Quote from: VisionStorm on August 12, 2023, 06:10:53 AMAlso, NO edition of D&D has particularly supported "role-playing". That has always been up to the play group, which is technically true of every TTRPG. Except that D&D has always bound you to class like a straitjacket with limited customizability, which limits the range of expression that characters have available in terms of what they can accomplish in life in ways that are unrealistic and restrict the range of roles you can potentially play.

Exactly.

This strange idea that some people have, that being able to have bespoke characters somehow limits roleplaying, is beyond bizarre. When my character can mechanically do all the things I conceptually see him being good at, it encourages roleplaying.

Maybe its down to differences in creativity? I've known many players that REALLY struggle to create characters from whole cloth, and build the character mentally as the stats and skills are rolled up. But that's ass-backwards for me personally, as I usually have an army of unborn characters lurking in my skull.

6e going woketard, AI and digital is only a boon for the RPG hobby.

Unfortunately, Kickstarter's wokeness means woketardia will continue to be financially rewarded for smaller companies who keep sucking the tranny dick. Gamefound has been growing, but I rarely see any RPG stuff there and I wonder if that platform will go woketard too.

Same reason we need to support Big Geek Emporium over DriveThru.

Quote from: Grognard GM on August 12, 2023, 10:44:17 AM
This strange idea that some people have, that being able to have bespoke characters somehow limits roleplaying, is beyond bizarre. When my character can mechanically do all the things I conceptually see him being good at, it encourages roleplaying.

Maybe its down to differences in creativity? I've known many players that REALLY struggle to create characters from whole cloth, and build the character mentally as the stats and skills are rolled up. But that's ass-backwards for me personally, as I usually have an army of unborn characters lurking in my skull.

It's difficult to "create" anything from a blank sheet of paper. Decision paralysis sets in. When you can make anything, most people end up making nothing. This is why class-based systems are as popular as they are. There are fewer decisions to make, and so the brain is more comfortable.

Hell, the initial idea seeds don't even have to be used. Put a pregenerated wizard in front of someone and watch them make a whole character based around, "No, I don't want to be a wizard." The player had no idea what they wanted to play, and suddenly they've decided they want a bigass sword and the rest of the character comes tumbling out.

Quote from: Corolinth on August 12, 2023, 08:44:38 PM

Quote from: Grognard GM on August 12, 2023, 10:44:17 AM
This strange idea that some people have, that being able to have bespoke characters somehow limits roleplaying, is beyond bizarre. When my character can mechanically do all the things I conceptually see him being good at, it encourages roleplaying.

Maybe its down to differences in creativity? I've known many players that REALLY struggle to create characters from whole cloth, and build the character mentally as the stats and skills are rolled up. But that's ass-backwards for me personally, as I usually have an army of unborn characters lurking in my skull.

It's difficult to "create" anything from a blank sheet of paper. Decision paralysis sets in. When you can make anything, most people end up making nothing. This is why class-based systems are as popular as they are. There are fewer decisions to make, and so the brain is more comfortable.

Hell, the initial idea seeds don't even have to be used. Put a pregenerated wizard in front of someone and watch them make a whole character based around, "No, I don't want to be a wizard." The player had no idea what they wanted to play, and suddenly they've decided they want a bigass sword and the rest of the character comes tumbling out.

Which is why I'm cool with statements like "I prefer random char gen, because my players have difficulty creating characters from nothing," or "I don't personally like DM'ing when there are too many player options." Both perfectly fine stances.

What is nonsense, however, are the people that insist player choice, and char gen control, somehow hurts roleplaying. Strong disagree, to the extent of having the mirror opposite view.

There are a lot of potential issues with giving a bunch of points or options to players and making them build a character from scratch unaided, but getting in the way of roleplaying ain't one of them. And limiting player options doesn't emphasize roleplaying either.

Earlier editions of D&D didn't focus more on roleplaying than 3e, just because 3e potentially let you min/max. They just had less options or ways to distinguish Fighter A from Fighter B, other than stat rolls.

WOTC, like many other companies that go woke, are caught between a rock and a hard place. In a free market, sales would be their only concern but we are not living in a free market world anymore. Large investment companies such as JP Morgan and Blackrock have imposed social credit score criteria that must be met else they will sink the company. So the company has no choice but to obey their masters. In order for D&D to ever be good again it must belong to a non-publicly traded private company. Once a company goes public they must bow to their masters. Private companies can tell wokism to pound sand. This is the reality we live in. All large public corporations must bow and become woke. When political agendas become more important than profit this is the result.

Quote from: Exploderwizard on August 13, 2023, 04:50:38 PM
WOTC, like many other companies that go woke, are caught between a rock and a hard place. In a free market, sales would be their only concern but we are not living in a free market world anymore. Large investment companies such as JP Morgan and Blackrock have imposed social credit score criteria that must be met else they will sink the company.

Completely wrong.  Only weak companies that cannot produce revenue without outside funding are in that position.  I consult large and small start up companies.  Here is the REAL data.  If you are a start up that requires capital investment because you don't know how to boot strap you might have to remain silent. But, probably you are too small to get on anyone's woke radar.  The VAST majority of consumers hate the woke crap, see Bud Light, Target, et al and they were too stupid to do basic market research.  THEY have fallen to the free market forces and are going down fast.  It is a free market.  Some have been hoodwinked by the woke media to think otherwise. 

Quote from: Exploderwizard on August 13, 2023, 04:50:38 PM
WOTC, like many other companies that go woke, are caught between a rock and a hard place. In a free market, sales would be their only concern but we are not living in a free market world anymore. Large investment companies such as JP Morgan and Blackrock have imposed social credit score criteria that must be met else they will sink the company. So the company has no choice but to obey their masters. In order for D&D to ever be good again it must belong to a non-publicly traded private company. Once a company goes public they must bow to their masters. Private companies can tell wokism to pound sand. This is the reality we live in. All large public corporations must bow and become woke. When political agendas become more important than profit this is the result.

Even private Twitter/X has had to bow to the woke under Musk, due to the EU and the power that EU mandated censorship has gotten over social media. Granted, that's only an exception, given how far government tentacles have gotten into social media control, even in the US. But other private companies are not as easily affected. We're living in interesting times in every meaning of the expression.

Quote from: Scooter on August 13, 2023, 05:01:34 PM

Quote from: Exploderwizard on August 13, 2023, 04:50:38 PM
WOTC, like many other companies that go woke, are caught between a rock and a hard place. In a free market, sales would be their only concern but we are not living in a free market world anymore. Large investment companies such as JP Morgan and Blackrock have imposed social credit score criteria that must be met else they will sink the company.

Completely wrong.  Only weak companies that cannot produce revenue without outside funding are in that position.  I consult large and small start up companies.  Here is the REAL data.  If you are a start up that requires capital investment because you don't know how to boot strap you might have to remain silent. But, probably you are too small to get on anyone's woke radar.  The VAST majority of consumers hate the woke crap, see Bud Light, Target, et al and they were too stupid to do basic market research.  THEY have fallen to the free market forces and are going down fast.  It is a free market.  Some have been hoodwinked by the woke media to think otherwise.

The problem here is that you're using the logic of sustainable capitalism, the capitalism of Henry Ford. Make a good product, pay the staff enough that they can purchase the product, have a nice long-term revenue stream.

Unfortunately, since the 80's, corporations have only followed unsustainable capitalism. Only short term gains matters, buy out a company that can make 50 mil a year forever, strip and shut it down for 500 mil instant profit. If your earnings don't rise every quarter, then your business is dying, do anything to keep investment flowing, even if you see the cliff in the distance.

Quote from: Scooter on August 13, 2023, 05:01:34 PM

Quote from: Exploderwizard on August 13, 2023, 04:50:38 PM
WOTC, like many other companies that go woke, are caught between a rock and a hard place. In a free market, sales would be their only concern but we are not living in a free market world anymore. Large investment companies such as JP Morgan and Blackrock have imposed social credit score criteria that must be met else they will sink the company.

Completely wrong.  Only weak companies that cannot produce revenue without outside funding are in that position.  I consult large and small start up companies.  Here is the REAL data.  If you are a start up that requires capital investment because you don't know how to boot strap you might have to remain silent. But, probably you are too small to get on anyone's woke radar.  The VAST majority of consumers hate the woke crap, see Bud Light, Target, et al and they were too stupid to do basic market research.  THEY have fallen to the free market forces and are going down fast.  It is a free market.  Some have been hoodwinked by the woke media to think otherwise.

It wasn't the media that caused Bud to do that terrible ad campaign. They had to up their social credit score with the overlords or they would get tanked. So their choice was financial suicide either way. When you are publicly owned you are just plain owned.

Quote from: Exploderwizard on August 13, 2023, 09:51:57 PM

It wasn't the media that caused Bud to do that terrible ad campaign. They had to up their social credit score with the overlords or they would get tanked. S

Wrong again.  There is NOTHING that anyone could do to Bud.  Their market wasn't woke idiots so no damage to their bottom line could happen to them from your mythical  "overlords" because of "social credit score". 

Quote from: Scooter on August 13, 2023, 10:05:22 PM

Quote from: Exploderwizard on August 13, 2023, 09:51:57 PM

It wasn't the media that caused Bud to do that terrible ad campaign. They had to up their social credit score with the overlords or they would get tanked. S

Wrong again.  There is NOTHING that anyone could do to Bud.  Their market wasn't woke idiots so no damage to their bottom line could happen to them from your mythical  "overlords" because of "social credit score".

When ESG scores are bieng used to establish the value of your stock I'm afraid you're wrong, there's a lot that those who hold a significant ammount of stock of your corporation could do to hurt your bottom dollar.

Hiring DIE idiots doesn't help because those idiots will push for the results that blackrock wants to see.

When media and social networks are controlled by woke idiots who censor anyone to the right of Mao it gives you the false impression that most people agree with the woke idiots you hired under pressure else you're labelled an istophobe.

It also doesn't help when those on the top positions of WotKKK are part of the cult.

Blackrok's money serves to disguise the economic hurt for a while, but that money is getting thin, so we're starting to see the world of hurt many of these corporations really are.

Quote from: GeekyBugle on August 13, 2023, 10:22:51 PM


When ESG scores are bieng used to establish the value of your stock I'm afraid you're wrong,

WRONG. They aren't.  Bud was the top brand with huge profits. Its stock price being set by The Market demand for its stock NOT "scores".  You are fucking clueless about business and the stock market.  You don't even have basic IQ.  If those scores caused its stock price then doing woke ads would cause the stock price to rise not CRASH by $58 a share like it has.  See Wizard about brain.

Quote from: Scooter on August 13, 2023, 10:25:58 PM

Quote from: GeekyBugle on August 13, 2023, 10:22:51 PM


When ESG scores are bieng used to establish the value of your stock I'm afraid you're wrong,

WRONG. They aren't.  Bud was the top brand with huge profits. Its stock price being set by The Market demand for its stock NOT "scores".  You are fucking clueless about business and the stock market.  You don't even have basic IQ.  If those scores caused its stock price then doing woke ads would cause the stock price to rise not CRASH by $58 a share like it has.  See Wizard about brain.

Who lacks IQ?

If YOU want to discuss the downfall of Bud, Target, etc create a thread on Pundit's forum.

This forum is for gaming related stuff, RPG to be exact, I'm talking (as it would be clear to ANYONE with two braincells to rub together to form a synapse) about WotKKK, that IS inside the forum's wheelhouse and IS the theme of the thread.

Hasbro (WotKKK's parent company) has been hurting for a while, with WotKKK's sales being most of it's income (you can argue all you want if it's a small corporation or not), IMHO it's been hurting due to embracing wokeism, but that's a different topic (toys), since the parent company IS infected by DIE idiots (what came first? the chicken or the egg is also a different topic) it stands to reason that WotKKK would ALSO get infected.

We all saw the media, social networks, etc (can you claim none of those are doing Blackrock's biding?) pressure and we all saw WotKKK cave in real time, so there's no question as if they did.

Now let's tie it all together:

Hasbro is hurting (It might need money in the form of investment or borrowing from banks [who also look at your ESG score])

It's subsidiary WotKK IS making money

WotKKK is pressured from inside and outside to embrace the woke cult

WotKKK's sales are significantly down, especially of the more woke products

Now, some have argued that we have it backwards, that it's Go Broke Get Woke and not the other way around. Could be, at the end of the day it doesn't mater because the end result is the same, when Blackrock's money well dries out the corporation ends up broke (or it becomes obvious that it was?).

Quote from: Scooter on August 11, 2023, 06:50:36 PM
The actual GAME D&D died with 2nd Edition.  Nothing produced by WotC has been anything but, "in name only".

eh. Much as I am not a fan of 3e at all. This was a rare moment when wotc actually listened to Gygax's advice and surprisingly 5e carries over alot of the wording near verbatim from AD&D and 2e and makes fewer huge changes overall than 4 and 5e to the mechanics. The biggest change being to classes and how they work.

Unfortunately that did not last long because wotc is NEVER satisfied with success and somehow someway they have to fuck it up. And did.