I Think I'm Breaking Up With Dungeons And Dragons

Dungeons and Dragons was my first real experience with roleplaying games. Technically Vampire the Masquerade was my first foray in buying any rulebooks back in high school, but we never actually played it. But just shy of twenty years ago I got invited to go play my first game, and with a little help I made a a backstabbing rogue within DnD 3.5, and within a month I had bought about a hundred dollars of books and started to run my own games. For the next sixteen or so years I played DnD pretty much exclusively. A lot of 3.5, a few sessions of 4e (which I hated), and then I made the switch to 5e. I never did get to play any of the White Wolf games (despite owning copies of several of them). At one point, entranced by the Open Gaming License some friends and I considered starting a small press to put out a book on nobles, and our own setting.

A few years ago I started to grow a little disenchanted with 5e. It lacked the options of 3.5, and though it was a good system, it just wasn't fulfilling me the way that it once had. I'd been looking into other games, and began building my collection of rulebooks of other systems (which grows ever larger to my LadyFriends bemusement). I've been casting about for that perfect replacement, snapping up books ranging from the more conventional options like Pathfinder 2e and Blades in the Dark, to kickstarter games like Coyote and Crow or Shiver. I've run sessions of Dread, Kids on Bikes, Troika, and some fun little one sheet RPGs. I've created a bunch of my own little games as well (over 40 at last count).

But in all my questing I haven't found that perfect replacement. And in truth, I don't think it exists. There is no perfect game system. There are perfect systems for certain people in certain moods perhaps, but there is no one system to rule them all as it were. For me, a lot of the joy I derive from gaming these days are simply reading new rulebooks. I'm always so amazed by the intricate and inventive ways people come up with to play games. Games I know I will never play, as they won't interest most of my regular group, still provide me immense joy. And the way the community of designers by and large encourage folks to come and play in their sandboxes. They proliferation of Creative Commons License's among indie designers, who don't care about the money, they just want people to PLAY. I love that dynamic so much, and it's honestly intensely inspiring to me.

And that's why I think I am done with Wizards of the Coast, and their product Dungeons and Dragons. Disenchantment has turned to disillusionment, has turned into hatred and revulsion. The moves they are attempting to pull with the new Open Gaming License, the companies they are setting out to destroy, it highlights the worst excesses of capitalism. It's a wealthy company doing an incredibly shitty thing, going back on their decades old promises to their partners and fans, just to chase a few extra bucks. It it will make for an even worse overall product, I guarantee it.

How do I know this? Because look at DnD currently! Wizards focuses on campaign books, and books that have dribs and drabs of what you want in each other book. Is there a Monster Manual 2? Nope. If you want more monsters, buy Xanathar's, Volo's, and some campaign books and piece something together. Want a lot of character options for fighters like Complete Fighter? Nope. Better buy Sword Coast, Tasha's, and Mordkanien's.

But, because there are quality 3rd party providers, I can go out and buy Tomb of Foes, and boom, there is a Monster Manual 2 for me essentially. But all those are going away from the looks of things, as each major company announces they are done with working with Wizards products. DnD is about to be a one party town, and it's a party that can go to hell for all I care. They pulled something similar in 4e, and it was part of the reason I hated that system so much (I mean, the rules were trash too, but it was a factor). Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice? So now they are about to do it all over again, and I hate them for it.

I will probably still play 5e for awhile, in some form, because that's what my party plays for now. But I won't ever run it again. And I won't ever buy any product Wizards puts out again. To think I almost got back in to Magic the Gathering when the 40k cards came out...

Fuck 'em. I'm done. There are too many actively great companies to support for me to every waste another dollar on Dungeons and Dragons.