"This would have been so much easier had I just started this in something like Shadowdark or another game."
A fantastic video today, please watch all the way through, like, and subscribe.
This covers so many of the problems with D&D 2024: the cozy comfy-core vibe, the silly starter-set quests, how kids play the game, the complexity and crunch, the tired culture content, and the lack of motivation and danger in the game as a whole.
D&D 2024 is Gilette 2019
I agree with all his points, and I see this in other games too. It feels like a moment when a big corporation "fires" all its customers in hopes of attracting a future audience that will adopt its product. This is the 2019 Gilette thing all over again, but the people being "fired" from D&D are those who love high-action adventure fantasy, danger, and classic dungeon crawling. You have been replaced by the identity marketing, cozy-core, comfy adventures, and Richard Scarry children's book vibe.
And the executives who fire customers will say losing half or more of their market share was "worth it" in the end. Logic does not apply here.
This has nothing to do with woke either, as a considerable part of the woke audience has been fired too if they enjoy traditional dungeon crawling. This cuts across the cultural lines, and it is not about that! While Gilette 2019 was about that, D&D 2024 is about something else entirely. But the firing customers part remains the same.
For the Starter Set to derail by having players collect sheep on fetch quests feels like the design team wants to make a comfy mobile game rather than D&D, and piled on top of that, taking a whole session to design characters, fighting D&D Beyond, and wrestling with books and character sheets to create characters who aren't ideal for dungeon crawling.
D&D no longer knows what it is.
Players no longer know what roles to take in the game.
I get why some dislike bards, monks, rangers, and other soft non-core classes. They end up being default choices, distractions, and do not support the core experience with strong roles central to the game's needs. If everyone plays bard classes, then everyone will die, and the players will walk away to other games.
And then you get to hear, "The game doesn't support my choices!"
Shadowdark is the Better Game
Meanwhile, over in Shadowdark, hand out pregen characters, "You start in a dungeon and..." Bang. You are playing. The motivation is clear. What you are doing is right in front of your face. And Shadowdark doesn't ship with a whole lot of soft classes that are more about identity than function.
Plenty of woke and traditional OSR people play Shadowdark, and they all love it. So this is not woke versus non-woke. Shadowdark proves it. This battle is cozy, comfy-core versus hardcore OSR dungeon crawling. Don't be distracted or let others shift the argument to defend their investments.
The limited choices in Shadowdark support the function of the game's core intended activities. This results in a better game. This is also likely true in the Vagabond game, since the designer understands that core motivation facilitates gameplay, and that is baked in through design. If I agree with a designer's theory of motivation and design, I am a fan of their work. Vagabond sounds like a fun game, and I urge people to check it out.
Things Will Never Get Better
You will get a group with D&D telling us to "stick it out" and "things will get better," but it will never improve. Sorry, those sunk costs are now at the bottom of the ocean and worth nothing right now, because the company abandoned you.
Almost all of you have been fired as customers, and you will realize this later, rather than sooner.
Welcome to D&D in 2025.
2024 just handed you a pink slip.
No comments:
Post a Comment