change between 2 and 3 caused most of the old guard to leave. 3-5 all have the same essential rules with tweaks and fixes and the crowd is mostly the same, with some folks leaving and coming back, as opposed to the 2nd ed crowd that left and never came back. Given the cheesy style of play the 2nd edders had, they are NOT missed.) Federation Commander blows Starfleet Battles out of the water.

That's the great part about print. It stays with us, so WE get to choose which edition we get to play, regardless of what some game company wants.

Being a gamer is knowing YOU AND YOUR GAME CIRCLE have the total control over not only which edition to play, but what rules to discard or modify, what miniatures to use, what game universe to play in, what canon to disregard.

If you just want some totally structured game environment, go play a videogame.

Hey 4th ed D&D Fanboys! QUIT WHINING YOU NINNIES!

Over the last few months the Internet has been ablaze with the nerdrage of 4th ed Dungeons & Dragons haters like me, and even more ablaze by its ever louder screaming defenders of the faith. Thus here are my thoughts not about the game, but about the wars that have erupted.

Over a commercial product.

Yeah.

Its funny I can mock 4e all the time with my actual group and they still happily play it without being butthurt and requiring my approval. They play it and I go play the Warhammer 40K and make with the pew pew.

Which is really what this all comes down to. Some of us hate 4e, for many reasons some of which are even legitimate. Others love it, for reasons I don't understand but people like Nascar too so whatever.

The problem is the lovers seem unable to accept or deal with any negative statements being thrown at their precious consumer product designed by a company who does not love them, but merely wants their hard earned cash, and more of it if at all possible.

Look at how many RPGnetters or other sites who flip out over Mr. Weigel's Youtube review, or folks getting whiney on forums, or at Grognardia or the other retro RPG bloggers giving their opinion.

Its like the 4e brigade has been so RPGnet style pussified that they just can't handle anyone disliking what they do as it has not been given the mass approval to hate it. (Like Palladium. Its ok to hate it, but how DARE anyone hate a new WOTC product? THIS DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE. Like Chewbacca living on Endor with the Ewoks.)

One forum I am on hates every new episode of BSG and Terminator: MILF Chronicles. I don't really care. I just say I still like it, maybe why, and move on.

Corporate made products don't really need me to White Knight them. Its great those of you who enjoy it do, really. I mock it because I think its dumb, and its a good pressure valve. I can bitch about the real world and real problems, or just indulge my inner stupid by taking the piss out of a stupid RPG and having a bit of childish glee when its fanboys are devolved to the point of elementary school 80s console or computer system playground wars.

Its fun and amusing. I kind of chuckle most of the time when Macs get talked smack about, the only irritation being I know some of the chuckleheads really do take their computer preference seriously. (I usually correct them that Macs only suck for their price and if you like, actually want to play a videogame on them. And remind them we are also snooty and pretentious. And are also turtleneck wearing hipster douchebags. Get your hatred RIGHT by golly gee!)

So you guys who like 4e keep playing. Just know that I, a long time gamer who is massively generous with my time, money, and enthusiasm on stuff would rather not game than play that pile of butt.

I think we can handle that. Maybe when Group X tries something new or wants to I will hop back on. I have my Warhammer 40K. My AT 43. My Uncharted Seas. My Wings of War. My More Games Than I Will Ever Get to Play.

We will all be fine. I know I am a great roleplayer and all (or so 20ish or so folks voted me as at a con LARP last year anyhow) and a damn good GM when I am not being ADD or Emo (according to the people who still worship my 3.0 game from Summer 01), and all, but we can make it through this trying time.

And I am probably not half as great as anyone has said anyhow. I am aware that I in fact suck. Nobody knows this better than me. Why else would I have heard it pretty much nonstop from the age of 1 all the way to my mid 20s?

You guys buy 4e, I will buy more Rackham minis. Hi Grognards.txt.  I love you. I need more Space Commies and amoral desert biologist mans for my ever increasing hordes. And that Dark Heresy collection won't complete itself, nor will getting more pretty biplanes for Wings of War.

Plus I keep finding old games I missed like Traveller and FASA Trek that want me to drop some coin on it. And the old faves like D6 Star Wars, Battletech, Ogre, Paranoia, and Basic D&D love to get new goodies to join the old goodies I have yet to use with em.

Just whenever we do, keep the snacks away from me. They are bad for my figure!

The Palladium Game System: How I Would Redo it! Part 1: Palladium as it is.

There has been constant talk over the years about Palladium. I am gonna start (yet another) project (that I will probably never complete) dealing with them. I would like to preface this with the understanding that I LIKE Palladium and have enjoyed their products over the years. However, they do many things that are not only counterproductive, but have actually HURT them. This project series will talk about the company, its games, the fanbase (or anti fanbase as the case may be!) and what I would do if I was in their shoes. But I will get more into it as we go!

They are a once big RPG company who used to advertise in comics who have now mostly retreated to a small but dedicated fanbase, with their biggest known game being Rifts. Largely the company is under the creative control of one man, Kevin Siembieda.

On the upside almost everything they have released in the last 20 years or so is compatible with what they release now. I can pretty much take my old 80s era Teenage Mutant Ninjas & Other Strangeness book and use it without much effort with more recent releases of theirs such as Dead Reign or Robotech Shadow Chronicles. Also their stuff is really fairly priced given the current ridiculous prices the gaming market seems to think are standard, being a "cottage industry" and all.

The downside of this is their system is REALLY pretty dire, being an insanely house ruled version of AD&D that barely resembles it anymore. This is also seen in that today's Palladium games look almost exactly like their releases of 20 years ago. In many cases the same art is used and entire sections of their books are cut and pasted (with errors and all!) from game to game.

Their games are almost exclusively black and white softcovers using a 2 column layout that as mentioned, is pretty much the same layout (and typeface!) as they have used for 20 years or more.

The game system itself is a D20 and percentile system, the D20 used to determine most combat results, and the percentiles being used for skills. Characters are based off of a character class (known as an OCC or RCC, Occupational or Racial Character Class) with an alignment and a pile of basic attributes that rarely have any direct effect on active gameplay.

Many of the classes are totally out of imbalance with each other, and many of the abilities and skills players can choose can even make things worse. In the Palladium games almost every single character concept has its own unique class. It is incredibly unwieldy and in many cases pointless. Do we really need a dozen or so classes of powered armor or giant robot pilot? About the same for Spellcasters? Instead of players making their characters unique, its based off picking a class and not much else.

Combat has multiple options and actions some of which are close combat only, others are ranged, others spell or psionic. Hit points are divvied up into HP and SDC (Structural Damage Capacity), and armor has a rating to ablate the damage. However you then add in MDC (Mega Damage Capacity) which has no armor values, but 1 point of MDC is equivalent to 100 points of SDC, (And if an SDC attack cannot do 100 points in a single attack it cannot do anything to MDC armor. Meaning a modern tank can possibly be an irritant to a light set of MDC combat armor. Maybe.) giving us hand pistols capable of making the extremely powerful sidearms of Star Trek look wimpy and that make armor in MDC worlds a virtual requirement unless you want an extremely short PC life. And the armor does meet this requirement. There are player character suits that have HUNDREDS of MDC points and weapons that do around the same.

Weapon and armor inflation is pretty bad. Back in their first MDC game (Robotech), a 200+ ton giant robot had around 300 MDC. In Rifts, a player character powered armor suit that was roughly 9 feet tall had over 700, and a cannon capable of averaging 100 MDC damage a shot. Yeah. The current version of Robotech brings their MDC closer in line to Rifts. And the 700 MDC power armor still has more points than the 200+ ton giant robot.

Numbers simply get entirely too high in this game, and usually for little gameplay gain. Its like a console RPG in numbers inflation. Do games really need numbers in the 100s or 1000s for life points? It just adds in extra math to deal with, slowing things down.

Overall your average Palladium product is like this: The book opens warning about how none of this is real and the game deals with violence and the supernatural. Its kind of stupid. Nobody cares about RPGs any more. Patricia Pulling has passed away, and the THINK OF THE CHILDREN! types are too busy freaking out over videogames which tens if not hundreds of millions of people play instead of a hobby mostly centered around virginal nerds in a basement with maybe a million active players total.

The next section is usually the fluff. This is the BEST section of the book and the reason many people will buy the game even if they wouldn't use the Palladium rules if their lives depended on it. While rarely full of hard data, the fluff is evocative, interesting, and invests you in the setting, firing off lots of neurons for campaigns and adventures.

This is followed by the character class section. Its 1/3rd ideas on the class, then 2/3rds more powers and skills that either break the game balance (most seen in expansion books) or could just be a variant of another class. But I have already mentioned the folly of the Palladium class system so that still stands.

Its cousin is usually up next, the NEW STUFF FOR EVERYONE section. This is full of weapons and toys, which like the classes are usually imbalanced and just take up space. Its made extra bad given that almost every machine has multiple MDC locations for called shots few people even bother with most of the time. In a tightly designed game, a suit of robot power armor could have its pictures, game data, and fluff done on 1 or 2 pages. In Palladium its generally 3 or more, and full of numbers. The good part is there is lots of hard data so as to convert it over to a better game. The bad is that its Gear Porn for technofetishists and NRA type gun nuts. Sometimes there will be a few interesting non combat items, but generally not much. Compared to GURPS its positively simple, but Gear Porn is still Gear Porn.

If its a core book the cut and pasted rules go here. As mentioned above its kinda janky and wierd, and if you are lucky it will have a minor tweak or two to it which may or may not help it make sense.

The last section is usually a mixture of new monster and NPC types to kill, some harder setting information, some open plot threads you can work with, and possibly some GM advice.

This covers the games of Palladium. However there is another insidious side to the company. (Most of what is to follow is based on hearsay and rumor, albeit ones that have multiple sources.)

The main man himself, Kevin S.

One would think the lead owner and writer for the company would playtest and use his own game system as written, right? WRONG. He hardly even plays RPGs these days, though given his insistence on self editing, doing artwork, and writing entire rulesbooks in a month's time from scratch it is somewhat understandable.

This leads to serious problems not just with game balance and design, but with editing and freelance relations. Take a current release of theirs, Dead Reign. Its a zombie RPG that had a preview version in their house bookazine/freelancer test bed, "The Rifter". A couple freelancers wrote a proposal, got the aforementioned preview version in Rifter, and were then tasked with writing up a full RPG. They did this. Once the manuscript was received, Kevin, who self admitted to not even really being a zombie fan decided he did not like the manuscript. Instead of either sending it back for a rewrite, cancelling the project, or actually guiding the new freelancers towards what he might have been wanting during the writing process, he dropped whatever project he was working on, threw out a good 60-80% of what had already been written, and spent a good 6 weeks redoing the thing himself, making himself the lead writer and merely giving the freelancers secondary credit.

No time for playtest, no real outside viewpoints, just a mass rewrite, and a public posting basically calling the original manuscript junk in so many words.

This is NOT a way to make a product.

This sort of behavior is something Mr. Siembieda is infamous for doing, and leads to their constantly missed product release deadlines, numerous typos and other editing mistakes, and lead to two well known and respected writers (CJ Carella and Bill Coffin) leaving the company and refusing to do anything else for them.

Except his quibbles go beyond just that. Palladium's web policies are the most paranoid about IP rights ones ever seen to the point that they will throw cease and desist orders around if you even DARE post say "A Star Wars light saber in Palladium system will do 1d6x10+Character level in MDC" to a public forum, or to a blog. I in fact, would not be too surprised if I get one for posting my example. Almost everything that can have a trademark sort of symbol in a Palladium product has so, and numerous sites have been shut down, or just stopped playing Palladium games entirely because of this overly paranoid IP mindset. They have even sued game companies for putting conversion charts in their books, as if it will cause them to lose all rights to their creations if they don't.

One reason they never got on the D20 bandwagon was an insistence Wizards of the Coast would then own everything they did. Well, clearly history has proven that one to be completely and totally WRONG.

All its accomplished is bad blood and cost Palladium most of its fanbase.

Yet the fanbase that remains tends to be ONLY Palladium system players with the kind of THERE ARE OTHER GAMES? NEVER! mindset Games Workshop can't even get. They are loyal to the point of rampaging over to RPGnet any time the inevitable threads bashing Palladium come up and even bailed the company out of going out of business when various financial things happened. (Which may or may not have actually been because an employee stole from the company.)

Outside of Palladium's own forums their games and system are largely looked at as crap. This even in spite of the largely negative stuff I have written above isn't really fair. Yet no criticism is allowed, and people who say negative things about the games and the company are called "haters" in official postings if not press releases.

This is a damned shame. Palladium has some wonderful game settings and ideas. What it needs is for Kevin Siembieda to give up his overwhelming control over everything and get some marketing and editing people to tell him NO, reign him in, and learn that all the bad PR over the years plus the abuse of talent and non fanboy customers has pretty much killed the company outside of a small insular fanbase.

Because like every product that just aims to please a small fanbase and doesn't try to get new blood, its doomed in the long run as the audience eventually leaves for other interests or decides they have all they need.

Things like their yearly holiday grab bag sale are great. The problem is they have done so much wrong few people are even willing to buy the stuff in the first place.

Its telling when you look for Palladium products in stores. Borders doesn't carry anything of theirs, nor do the 4 big comic shops in the area. (One store has 3-4 books with clearance stickers in them, and had a couple clearance Rifter issues before I bought them.) Not even the new manga sized Robotech RPG which you think would be a shoe in at the various manga shelves. Nope. And the one dedicated gaming store that does carry Palladium stuff is more getting it to service the few people buying it. Which isn't many given some of the books were 20 year old OOP releases, and Rifter issues you cannot even get from Palladium's own webstore anymore. Clearly its not exactly flying off the shelves, and its one store servicing an entire region!

Also telling was their book availability at Connecticon. The only books I saw were in half off or clearance bins. Also most of the books on Ebay were at massively discounted prices even in Buy it Now categories. I checked Amazon.com, and most of the Amazon sellers (known for jacking the price up of anything with even a HINT of being rare, out of print, or desired) have the books new and used for 50-80% off cover price. Talking with other gamers has brought up anecdotal evidence of most Palladium stuff selling for a buck a book at used bookstores as well.

That is NOT evidence of a healthy gameline to me. Not at all folks.

I am sure if any Palladium forums poster sees this I will just be considered another hater and my thoughts dismissed. But I love the writing and art and concepts in the Palladium RPG books. However the game system and treatment of fans, talent, and critics is just too extreme and I fear will lead to the premature end of what could be a great company.

And given how badly RPGs are doing in general, any mistake a company makes can be the beginning of the end.

And I care enough that I do not want to see it happen.

In part 2 I will begin my Palladium inspired game system overview as an idea of how I would revamp the system from the top. Look forward to it!

New Editions, Feel, and Compatibility

Over at RPGnet there was a discussion about if 4th edition D&D is D&D at all. Of course the usual comments were made. Its whatever you consider it to be, whatever Gary Gygax did, whatever the current owner of the IP counts, yadda yadda.

The thing is, its a new edition. Its gonna cause angry feelings!

The problem is most RPG editions are SO DIFFERENT FROM THE LAST ONE it causes all this mayhem. Games Workshop for all their flaws basically have kept the same game engine and just tweaked it since the early 80s. The only major drastic rules shift was with 40K between 2nd and 3rd. 3rd was justifiably terrible because of this, but 4th and 5th being 95% compatible with the previous ruleset ended up being very fun and satisfying games provided you still didn't hold a 2nd ed grudge. They kept working on it, and tweaking, and fixing the game system till it shined.

D&D generally followed this up until 4th. OD&D with expansions was quite similar to AD&D which was super similar to 2nd (unless WAAH NO DEMON AND DEVILS CALLED AS SUCH is unsimilar enough.) and 2.5 was kind of close to 3rd though it was a much greater departure if you never bothered with the Option books.

4th is too much of a change for most people. Its barely recognizable outside of keeping the name. Its game rules feel is totally off.

Now setting and gameplay feel can be affected by the players themselves, the rules are the biggest part. Its not really designed for anything other than one certain style of play.

It was bad in 3.x for this, but you could finagle enough of the previous versions' style to work. 4th seems to in fact have decided 3.x's intended design style is the ONLY design style to play and wham bam thank you Tiamat.

Any new game edition that makes most of the previous edition's supplements useless is gonna cause no end of grief for players, and bitching online.

And it's generally DESERVED.

To be sure, the Internet is mostly for ineffective complaining and pornography, but there are enough people who are justifiably mad at this. Hell, a number of companies are betting their livelihood on this. (See Paizo with Pathfinder.)

Of course, this being RPGnet, the land where new editions MUST. BE. BOUGHT. since apparently the industry is a charity as opposed to a niche hobby for dumbass losers like myself who like silly things like reading and using our imagination, rude comments were made.

Meaning its time to stop posting for a while till my tolerance for stupid aligns with my need to be in the know about RPG stuff.

I dont even think I am being that hard on 4th. Just making some common sense comments. If you change a game that much and make 100s if not 1000s of dollars of people's stuff suddenly useless and change the basic feel of the entire game, some people are gonna be pissed, especially online, which as I mentioned, is nothing but porn and bitching about stuff nobody in the real world cares about.

D&D is just a big example of how such a major shift can screw you. Just ask Wizkids whose 2nd edition of Mage Knight effectively killed the game. Or Mechwarrior Dark Age which was such a shift from Battletech that even though Battletech was kept in production, the sheer level of hatred put it in such a weakened position it was never going to be a big hit period. Or Space Marine/Titan Legions. The shift to Epic 40,000 turned Games Workshop's 3rd pillar into a barely existing nonentity residing in the fringes of GW's Specialist games line.

Should we really accept these sorts of shenanigans? In the world at large even modest tweaks to a little stand alone game like Clue cause major news stories and outrage.

Yet in the hobby gaming field we seem to have such an addiction to buying MORE OF THE SAME DAMNED THING (almost) that it should be praised?