Save Vs. Wizards Of The Coast

The tighter WOTC close their fists around a system that is perfect, the more players will slip through their fingers. I hope everyone is paying attention because all that’s happening is we’re getting away from the basic game system and back into something resembling 1st edition from the late 70's: Charts, tables and answers to every question we could possibly have during game play. We can stop the game cold, cause no one can know all the rules, and ruin flow to look up something on a chart somewhere. Sooner or later we won't have to think of anything and we can role on a table to figure out how drunk our characters are, oh wait we did that in 1st edition. Just role-play how drunk you are, it’s more fun and the bottom line is we are supposed to have fun. It's all there to help those who need crutches feel more mobile.

Every system has its’ faults, hell first edition D&D was the worst system ever, now I am talking about the BASIC system, the one with the red book. I am so far removed from this system I can barely remember, but I think in order to be a mage you had to be an elf at the same time. Now that system was a pile of garbage.

For experienced role players such as our entire group, we only need a skeletal system to help us tell our story. We don't need all the bells and whistles telling us how to fix the problems in 2nd edition. We already know those fixes and have been playing with them for 10 years or more. We don't need a new set of books coming along to fuck with what we have created amongst ourselves. It's a volatile debate to say the least. I know I have a strong opinion on the whole matter. As you might very well tell.

I don't want to have to relearn a system I have been playing for nearly half my life, just cause someone else, namely WOTC thinks THACO from 2nd edition doesn't work right. Well mister Wizard boy, it works just fine for me, and until someone came forward and thought we could make some more money off these guys by making a new edition, everyone else thought so too. I never heard anyone say, "wouldn't this be nice if we reversed THACO and changed things up?" I have played in hundreds of games over the years and not once did I hear that complaint. When I did hear a complaint we "fixed" it ourselves and moved on. This whole pile of garbage trying to get everyone to buy new books and move away from something that has been working for over15 years is just a ploy to get more money out of our pockets. I’m not going to let them tell me when something I’m playing is broken. I think it's working just fine for all of us.

I wouldn't buy those books if I had Bill Gates money and spare time like Ghandi. I HATE wizards of the coast lately, they’re like the Nazis except with role-playing games. If you're not a d20 system (Blond hair blue eyes) then you’re singled out and not like them so you’re outdated. Imagine what WOTC is going to do once they get a hold of the Marvel universe, you know it's coming, they’re going to dismantle our precious green, yellow and red chart and put in some THACO and d20 crap to make it more mind-numbingly taxing to play.
I like the diversity that different systems can bring to role-playing. A lot of them work better for their genres and styles. Star Wars was MUCH better as the old d6 system. I learned the new system and honestly it was better at points, but the old one was much smoother and more liberating to the player and the GM. I was able to tell the story without having to remember a huge pile of complex, albeit, very neat rules. K.I.S.S.

Wizards of the coast should have stuck with Magic: The Gathering, their ruining the landscape of gaming today. Didn’t they make enough money on that card game system that was like crack to me? WOTC have some really nice looking books though, but honestly do we really care how nice a book looks when it's just going to get Cheetos and Mountain Dew on the pages? I know for one thing I don't want to spend $40 on a book that I feel I have to carry around like it's the dead-sea scrolls. I have my 2nd edition book and it's been through friends splattering ink all over it and my constant tossing it around for many years. It might look like crap and the binding barely holds it together, but it's like an old pair of shoes, it fits and it’s comfortable. A lot of my friends have their old Marvel set bound together with duct tape and love. Will they throw that out when the d20 version hits the rack early in 2009? Not a chance in hell. I know a friend of mine who might be buried with that player’s guide. I’ll keep playing the old percentile system and I think it's going to get harder to force people to learn a new system each time we play a game.

Enough said on my part, I think I have proven to everyone I am a total crazy fucker with a head full of loose wires. I won't be giving WOTC any of my money unless I see something worth it, then I'll buy it used from some kid on Ebay who bought the newer version and is trying desperately to give WOTC more of his hard earned money. WOTC and d20 can suck my white ass...

When are they going to change Shadowrun, Chthulu and White Wolf to d20 systems? When that day comes we can all bow our heads in silence of a youth full of gaming swept into the past. WOTC looses all their Karma on this session.


Michael