From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Faustus von
Goethe
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2000 10:05 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [Open_Gaming] d20 Adventure Published
<< Point taken and I also apologize. The list >has< been "hot" of late and
this has put me on the defensive... Too many misquotes and not enough
effort put to understanding the other person's point of view... >>
Apology accepted in the same gracious spirit with which you accepted mine. I
am glad we dodged that flame. Thank you.
<< Of course, but if we assume the success of OGL then we should assume that
their may be a time in the future when D&D might not be the major player.
>>
Say amen, folks! Don't get me wrong: I loved D&D for nearly a decade, and
still remember it fondly; and 3E has me more than a little interested in the
game again. But after DMing the game for several groups for over a decade
and using exactly ONE published adventure to kick off the campaign, I just
plain exhausted my taste for sword and sorcery.
So much time in one genre has made me a genre junkie. There are LOTS of
genres I want to explore, even if I have to make the game system myself. One
day, I WILL DM a Modern Jurisprudence campaign and a Corporate Finance
campaign, even if each lasts only a few adventures. And THAT'S my interest
in D20: a well-accepted system may be more marketable than a "perfect"
genre-specific system, especially for such small niche genres as these.
I still have favorite genres (currently: near future Hard SF); but even 3E
hasn't made me return to sword and sorcery (though I'm as tempted as I've
been in a long while).
<< Sword and sorcery is not exactly a "hot" genre right about now ... and
there
really is no evidence for a resurgence (as far as I have seen) - WotC hopes
notwithstanding. >>
I can only judge by the gamers and other people around me. While I think you
have assessed the general populace pretty well, I find the gamers still
prefer to game swords and sorcery, and D&D in particular. For a genre junkie
like me, this is frustrating.
<< I agree and I see the LotR as the great hope for a resurgence in broad
interest in the Sword and Sorcery genre. >>
If they tie in to the LotR movies... and if the movies do well... then this
could be a brilliant bit of marketing. I hope it's true. But they'd need to
redo magic a lot. In LotR, magic seems both a lot more subtle than straight
D&D AND a lot more powerful where it appears. With the exception of Gandalf
lighting a light now and then, Saruman bewitching people with his voice, and
Galadriel's mirror, I can recall almost no instances of something that might
rightly be called a spell. Yet background knowledge reveals that Gandalf,
Saruman, Radagast, and the other unnamed Wizards are practically earthbound
angels, and Sauron a low-ranking earthbound devil. Tom Bombadil is more
powerful than their most powerful enchantments, yet cares for naught but his
little woods and Goldberry. There's this sense that, though they very rarely
show any power (and only medium level spells at that), they could reveal
their true selves as far more powerful than any human or elf sorceror
around.
That's what I missed in D&D: a sense of the mysterious and the miraculous.
Ubiquitous magic, even of a very powerful sort, doesn't raise the same awe
that I feel when Gandalf blasts the goblins with bolts from his staff, or
the utter fear that I feel when Pippin gazes into the palantir.
Martin L. Shoemaker
Emerald Software, Inc. -- Custom Software and UML Training
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.EmeraldSoftwareInc.com
www.UMLBootCamp.com
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