Colorado Plateau

Keep in mind that the regs and red tape from PCI are now being used as revenue generating mechanisms by many companies that have their fingers in the PCI pie:
We charge you $ to audit and approve your compliance or you can just be non-compliant and then pay us a monthly fee...

Bingo!

Great, because you've been playing that long I'm supposed to agree with you about Pathfinder and WoTC. Sorry, I don't. You don't have to agree with me either. Thats the beauty of slashdot. Also, if EGG approved of WoTC that is fine, thats him. Not me.

I see WoTC/Hasbro as a corporate profit generating system, whereby a new and more lame version of what used to be D&D comes out every few years, more expensive with more books and supplements to have to go out and buy. Thats the reality as I see it. Should we change the rules to Poker, Monopoly and Baseball every few years?

BTW, I started D&D with the Blue Box in 1979, so you can do the math.

I've tried 3.5, 4 and am actually about to try D&D Next(5.0?, etc;), because my group wants to and I said I would give it a shot. I love other games besides 1.5-2nd ed D&D. Traveller, Warhammer 40K, Gamma World, etc; I've played quite a few.

A few things about the games I don't like, such as:
1. Pathfinder modules and GM's "guide" the group too much, similar to video games. It seemed very much like the old text based games. I like Fantasy RPG's where characters have the freedom to do as they wish, which also leads to consequences of those actions. Not where it's like "You have to protect this temple against the raiders from Ad-Keroatia and their evil minioins".

2. When I tried 3.5/4 the general breakdown of the character attributes, powers, skills, etc ad infinitum led to the sort of "superheroing" of characters. I admit it, I like a more conservative game when it comes to Fantasy base RPG's. IMHO that leads to players having to use cleverness and teamwork more. I'm not a fan of characters that can do and be everything.

Yes, I'm quite aware of Pathfinders popularity, especially among the 20-something crowd who thinks they are playing D&D. I don't argue that point. Believe me I've tried it, and 3.5 and 4... They are all, as another person mentioned, "video games on paper".

Really the thing about Pathfinder I couldn't stomach was how the story and character actions were just too "guided". It reminded me of playing Everquest for the first time and running into the edge of the map("wow, I can't keep going?!?). Sure, that is an extreme example, but the Pathfinder Society is too controlling and almost cult like in the way the GM's run their worlds. I like freedom in RPG's. For example, if I'm running Traveller and the group decides to forget about their mission to protect a mining convoy and jump over to another star cluster, hey, that is their decision, and I will allow players that freedom.

If memory serves me correctly, part of how things ended up in this state for TSR was because EGG was busy in Hollywood trying to get a D&D film made during 1985, and he actually took his eye off the ball while TSR was bleeding money. His heart was in the right place but he wasn't a smart businessman it appears. Also his ego was probably in the way of any clear thinking regarding business decisions.

The Blumes probably just wanted TSR to get back on track and saw EGG as a roadblock to that. Then they made the deal with devil...

Pathfinder is a joke, as is any edition past 2nd.
Anything made by WoTC isn't D&D, you can be assured of that.
Just because they have the rights to the name doesn't mean squat.

I play in a hybrid 1.5/2nd ed campaign that is a blast, easy to play, and doesn't have the "I'm going to run a half dragon Priest/Archer/Wild Mage with psionics" vibe that the WoTC "editions" have. It is old school D&D and fun as hell.

Read some of the "memoirs" of those who worked at TSR at the time. Williams couldn't stand gamers, D&D or pretty anything "geek/nerd".
She saw $$$ and tried to cash in. I would suspect a low level Illusionist may have been behind it...

Yes, I would have to agree. At least from what I've read, it does appear that Arneson, who was as much a "Father" of D&D as Gygax, got screwed sometime in the mid 70's by GG.

More like failed an Intelligence check...

Yea, you don't need to be a carpenter to know what stick homes are framed with...

The biggest threat to forests is the cattle and palm industries in places like Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Sustainable forestry is better than non-sustainable.

Actually, there is a faint hope that the Chestnut and other American Hardwoods will make a comeback in the eastern US.

The greatest irony of all is that those with children are usually the ones screaming the loudest that nothing is wrong and we shouldn't have to change our behaviors or even slightly take responsibility for the destruction of the ecosystem that allows us, the Human Race, to live and flourish on this planet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/....

I would say Humans are the most "self aware" of any species on this planet.
Yes, Apes, Dolphins, etc are in the category too, but Humans live with the constant chirping of the "chattering monkey".

This self awareness leads to the heavy weight of Free Will...

I learn more about what happens in the US from foreign news than I ever do from US news, with the exception of The News Hour on PBS, NPR and Democracy Now.

American mass media and "journalism" is a vast miasma of bloated infomercial junk food weight loss car commercial erection drug propaganda aimed at conditioning whats left of the American Mind into dull and plodding consumerism and hopelessness.

Bread and Circuses and all that.