well, it has come down to this. please allow me to ramble a bit, as i come to understand what has happened. i have to admit, that knowing some of the tumultuous history of dungeons and dragons, i am not completely surprised that another change has occurred. i started playing around 1979. i was about 12 years old. my gaming career actually started as an avalon hill war gamer. tactics ii was my first ever game. but like the gateway game it was, it soon led into much heaver games, like role-playing. my first dungeons and dragons book was the light blue basic booklet. no box. no dice. i wrote numbers randomly on a piece of paper, you would close your eyes, circle your finger and drop it, the number closest to your finger was the result. in the years since 1979, my gaming has been put on hold off an on. sometimes due to girls, sometimes due to the army, and sometimes due to the combination of the two, i.e. alcoholism. but i always considered myself a gamer.
anybody who lived through the sacking of gary gygax, the crash of tsr and the taking over of wotc (what does a trading card company know about dnd?), knows that dungeons and dragons has, can, and will survive. the game is what’s important. not the driver, not the publisher, and defiantly not me.
wotc has some pretty amazing accomplishments since 1997. remember that between december 1996 and august 1997, the dragon count went from 236 to 238. that was wotc that saved dragon and dungeon from the fiery pits of hell. those of us who remember fondly advanced dungeons and dragons, (before it was known as 1st edition) with rules spread out over 13 hard cover books, no real way to find rules, just seat of the pants role-playing. and the 2nd edition, with no devils and no demons, the whole kinder and gentler dungeons and dragons. wotc brought organization, and put the evil back into chaotic evil.
i will give wotc the benefit of doubt, and investigate what wotc is doing with my beloved magazines. i have become pretty accustomed to reading pdf files, and the read aloud feature is a cool, if not grueling alternative to actually reading something. also, if you read the editorial for dragon issue number 1, you will find that the reason that tsr started dragon in the first place was to publish articles about other games, companies, etc. i would tell wotc to re-read that editorial.
i have proudly switched my remaining subscription to Pathfinder, my only hope is that for 20 dollars an issue, that there is no advertising. so, to paizo i say "do not go gentle into that good night." use this opportunity to branch into other ogl systems. there are far too few d20 modern, and d20 future modules. (i would personally like to see a subscription service for those game systems)
well, that’s going to be it. i have said my piece, now i will run it through a spell checker so i don’t look as big an idiot as i really am.
i wish paizo all the happiest of success....i wish wotc the same.
dj
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