Quote from: Pat on May 17, 2021, 07:31:43 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on May 17, 2021, 05:50:02 PM

Pat, I already gave a warning to two posters here for political posts. 

I NOW GIVE YOU AND EVERYONE A WARNING. FROM HERE ON, ANY OFF TOPIC POLITICAL POST ON THIS THREAD WILL BE MET WITH A PERMANENT BAN.

That's fine, it's your forum. And I wouldn't have posted it if I saw your post before I hit submit. But I didn't bother to delete it, because I thought the political prohibition was about contemporary/culture war stuff. That's what your sticky thread seems to imply, with all the talk about political/cultural conflicts and the list of examples. There was none of that in my post. So it might be worth clarifying a bit.

Off-topic posting in any thread, political or not, is not allowed. So talking about history could of course be allowed in a thread that was about a game or setting in a certain historical period (like talking about the War of the Roses in a thread about Dark Albion), but talking about history trivia, or baseball, or fast food restaurants, or any other topic in a gaming thread unrelated to that topic is not allowed.

Quote from: RPGPundit on May 18, 2021, 12:34:17 AM

Quote from: Pat on May 17, 2021, 07:31:43 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on May 17, 2021, 05:50:02 PM

Pat, I already gave a warning to two posters here for political posts. 

I NOW GIVE YOU AND EVERYONE A WARNING. FROM HERE ON, ANY OFF TOPIC POLITICAL POST ON THIS THREAD WILL BE MET WITH A PERMANENT BAN.

That's fine, it's your forum. And I wouldn't have posted it if I saw your post before I hit submit. But I didn't bother to delete it, because I thought the political prohibition was about contemporary/culture war stuff. That's what your sticky thread seems to imply, with all the talk about political/cultural conflicts and the list of examples. There was none of that in my post. So it might be worth clarifying a bit.

Off-topic posting in any thread, political or not, is not allowed. So talking about history could of course be allowed in a thread that was about a game or setting in a certain historical period (like talking about the War of the Roses in a thread about Dark Albion), but talking about history trivia, or baseball, or fast food restaurants, or any other topic in a gaming thread unrelated to that topic is not allowed.

Then you might want to update the 2 sticky threads and the sticky notice. They only talk about politics and culture wars, not anything off topic.

Wow, this new Ravenloft sounds really dumb.  Almost everything I'm hearing about 5e- the setting anyway- sounds terrible.  I played it for a minute, the rules seemed okay enough.  Nothing special. 

I always used to like this setting, but it seems to have been twisted into something unrecognizable.

Most pre-ordered D&D book ever. Currently the #4 Best Seller in the nation. Not for RPG books...for ALL books.

Quote from: Mistwell on May 19, 2021, 08:13:31 PM
Most pre-ordered D&D book ever. Currently the #4 Best Seller in the nation. Not for RPG books...for ALL books.

Based on actual sales to customers, or based on sales to distributors/stores?

Didn't NuRavenloft change the vistani so that their arrival was celebrated by giorgio communities? Even if the vistani were changed so that they were good guys or whatever, why would would that suddenly make superstitious medieval peasants less racist towards them? It feels rather, idk, offensive to whitewash the racism historically experienced by romani communities, even in a fantasy context. A key part of the reason why romani were nomadic in the first place was because they were persecuted. (I know the vistani were cursed, but that's not an improvement or a decent excuse.)

Quote from: Ghostmaker on May 19, 2021, 08:26:49 PM

Quote from: Mistwell on May 19, 2021, 08:13:31 PM
Most pre-ordered D&D book ever. Currently the #4 Best Seller in the nation. Not for RPG books...for ALL books.

Based on actual sales to customers, or based on sales to distributors/stores?

Outrage marketing at its best.

They got people to complain and that attracts others in swarms to buy the book to see if its as bad as they claim. And quite often, SUCKER!!!!! its not as bad because they deliberately hyped things that werent all that prominent just to get free advertising. AND it makes anyone complaining look like perfect examples of "toxic" intolerant fans. Win Win Win for WOkeTC

Scalpers are also probably again buying it in droves looking to make a profit which is over-inflating  the numbers. I knew one person who pre-ordered 10 copies of Tasha so they could sell it at 2x the price.

The book looks... horrific. I mean, the art can't evoke fear in a 10 yo. The safe-space horror idea invalidates the horror. The setting changes invalidate the gothic-ness, as Pundit said. The gender/skin color swap doesn't really matter, just looks gratuitous.

This is basically Van Richten's Guide to Plants vs Zombies.

Quote from: Omega on May 19, 2021, 10:36:11 PM

Quote from: Ghostmaker on May 19, 2021, 08:26:49 PM

Quote from: Mistwell on May 19, 2021, 08:13:31 PM
Most pre-ordered D&D book ever. Currently the #4 Best Seller in the nation. Not for RPG books...for ALL books.

Based on actual sales to customers, or based on sales to distributors/stores?

Outrage marketing at its best.

They got people to complain and that attracts others in swarms to buy the book to see if its as bad as they claim. And quite often, SUCKER!!!!! its not as bad because they deliberately hyped things that werent all that prominent just to get free advertising. AND it makes anyone complaining look like perfect examples of "toxic" intolerant fans. Win Win Win for WOkeTC

Scalpers are also probably again buying it in droves looking to make a profit which is over-inflating  the numbers. I knew one person who pre-ordered 10 copies of Tasha so they could sell it at 2x the price.

The reason I ask is that this how Marvel and DC have been able to artificially sustain themselves, by selling to comic book distributors and then shrugging when their crappy socjus-laden comics won't sell through those stores.

Quote from: Ghostmaker on May 20, 2021, 07:57:20 AM
The reason I ask is that this how Marvel and DC have been able to artificially sustain themselves, by selling to comic book distributors and then shrugging when their crappy socjus-laden comics won't sell through those stores.

Marvel was, and likely still is, forcing distributors to buy X copies of a book or they get nothing. And they cant return them.

The sales of Tasha seemed to be one part outrage marketing, and one part actual use as the book had not only a new class, but new class paths, and the full companion/sidekick system as well. Scalpers bought it in droves and then tried to resell it at inflated prices.

I think we have a new contender for the subject line ...

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on May 20, 2021, 10:01:54 AM
I think we have a new contender for the subject line ...

I don't mind advise suggesting breathing live into old ideas or old character types, but the contempt for 'outdated tropes' just really bothers me about the marketing roll out and the language I am seeing from the designers. There is always room to experiment and be more creative, but old tropes can work wonderfully as well (and often do because they are tried and true). This is true in both horror and in other genres. Wuxia is a great example of this. Often characters are interesting because the author, like Jin Yong for example, is trying to make a character he feels he has never seen before, and many of his characters pop off the page. But there are also classic tropes in the genre that just work well and thrill me every time I see them (I love the old grannies in martial arts films, they are almost always my favorite characters, and while they often have some eccentricity unique to a particular instance of the trope, the trope is pretty old and pretty widely used. Doesn't make it less interesting. With horror classic tropes work. Horror has an element of surprise that is important, so you have to factor that in. but Ravenloft was conceived as a love letter to classic horror, and the black box was all about the value of going back to old techniques, old tropes, etc. And I love all kinds of horror, but this contempt is what really bothers me about the stuff that has been coming out. Perhaps despite that it is genius and good (Black Box had a strong point of view, one I didn't always agree with, but was stellar in my view: so this doesn't make it impossible for the new stuff to be great, but it makes me not want to buy it sounds like they are crapping on the core concept of what made Ravenloft in the first place)

I feel like the guy who did Masque of the Red Death for 5E did a better job than Wizards themselves with gothic horror material. I'm still more partial to the 2E content, but the Players Guide for MotRD5E is quality content as opposed to Van Richten's Nu-Ravenloft Trashfire.

Sorry, mobile and guess I hit Quote instead of Modify...

Woke Manifesto: The RPG.