From this Legends and Lore column:

Quote from: Mike MearlsAnd Now for Some Exciting News

It's funny to look back and realize that I've written this column once a week for over eight months. Alas, as with all things, it's time for my involvement with this column to end. However, that does not mean that Legends & Lore is going away. We've been very happy with the response to the series, the interest it has created, and the feedback we've received.

Starting next week, I'm turning this column over to acclaimed game designer Monte Cook. Monte should be familiar to D&D fans for his work on the Planescape campaign setting, Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, Arcana Unearthed, the mammoth Ptolus city sourcebook, and, of course, Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition.

I've spent the past several months talking about D&D's past and how that relates to its future. It's now time to focus much more on the future of the game. Monte has an unmatched design pedigree in the RPG field, and for that reason we've brought him on board to work with R&D in making D&D the greatest RPG the world has seen. Over the next few weeks, Monte will use this column to share his thoughts about the game. As we look to chart D&D's future course, this column will continue to be a place where we share our ideas and listen to yours, and we hope you'll keep reading, discussing the contents, and sharing your feedback and thoughts with us and the larger D&D community. That's what makes Legends & Lore a conversation that we can all participate in.

Predicting frowny faces for RPG.net's d20 forum based on this news.

Lord Hobie

If Monte is on board for 5E, then there is hope.

I'm sure that heads will 'splode over this news.

Quote from: Lord Hobie;480435Predicting frowny faces for RPG.net's d20 forum based on this news.

That would be an easy prediction, since RPGNet's d20 forum and Something Awful's TGD crowd are already melting down over this. :teehee:

Wonder what marketing strategy Hasbro's CEO has in mind now.  Oh wait, no I don't.

Mearls has been a fucking bungler in that column from day one.  He can't get facts about old D&D right; why should anyone bother to listen?

I don't care either way about Monte Cook or his opinion on anything unless his first announcement is to go back to formula and start over, which they won't since that'd be admitting they were wrong and Wizards is incapable of doing that.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;480448I don't care either way about Monte Cook or his opinion on anything unless his first announcement is to go back to formula and start over, which they won't since that'd be admitting they were wrong and Wizards is incapable of doing that.

I don't know. I feel like they have been dropping lots of hints that 4E didn't go the way they had hoped. Really, unless they are totally obvlivious (which I doubt since money is on the line here) I don't believe the implied meaning of hiring Monte Cook escapes them. To me this is a good indication that they are at least going to do some major backtracking. I could be wrong. But at least now they have my attention, whereas before I intended to ignore the release of 5E.

I loved his Facebook announcement. The snark was fucking awesome!

Quote from: Ian Warner;480451I loved his Facebook announcement. The snark was fucking awesome!

Share a quote....

Quote from: Melan;480443That would be an easy prediction, since RPGNet's d20 forum and Something Awful's TGD crowd are already melting down over this. :teehee:

SA's forums are great for meltdowns.  Their political discussions that involve Community College Communists rockin' the pure truth with Rage Against the MomNDad are always good for many many laughs.

It'd almost be worth $10 to keep track of the various Scanners-like explosive aneurisms this must be inducing.

Quote from: jeff37923;480457Share a quote....

Here ya go:

QuoteYes, I am working for Wizards of the Coast again. It's no big deal. They had some wastebaskets that needed emptying, floors that needed sweeping... that kind of thing. We're still haggling over some things in the contract, though. I don't do windows.

Well, this consolidates not only that they *are* actively working on 5E (a dubious claim to some) but also answers one of my nagging concerns over the past months... that IF they are working on 5E, who's at all competent enough to do it? Certainly none of the remaining staffers. Who also lack street cred.

But the wording of the announcement leaves me a tad wary:

"we've brought him on board to work with R&D in making D&D the greatest RPG the world has seen."

Well, him being brought "on board" as opposed to getting hired as a full time staff member should be taken with an enormous grain of salt.

Smacks of freelance contract, and of an underpaid one in light of that Facebook tweet just shared.

You know what's instructive? Historical precedence, that is.

I remember when it was announced that Cook would work on the Pathfinder RPG. People were dancing, celebrating ultimate victory over 4E, and so on on paizo.com

And what did they get? A preface to the core rulebook with next to no evidence that Monte did actual design work for them. He simply provided 'consultation'.

I said it back then, I'll say it now. To all appearances, this is primarily a marketing stunt, and little else besides. It'll be virtually identical to what Monte did for Necromancer Games when Tome of Horrors II came out: he wrote the preface to a book he had ostensibly not read, let alone contributed to.

The end.

Quote from: Windjammer;480466Smacks of freelance contract, and of an underpaid one in light of that Facebook tweet just shared.
.

(It makes firing him on Christmas Eve a lot easier this way, don't you think?)

... and oh, remember Zach Houston's "Not so fearless predictions for 2009"?

QuoteDecember 1[, 2009]: Wizards of the Coast continues its cheery tradition of holiday layoffs by firing everyone but Mike Mearls and Enis the janitor. Mearls and Enis immediately begin work on Player's Handbook 4. After its completion, Enis gets the word to give Mearls the axe.

Sept 17, 2011. WotC apparently needs "baskets emptying" and "windows cleaned", and has "floors that need cleaning". Will Monte take the job? Only time will tell.