Re: [WW] How to make the D20 system better [A Little OT]

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

 >True story:  I was sitting down reading through Wierd Wars at Gencon and
 >another player walked up to me to ask about it(he thought the cover looked
 >cool).  I told him it was D20 system and he responded that it just must be
 >D&D with guns and proceed to walk away.

Yup - just like there was backlash against the HUGE number of card games 
that came out right after M:TG proved to be the run away success, there is 
the current backlash against anything D20.

There is always a reaction against something that goes "mainstream" or 
becomes largely popular.  Take for example - Starbucks.  There is a 
reaction against Starbucks by those intellegencia who would NEVER be seen 
going in so common a place as Starbucks.

Yet - the popularity of Starbucks grew out of those people who would NEVER 
be seen drinking anything as PLAIN as ground coffee.  They simply MUST have 
their double-mocha-half-skim-milk-half-2%-milk-snobachinos.

(ahem - sorry)

But the amount of money brought to the table by these folks - let's call 
them the gaming snobs (don't take it personally, I'm one myself) -  is far 
lower then the amount of money brought to the table by the unwashed masses 
stuck in a Socratic cave.  These are the people who will buy EVERY single 
D20 book out there - every one - on just the off chance that it may be 
useful in their games.  They'll tell themselves that even if they aren't in 
any games right now.

And now we're back to companies needing to make a profit to survive.  With 
any luck, the proliferation of non-WotC D20 books will introduce people to 
the phenomenal talent and games that exist outside of WotC.  Perhaps, 
having gotten a glimpse of the light, they will turn away from the shadows 
and join the rest of us.

And make Shane and Co. richer then kings to boot.    :-)

 >There is a growing group of gamers that think D&D is the worst RPG ever
 >made(Which I find really funny, I think 90% of gammers were introduced to it
 >through D&D).  And they think that the D20 system is Evil incarnate.

The backlash from the snobs is, IMO, not the big worry.  It will be the 
backlash by the D20'ers against the number of non-WotC companies putting 
out D20 books - they may get so tired of it that they stop buying anything 
outside of WotC publications.   In which case they will never see the 
awesome work done by PEG, Chaosium, Kenzer, and Green Ronin (to name the 
ones that I have familiarity with).

It is this kind of backlash that has turned off a lot of people from even 
trying any new card games - as they are all content with Magic.

-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com
Deadlands fan site - http://www.darious.com/

The magistrate should obey the Laws, the People should obey the magistrate.
                 -Poor Richard's Almanac 1734