Mike has been working on a stripped down 5e-variant called Odyssey.

I've never discussed politics with Mike. In fact, when we talked, it was *exclusively and enthusiastically* about gaming and design. We talked about themes in our respective games, our tastes, ideas that excited us on the projects we worked on. It's not that I don't like talking politics/philosophy/religion, or whatever, it's just we enjoyed talking game-design and gaming writ-large, there was never room for anything else. I will say that the stuff we agree on would *never* see the light of day in modern WotC. Hell it wouldn't see the light of day at WotC back then. If he suddenly found "Trans-Jesus" it must have been a hell of a fast slide downward when he got to WotC.

Did he go Woke? Dunno. I put nothing past anyone contracting TDS. But I *never* met the ideological Mike Mearls. Sure he made a tweet that is a horrible take. I know *tons* of people that have done that. I've also worked close enough with him to give him a pass and give a nod to Pundit's theory. Take it for whatever you want. I don't give money to Chaosium, and I don't do 5e. So... ideology aside, the point is moot.

Glad to hear that I was apparently mistaken for the most part.  Thanks to all those who responded!

Quote from: tenbones on February 20, 2025, 01:54:32 PMMike has been working on a stripped down 5e-variant called Odyssey.

He is also working on a retarded version of RuneQuest.

Quote from: Gagarth on February 20, 2025, 05:14:40 PMHe is also working on a retarded version of RuneQuest.

It is a bit of a headscratcher, like with Cubicle 7 making a 'simpler' version of WFRP called The Old World while WFRP4 is still in production. Someone more clever than I can explain why do this. Doesn't it make more since to let one edition work itself out and put years into the next idea to make it as good as you can?

Quote from: bat on February 20, 2025, 06:01:43 PMIt is a bit of a headscratcher, like with Cubicle 7 making a 'simpler' version of WFRP called The Old World while WFRP4 is still in production. Someone more clever than I can explain why do this. Doesn't it make more since to let one edition work itself out and put years into the next idea to make it as good as you can?

My guess is the are trying to get people into Warhammer Fantasy Battles. WFRP4 covers those that like crunch and the new one will suck in folks that like rules light.

As far as RuneQuest goes it seems they want to have more editions than any other game.

Quote from: Valatar on February 18, 2025, 12:18:40 AMI've heard before that Youtube essentially punishes you for having a video that isn't viewed for at least 10 minutes, thus the reason professional creators always have videos longer than that.  So it's detrimental for Pundit's bottom line if someone could jump right to the relevant sentence and immediately close the window.  Pretty positive that's why he never writes a summary nor timestamps the video.

I do write a brief description. But the reason why I don't do timestamps is far more simple: I have no idea how to do those kinds of things. I'm terrible at all this kind of thing. It's a miracle I learned how to record a video at all.

Quote from: M2A0 on February 18, 2025, 05:05:17 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on February 17, 2025, 06:00:03 PM

Quote from: Horace on February 17, 2025, 04:58:49 PM

Quote from: RNGm on February 17, 2025, 01:43:07 PMApologies for the thread necro but it seemed like the lesser of two evils compared with starting a full thread for a simple question.  Mike Mearls interviews have been making the rounds as of late on the interwebs and I can't remember what comments he made in the past if any that were controversial to just plain stupid.  I've done a web search and found that he didn't cancel a playtester named Zach hard/fast enough for the woke mob's liking but I wasn't even aware of that at the time so that's not it.  He's not the "white men like me can't leave the hobby fast enough" dipshit because that was Kyle Brink more recently.  Did he make any stupid woke virtue signal statements to try and save his own skin in the aftermath of whatever the Zach incident was?  Or am I misremembering things entirely?

You're not misremembering. The following tweet from Mearls caused a lot of controversy at the time (Jan 21, 2018):

"Funny how many of the same "fans" who insist on gatekeeping via rules complexity and lore density also have a problem with women in tabletop gaming.

Hey guys! You're all fired from D&D. Find another game."
https://x.com/mikemearls/status/955153201434525696

Mearls disappeared from social media for a while soon after this, causing some people to speculate that his bosses at WotC weren't too happy with him.

I'm pretty sure his bosses at WotC were the ones demanding that he make statements against ordinary gamers.

Almost certain. I worked with Mearls for 8 years. He's a great guy, and the only reason that 5E was as good as it was.

I'm looking forward to Odyssey. I have no intention of running a fantasy RPG again until it releases.

I had sometimes played with the idea of making what my own ideal simplified version of 5e would be like. I wonder how similar ours will be (definitely won't be quite the same, because there were definitely design bits we disagreed on).

Quote from: RPGPundit on February 21, 2025, 05:51:56 AM

Quote from: M2A0 on February 18, 2025, 05:05:17 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on February 17, 2025, 06:00:03 PM

Quote from: Horace on February 17, 2025, 04:58:49 PM

Quote from: RNGm on February 17, 2025, 01:43:07 PMApologies for the thread necro but it seemed like the lesser of two evils compared with starting a full thread for a simple question.  Mike Mearls interviews have been making the rounds as of late on the interwebs and I can't remember what comments he made in the past if any that were controversial to just plain stupid.  I've done a web search and found that he didn't cancel a playtester named Zach hard/fast enough for the woke mob's liking but I wasn't even aware of that at the time so that's not it.  He's not the "white men like me can't leave the hobby fast enough" dipshit because that was Kyle Brink more recently.  Did he make any stupid woke virtue signal statements to try and save his own skin in the aftermath of whatever the Zach incident was?  Or am I misremembering things entirely?

You're not misremembering. The following tweet from Mearls caused a lot of controversy at the time (Jan 21, 2018):

"Funny how many of the same "fans" who insist on gatekeeping via rules complexity and lore density also have a problem with women in tabletop gaming.

Hey guys! You're all fired from D&D. Find another game."
https://x.com/mikemearls/status/955153201434525696

Mearls disappeared from social media for a while soon after this, causing some people to speculate that his bosses at WotC weren't too happy with him.

I'm pretty sure his bosses at WotC were the ones demanding that he make statements against ordinary gamers.

Almost certain. I worked with Mearls for 8 years. He's a great guy, and the only reason that 5E was as good as it was.

I'm looking forward to Odyssey. I have no intention of running a fantasy RPG again until it releases.

I had sometimes played with the idea of making what my own ideal simplified version of 5e would be like. I wonder how similar ours will be (definitely won't be quite the same, because there were definitely design bits we disagreed on).

Mearls will tell you that 5E design started in 2012, but it actually started in the summer of 2011. The very first iteration was basically AD&D with ascending AC and a few nods to 3E & 4E. I'm sure the final product that you would have made would be very different, but you'd probably start at almost the exact same place.
 

Quote from: Cathode Ray on February 19, 2025, 08:40:33 AMHow many Mearlses are there?  Xaxus says they are.  Are they brothers?

There is one local so they must be multiplying.

Quote from: Ruprecht on February 20, 2025, 06:11:29 PM

Quote from: bat on February 20, 2025, 06:01:43 PMIt is a bit of a headscratcher, like with Cubicle 7 making a 'simpler' version of WFRP called The Old World while WFRP4 is still in production. Someone more clever than I can explain why do this. Doesn't it make more since to let one edition work itself out and put years into the next idea to make it as good as you can?

My guess is the are trying to get people into Warhammer Fantasy Battles. WFRP4 covers those that like crunch and the new one will suck in folks that like rules light.

As far as RuneQuest goes it seems they want to have more editions than any other game.

I guess, because now Hero Wars/HeroQuest is QuestWorlds, to compete with BRP in the generic category. Chaosium are definitely busy little bees too.

I'd love to see a "Pundit's Rules" for 5e!

Quote from: M2A0 on February 21, 2025, 04:22:52 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on February 21, 2025, 05:51:56 AM

Quote from: M2A0 on February 18, 2025, 05:05:17 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on February 17, 2025, 06:00:03 PM

Quote from: Horace on February 17, 2025, 04:58:49 PM

Quote from: RNGm on February 17, 2025, 01:43:07 PMApologies for the thread necro but it seemed like the lesser of two evils compared with starting a full thread for a simple question.  Mike Mearls interviews have been making the rounds as of late on the interwebs and I can't remember what comments he made in the past if any that were controversial to just plain stupid.  I've done a web search and found that he didn't cancel a playtester named Zach hard/fast enough for the woke mob's liking but I wasn't even aware of that at the time so that's not it.  He's not the "white men like me can't leave the hobby fast enough" dipshit because that was Kyle Brink more recently.  Did he make any stupid woke virtue signal statements to try and save his own skin in the aftermath of whatever the Zach incident was?  Or am I misremembering things entirely?

You're not misremembering. The following tweet from Mearls caused a lot of controversy at the time (Jan 21, 2018):

"Funny how many of the same "fans" who insist on gatekeeping via rules complexity and lore density also have a problem with women in tabletop gaming.

Hey guys! You're all fired from D&D. Find another game."
https://x.com/mikemearls/status/955153201434525696

Mearls disappeared from social media for a while soon after this, causing some people to speculate that his bosses at WotC weren't too happy with him.

I'm pretty sure his bosses at WotC were the ones demanding that he make statements against ordinary gamers.

Almost certain. I worked with Mearls for 8 years. He's a great guy, and the only reason that 5E was as good as it was.

I'm looking forward to Odyssey. I have no intention of running a fantasy RPG again until it releases.

I had sometimes played with the idea of making what my own ideal simplified version of 5e would be like. I wonder how similar ours will be (definitely won't be quite the same, because there were definitely design bits we disagreed on).

Mearls will tell you that 5E design started in 2012, but it actually started in the summer of 2011. The very first iteration was basically AD&D with ascending AC and a few nods to 3E & 4E. I'm sure the final product that you would have made would be very different, but you'd probably start at almost the exact same place.
 

That sounds extremely unlikely.

Quote from: M2A0 on February 21, 2025, 04:22:52 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on February 21, 2025, 05:51:56 AM

Quote from: M2A0 on February 18, 2025, 05:05:17 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on February 17, 2025, 06:00:03 PM

Quote from: Horace on February 17, 2025, 04:58:49 PM

Quote from: RNGm on February 17, 2025, 01:43:07 PMApologies for the thread necro but it seemed like the lesser of two evils compared with starting a full thread for a simple question.  Mike Mearls interviews have been making the rounds as of late on the interwebs and I can't remember what comments he made in the past if any that were controversial to just plain stupid.  I've done a web search and found that he didn't cancel a playtester named Zach hard/fast enough for the woke mob's liking but I wasn't even aware of that at the time so that's not it.  He's not the "white men like me can't leave the hobby fast enough" dipshit because that was Kyle Brink more recently.  Did he make any stupid woke virtue signal statements to try and save his own skin in the aftermath of whatever the Zach incident was?  Or am I misremembering things entirely?

You're not misremembering. The following tweet from Mearls caused a lot of controversy at the time (Jan 21, 2018):

"Funny how many of the same "fans" who insist on gatekeeping via rules complexity and lore density also have a problem with women in tabletop gaming.

Hey guys! You're all fired from D&D. Find another game."
https://x.com/mikemearls/status/955153201434525696

Mearls disappeared from social media for a while soon after this, causing some people to speculate that his bosses at WotC weren't too happy with him.

I'm pretty sure his bosses at WotC were the ones demanding that he make statements against ordinary gamers.

Almost certain. I worked with Mearls for 8 years. He's a great guy, and the only reason that 5E was as good as it was.

I'm looking forward to Odyssey. I have no intention of running a fantasy RPG again until it releases.

I had sometimes played with the idea of making what my own ideal simplified version of 5e would be like. I wonder how similar ours will be (definitely won't be quite the same, because there were definitely design bits we disagreed on).

Mearls will tell you that 5E design started in 2012, but it actually started in the summer of 2011. The very first iteration was basically AD&D with ascending AC and a few nods to 3E & 4E. I'm sure the final product that you would have made would be very different, but you'd probably start at almost the exact same place.
 

That sounds extremely unlikely.

Quote from: Spobo on February 23, 2025, 08:59:47 AMThat sounds extremely unlikely.

  M2A0 was working at WotC at the time, so I'm inclined to take his word for it.

  Related question: Did the design attempts and cancellation of the standalone Ravenloft game have anything to do with the move to 5E? I've had a suspicion that one of the many reasons for moving to 5E (outside of the commercial reasons) was that they realized the limits of 4E's design when trying to adapt it to Ravenloft.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on February 23, 2025, 09:50:51 AM

Quote from: Spobo on February 23, 2025, 08:59:47 AMThat sounds extremely unlikely.

  M2A0 was working at WotC at the time, so I'm inclined to take his word for it.

  Related question: Did the design attempts and cancellation of the standalone Ravenloft game have anything to do with the move to 5E? I've had a suspicion that one of the many reasons for moving to 5E (outside of the commercial reasons) was that they realized the limits of 4E's design when trying to adapt it to Ravenloft.

4E ended because the sales were the 2nd worst in the entire history of the brand (only the 1983 crash was worse).

It was dead in the water by late 2009/early 2010. Essentials was an attempt to save it, but production gap was too long to make any difference.

The TTRPG was almost shelved to just be an IP. 5E was a hail mary to save the physical game.