Man, guys like him can't leave the hobby fast enough. Jess Lanzillo, being the creative director for Magic: The Gathering, meaning the design choices all crossed her desk.
After hearing how the "D&D 50th Anniversary" edition's self-righteous wokester wrote an insulting forward that besmirched not only the creators of the hobby that I loved, but also the players who spent a good section of their childhood playing it, I won't spend another dime on any Hasbro product.
I highly doubt that's possible! Hasbro owns TOO MUCH shit! They even own the Spirograph, which is really cool for those of us with no artistic talent(I was SO MAD when I saw that freaking logo on it)! WotC is MUCH easier to not give money too!
They didn't fire him when he made his statements, and instead let him leave a year later, under his own terms: Thus, they agreed with him. Replacing only 1 or 2 boards in a ship doesn't make a new ship. There are a hundred Kyle Brinks types still in the building, see the "F.U. to Grognards" in their History of D&D coffee table book. Give not one more dime to people that hate you.
@@dm_curt I completely agree. What we witnessed recently is the Corpo swapping of the scapegoats ritual. No change in corpo policies, just a slight of hand distraction.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE that you guys have that quote in the thumbnail! I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agreed with him when he said it, don't know why it took him a year to leave! Not to get rid of... well basically everyone else that works there! There's a few people they've picked up in the last year(kind of disappointed in some of them after what Hasbro/WotC tried to do last year but money talks and I just hope they are making a lot of it!!!
I loved what D&D was. I won't give WotC any of my money with the new release. Sticking with the old material. Because the thing is, even if WotC lets the IP die, people will keep playing. It will inspire people to publish/release their own TTRPG. Personally I don't care if the posers walk away from the hobby. I grew up playing when it was still ostracized. Becoming popular, in my opinion only, ruined the game. It's only going to be a year or two before D&D becomes pure cross over content just to get money. (also, note that their "pre-order" video game collectors edition stuff pushes you to the 180 pack. The middle package offers next to NOTHING compared to the basic pre-order. *That* is the evidence they are predatory.)
Working with AI there is no way for it to be a DM. Its not coherent enough nor faat enough to handle even a pre planned module once you include real player hijinks. It has no abilith to keep things like plots coherent. What it could do is be a badass assistant to a DM
He got exactly what he wanted and I'm not sad to see him go. I think the best hope for D&D at this point is for Hasbro to sell it off once it fails hard enough, but whatever the case, we will always have our own game we get to choose how we run. As an aside, would love to hear ya'll go into the Queen of the Demon web Pits module some time, and even the 3E followup Expedition to the Demonweb Pits.
Best way to protect the hobby is to divide and conquer don't let them have a figure head to corrupt and destroy make a million games drop or cut out the infected ones.
I think a lot of it might also have been the timing. Didn't that book come out last year, AFTER they royally screwed the pooch and had announced a "new but not new" edition?
I'm not a role player. I'm more wargamer. But the similarities are there between the two hobbies. That said, both have a very punk rock DIY mentality. I see it in both groups by the number of kickstarters and rules sets that come across my feed. We don't need WotC any more telling us what to buy or how to have fun. They can try and guilt us into their product or we can take a chance on a different a game Good luck to you all.
But that mean I have to REMEMBER the D&Dtubers! I have told RUclips to NOT show me their channels because I just don't care about D&D anymore! Their lackluster product made me NOT want to run it because I didn't feel motivated by it and then what they did early last year made me say "to hell with D&D and WotC/Hasbro" altogether!
The art depicting D&D not as a medieval-inspired fantasy heroic adventure to modern-inspired superhero fantasy Tumblr sealed my decision not to buy the new books. I can Frankenstein what I need from existing materials and my own rules. I don't need their VTT, I don't need B&D Beyond, and I don't need to give them money for that art.
If you really are an OG D&D fan then you know and embrace Gary's perspective on the rules. His greatest fear as a publisher was that players would figure out that they don't need to buy any books to play D&D. My son plays D&D in college using various books but also played as a boy scout with no books, no paper, and no dice in a tent while camping in the middle of nowhere. OTOH, if you're a modern consumer of limited imagination voluntarily subjecting yourself to transparently abusive marketing practices, then you're freaking out over everything WOTC does. D&D is bigger than WOTC. The ONLY thing that WOTC owns related to D&D is the logo. There are better iterations of the game mechanics available from third parties (eg Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game or ShadowDark). There is literally NO need to buy ANYTHING from WOTC to play D&D. Stop obsessing over a logo and go play.
Who's missing D&D? My friends and I have all of the Holmes Basic, AD&D (1E), even 2E rulebooks, manuals, etc. We haven't needed to give any money to the Evil Red Wizards of the Coast, and we won't. And, we will keep playing OUR game. Those people have no power over us, and never will.
I haven't missed D&D a bit! I LOVE Pathfinder 2e and if I ever get that itch for some nostalgic AD&D I can find an OSR game to play, Basic Fantasy RPG is a GREAT one! It's FREE if you're ok with PDFs and not much more than cost(and shipping) if you want physical books!
I`m 40, I wasn`t around at the begginings, and yet I must have seen the "i wont buy D&D no more" hipocresy a dozen times. Hope this time it means something considering we are at the golden era of Indie development. Heck we even got Tunnels & Trolls and The Fantasy Trip around.... too bad the average Hasbro client lacks self respect.
@@Luchiop i think the ogl crisis was the real turning point. Explosion of sales among Castles and Crusades, Kobold Press, Shadowdark, and other 3rd party companies was incredible. Those sales also represent the more hard core long term gamers as opposed to tourists. I think it will be a couple years before we see if the impact was substantial.
WotC set themselves up with a very poor lead-in to these new rulebooks, they haven't made a decent selling book for two years, let alone a hit. What's emotionally forcing the hand of the 5e audience to throw around a hundred bucks to get this? What's got them pumped up so that they're excited about it?
A good DM is able to riff off their player’s unpredictability in the same way a great jazz soloist can improvise with the rest of their ensemble. Everything I see from AI’s capacity to do so is that it’s just a canard, and they’re just nowhere near being able to create a simulacrum of a decent DM.
I've moved into Kobold Press's Tales of the Valiant. It's sad to move away from D&D but even tho in name I'm moving away from it, in spirit I'm still playing the same game I played so many years ago as a kid.
@TheTerrainWizard i like it. I haven't played with it yet. I've read thru the books to get familiar with them before starting a game. Clases feel well balanced, luck system (inspiration system) makes sense and is improved. I think it's a great way to improve and modify 5e without making it completely different. I think anyone that is use to 5e will like it and feel comfortable switching to it.
With the resurgence of board games in the last 10 years, covid, stranger things and so on. I think the "nerd is now cool" is plateauing and sales across the board will be dropping soon. The cycle is ending. I hope not.
I was reading profit numbers and the WoTC said it would drop in 2024 and 2025. What boosted it in 2023 was Balders Gate 3 and such items but not book sales.
I'll agree there are _some_ few things that could stand "culturally updating" but there is no major problem with anything in AD&D 1st ed, it's good stuff, always has been. Some "stuff" around increasing inclusivity by representing a wider diversity of people in the art and stories is... IN THEORY... fine, a laudable goal. However... as to how this high-level policy goal was actually implemented... have you ever heard of the term Malicious Compliance? That's what the Brink era has been doing, and a fish rots from the head. I think Kyle got so used to spewing "diversity bafflegab" - in this interview he just got carried away and a little inner-truth came out. He clearly doesn't have any genuine interest in understanding the high-level goal and finding a way to wisely and carefully implement it, he may well even secretly hate such goals... malicious compliance... and who in modern corporate america is going to look over stuff the bosses already like and say, "ya know, this is awful, hamfisted, shoving-it-down-their-throats, stereotypical... pablum. people will see right through this and reject it, no one wants to be meta-lectured to." so he's just always made the easy, safe, minimal effort choices, and turned out a lot of mid-to-low tier "content"... there's probably some good bones in 5E, but it's been decorated pretty badly. At the same time, hasbro and "corporate" wotc have been pushing for absurd monetization efforts. I for one have zero interest in $80 a book fetish objects. The new leader there is coming in too late late to change much and might not have much better ideas. I think the "core" is fixable, but I don't really like the whole tone of the books, heck even 2nd edition the writing got too soulless. Everyone should read the whole 1st ed DMG, and like it too! it's good for you :-) I just don't think the way the new books are written are going to inspire people to learn and think and create anywhere near as much, and that's as much a part of the game as anything.
I learned and applied several different subjects in D&D. I learned algebra only after applying different formulas to spells' area of effects in confined spaces. Then, later in college, several of us would stay up late theorizing of the four different ways the Invisibility spell could work. I also applied geography lessons to my homebrew campaign to ensure my mastery of the material. Those were the days.
I have every D&D book from Basic D&D through 5E so far and I can tell you I will not buy these new books under any circumstances, I will have no part of these woke garbage books that have already destroyed D&D as the game I loved. I have already moved on to Palladium Fantasy as my Fantasy game of choice and my players are happy with the change as Palladium Fantasy has a huge world already fully detailed with numerous books and there are two different versions of the game, one that plays more like old AD&D and one that plays like the more modern Palladium games like Rifts and Heroes Unlimited. I am sad to see D&D go but I am more than happy to let it die in its current iteration. Good riddance to woke garbage.
I passed on owning a copy of 4e, even though I ran the system for two years. Personally it's pretty clear that Hasbro is pushing WoTc to do away with pen and paper.
Why do you culturally appropriate black slang words like “woke” for a GOP political agenda? 🤷🏻♂️ Woke means to be aware of danger nearby. It has nothing to do with your political agenda or white peoples with pink hair.
@@peterriverajr6899 Are you actually being serious or do you want me to explain what woke is and the many instances of it in the new version of D&D? I will be more than happy to if you wish.
I challenge someone to create a ttrpg system extremely similar to 'The System that shall not be named", but NOT so close as to be legally actionable, and name it, "Definitely NOT Dungeons and Dragons" (or simply, DND&D).... MUWAHAHAHA...!
@@bodypiercingbytom the truth is, the Supreme Court has already ruled that you can't copyright the rules of a game. Only the lore. So the mechanics of 5e are fair game but wizards has deep pockets and will bankrupt someone trying to play in their yard.
While he may have fulfilled his wish of removing 'old white guys' from the hobby, leading by example, it's sadly just going to be more of the same. They fired all of the good writers, the ones who were fans first and writers second, leaving only writers who have little interest in the game itself and more in how they can preach at others through the game. Wizard's D&D was it's best in 3rd/3.5. 5th had merit at the start but Tasha's onward it was clear where it was going... and it was nowhere good.
@@thepickleddragon8590 but why did he say that. Is some kind of fake woke outrage because the art in the new book features characters who aren't white or what.
He didnt leave fast enough.
FACTS
Man, guys like him can't leave the hobby fast enough.
Jess Lanzillo, being the creative director for Magic: The Gathering, meaning the design choices all crossed her desk.
Yea, and I'm just not 100% sure if she was responsible for making the amount of packs that came out and were an obvious money grab.
After hearing how the "D&D 50th Anniversary" edition's self-righteous wokester wrote an insulting forward that besmirched not only the creators of the hobby that I loved, but also the players who spent a good section of their childhood playing it, I won't spend another dime on any Hasbro product.
Anywhere to actually read that?
I highly doubt that's possible! Hasbro owns TOO MUCH shit! They even own the Spirograph, which is really cool for those of us with no artistic talent(I was SO MAD when I saw that freaking logo on it)! WotC is MUCH easier to not give money too!
@jamesm1 It's written in the forward of the commemorate edition called "Fifty Years of Dungeons & Dragons."
@@G-Blockster if you're not going to play it anymore I'm betting you didn't actually love it
They didn't fire him when he made his statements, and instead let him leave a year later, under his own terms: Thus, they agreed with him.
Replacing only 1 or 2 boards in a ship doesn't make a new ship.
There are a hundred Kyle Brinks types still in the building, see the "F.U. to Grognards" in their History of D&D coffee table book.
Give not one more dime to people that hate you.
@@dm_curt I completely agree. What we witnessed recently is the Corpo swapping of the scapegoats ritual.
No change in corpo policies, just a slight of hand distraction.
If he had said that same statement but mentioned women or another group, he would have been LONG gone
Not giving them a single penny.
I wish them luck but I won't be spending any more money on a virtual system.
This whole thing is like a train crashing into a dumpster fire that is on a bridge already on fire.
😂😂 I love the way you put that
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE that you guys have that quote in the thumbnail! I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agreed with him when he said it, don't know why it took him a year to leave!
Not to get rid of... well basically everyone else that works there! There's a few people they've picked up in the last year(kind of disappointed in some of them after what Hasbro/WotC tried to do last year but money talks and I just hope they are making a lot of it!!!
as for sitting on IP, I've heard they won't sell Star Frontiers, even though they have never released anything for it...
@@MitchellClements-kv3in i used to love star frontiers
I'm so done with D&D at this point. I was one of those guys who would just buy a new edition to look at (my group plays pathfinder 1e), but no longer.
Or just go to the older editions.
@@dracoyaminiatures5143 2e for the win!
I loved what D&D was. I won't give WotC any of my money with the new release.
Sticking with the old material. Because the thing is, even if WotC lets the IP die, people will keep playing. It will inspire people to publish/release their own TTRPG.
Personally I don't care if the posers walk away from the hobby. I grew up playing when it was still ostracized. Becoming popular, in my opinion only, ruined the game.
It's only going to be a year or two before D&D becomes pure cross over content just to get money.
(also, note that their "pre-order" video game collectors edition stuff pushes you to the 180 pack. The middle package offers next to NOTHING compared to the basic pre-order. *That* is the evidence they are predatory.)
Working with AI there is no way for it to be a DM. Its not coherent enough nor faat enough to handle even a pre planned module once you include real player hijinks. It has no abilith to keep things like plots coherent. What it could do is be a badass assistant to a DM
He got exactly what he wanted and I'm not sad to see him go. I think the best hope for D&D at this point is for Hasbro to sell it off once it fails hard enough, but whatever the case, we will always have our own game we get to choose how we run.
As an aside, would love to hear ya'll go into the Queen of the Demon web Pits module some time, and even the 3E followup Expedition to the Demonweb Pits.
@@intuitivealchemist i have run both multiple times!
With a thriving osr and indy scene, why does anyone need what wizards is making anyway?
WOTC drama videos get all the clicks on RUclips, though.
WOTC Dungeons & Dragons & Drama gets all the RUclips algorithm clicks though.
Best way to protect the hobby is to divide and conquer don't let them have a figure head to corrupt and destroy make a million games drop or cut out the infected ones.
It's DEFINITELY the activism that's killing sales..the worst book sales was Radiant Citadel haha
I think a lot of it might also have been the timing. Didn't that book come out last year, AFTER they royally screwed the pooch and had announced a "new but not new" edition?
@@bossbullyboy195 how was radiant citadel an activist book.
I'm not a role player. I'm more wargamer. But the similarities are there between the two hobbies. That said, both have a very punk rock DIY mentality. I see it in both groups by the number of kickstarters and rules sets that come across my feed. We don't need WotC any more telling us what to buy or how to have fun. They can try and guilt us into their product or we can take a chance on a different a game Good luck to you all.
you won't have to buy 6e to find out the rules, since every dungeontuber and their mother will go over every inch and page in fine detail...
Nobody has to buy it. The latest thing is most often not the greatest thing. I got off the consumer gerbil-wheel.
But that mean I have to REMEMBER the D&Dtubers! I have told RUclips to NOT show me their channels because I just don't care about D&D anymore! Their lackluster product made me NOT want to run it because I didn't feel motivated by it and then what they did early last year made me say "to hell with D&D and WotC/Hasbro" altogether!
The art depicting D&D not as a medieval-inspired fantasy heroic adventure to modern-inspired superhero fantasy Tumblr sealed my decision not to buy the new books. I can Frankenstein what I need from existing materials and my own rules. I don't need their VTT, I don't need B&D Beyond, and I don't need to give them money for that art.
If you really are an OG D&D fan then you know and embrace Gary's perspective on the rules. His greatest fear as a publisher was that players would figure out that they don't need to buy any books to play D&D. My son plays D&D in college using various books but also played as a boy scout with no books, no paper, and no dice in a tent while camping in the middle of nowhere.
OTOH, if you're a modern consumer of limited imagination voluntarily subjecting yourself to transparently abusive marketing practices, then you're freaking out over everything WOTC does.
D&D is bigger than WOTC. The ONLY thing that WOTC owns related to D&D is the logo. There are better iterations of the game mechanics available from third parties (eg Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game or ShadowDark). There is literally NO need to buy ANYTHING from WOTC to play D&D.
Stop obsessing over a logo and go play.
Truth is new RPGs are still coming out. We will all miss D&D but new games will replace it eventually.
Who's missing D&D? My friends and I have all of the Holmes Basic, AD&D (1E), even 2E rulebooks, manuals, etc. We haven't needed to give any money to the Evil Red Wizards of the Coast, and we won't. And, we will keep playing OUR game. Those people have no power over us, and never will.
I haven't missed D&D a bit! I LOVE Pathfinder 2e and if I ever get that itch for some nostalgic AD&D I can find an OSR game to play, Basic Fantasy RPG is a GREAT one! It's FREE if you're ok with PDFs and not much more than cost(and shipping) if you want physical books!
I`m 40, I wasn`t around at the begginings, and yet I must have seen the "i wont buy D&D no more" hipocresy a dozen times. Hope this time it means something considering we are at the golden era of Indie development. Heck we even got Tunnels & Trolls and The Fantasy Trip around.... too bad the average Hasbro client lacks self respect.
@@Luchiop i think the ogl crisis was the real turning point. Explosion of sales among Castles and Crusades, Kobold Press, Shadowdark, and other 3rd party companies was incredible. Those sales also represent the more hard core long term gamers as opposed to tourists. I think it will be a couple years before we see if the impact was substantial.
WotC set themselves up with a very poor lead-in to these new rulebooks, they haven't made a decent selling book for two years, let alone a hit. What's emotionally forcing the hand of the 5e audience to throw around a hundred bucks to get this? What's got them pumped up so that they're excited about it?
Funny how someone can make such a blatantly racist statement and still keep his job for this length of time.
It's so frustrating
A good DM is able to riff off their player’s unpredictability in the same way a great jazz soloist can improvise with the rest of their ensemble. Everything I see from AI’s capacity to do so is that it’s just a canard, and they’re just nowhere near being able to create a simulacrum of a decent DM.
Can you link that mini painting RUclips channel?
@@RIVERSRPGChannel we are going to begin posting those videos here very soon!
I've moved into Kobold Press's Tales of the Valiant. It's sad to move away from D&D but even tho in name I'm moving away from it, in spirit I'm still playing the same game I played so many years ago as a kid.
What are your thoughts about it?
@TheTerrainWizard i like it. I haven't played with it yet. I've read thru the books to get familiar with them before starting a game. Clases feel well balanced, luck system (inspiration system) makes sense and is improved. I think it's a great way to improve and modify 5e without making it completely different. I think anyone that is use to 5e will like it and feel comfortable switching to it.
ACKS.....it's not for everyone.
With the resurgence of board games in the last 10 years, covid, stranger things and so on. I think the "nerd is now cool" is plateauing and sales across the board will be dropping soon. The cycle is ending. I hope not.
I was reading profit numbers and the WoTC said it would drop in 2024 and 2025. What boosted it in 2023 was Balders Gate 3 and such items but not book sales.
I'll agree there are _some_ few things that could stand "culturally updating" but there is no major problem with anything in AD&D 1st ed, it's good stuff, always has been. Some "stuff" around increasing inclusivity by representing a wider diversity of people in the art and stories is... IN THEORY... fine, a laudable goal. However... as to how this high-level policy goal was actually implemented... have you ever heard of the term Malicious Compliance? That's what the Brink era has been doing, and a fish rots from the head. I think Kyle got so used to spewing "diversity bafflegab" - in this interview he just got carried away and a little inner-truth came out. He clearly doesn't have any genuine interest in understanding the high-level goal and finding a way to wisely and carefully implement it, he may well even secretly hate such goals... malicious compliance... and who in modern corporate america is going to look over stuff the bosses already like and say, "ya know, this is awful, hamfisted, shoving-it-down-their-throats, stereotypical... pablum. people will see right through this and reject it, no one wants to be meta-lectured to." so he's just always made the easy, safe, minimal effort choices, and turned out a lot of mid-to-low tier "content"... there's probably some good bones in 5E, but it's been decorated pretty badly. At the same time, hasbro and "corporate" wotc have been pushing for absurd monetization efforts. I for one have zero interest in $80 a book fetish objects. The new leader there is coming in too late late to change much and might not have much better ideas. I think the "core" is fixable, but I don't really like the whole tone of the books, heck even 2nd edition the writing got too soulless. Everyone should read the whole 1st ed DMG, and like it too! it's good for you :-) I just don't think the way the new books are written are going to inspire people to learn and think and create anywhere near as much, and that's as much a part of the game as anything.
I learned and applied several different subjects in D&D. I learned algebra only after applying different formulas to spells' area of effects in confined spaces. Then, later in college, several of us would stay up late theorizing of the four different ways the Invisibility spell could work. I also applied geography lessons to my homebrew campaign to ensure my mastery of the material. Those were the days.
I have every D&D book from Basic D&D through 5E so far and I can tell you I will not buy these new books under any circumstances, I will have no part of these woke garbage books that have already destroyed D&D as the game I loved. I have already moved on to Palladium Fantasy as my Fantasy game of choice and my players are happy with the change as Palladium Fantasy has a huge world already fully detailed with numerous books and there are two different versions of the game, one that plays more like old AD&D and one that plays like the more modern Palladium games like Rifts and Heroes Unlimited. I am sad to see D&D go but I am more than happy to let it die in its current iteration. Good riddance to woke garbage.
I passed on owning a copy of 4e, even though I ran the system for two years. Personally it's pretty clear that Hasbro is pushing WoTc to do away with pen and paper.
Why do you culturally appropriate black slang words like “woke” for a GOP political agenda? 🤷🏻♂️
Woke means to be aware of danger nearby. It has nothing to do with your political agenda or white peoples with pink hair.
@@douglasrood2650 what is woke about D&D and can you define woke
@@peterriverajr6899 Are you actually being serious or do you want me to explain what woke is and the many instances of it in the new version of D&D? I will be more than happy to if you wish.
@@douglasrood2650 I actually know what woke means, thank you but yes I'm being serious
I challenge someone to create a ttrpg system extremely similar to 'The System that shall not be named", but NOT so close as to be legally actionable, and name it, "Definitely NOT Dungeons and Dragons" (or simply, DND&D).... MUWAHAHAHA...!
We have OSE for kids & OSRIC for adults. Good stuff. Check it out.
There is one. DC 20
@@bodypiercingbytom the truth is, the Supreme Court has already ruled that you can't copyright the rules of a game. Only the lore. So the mechanics of 5e are fair game but wizards has deep pockets and will bankrupt someone trying to play in their yard.
While he may have fulfilled his wish of removing 'old white guys' from the hobby, leading by example, it's sadly just going to be more of the same. They fired all of the good writers, the ones who were fans first and writers second, leaving only writers who have little interest in the game itself and more in how they can preach at others through the game. Wizard's D&D was it's best in 3rd/3.5. 5th had merit at the start but Tasha's onward it was clear where it was going... and it was nowhere good.
Why would he say that and what does his skin color have to do with anything.
That's precisely why everyone is upset.
@@thepickleddragon8590 but why did he say that. Is some kind of fake woke outrage because the art in the new book features characters who aren't white or what.
@@peterriverajr6899 I think he was just trying to score virtue points and it blew up in his face.
@@thepickleddragon8590 I don't get whether he was upset because he thinks D&D is becoming "woke" or because it isn't