Tag: Gaming

Dungeons & Dragons (DnD), Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro, oh my

When I was a kid I was at a bookstore one day with my mother and grandmother when I came across this game called Dungeons and Dragons by a then not that well known company called TSR.  My original basic book is up above.

I have been playing this game off and on my entire life since that time. Now, there is something disturbing is going on between the community and those who own the brand name (Hasbro through their subdivision Wizards of the Coast). That is me with one of my very old modules.

Since the dawn of time the game has had the ability through their open gaming license for third party developers to build things to go along with the game for our enjoyment as players. And some of those third party groups are shockingly creative.

Hasbro is trying to change the rules (I’ll stay out of that for a moment).

Why would a company do such a crazy thing instead of controlling their intellectual property?

Because DND is just a set of rules of how to play. The game takes place in people’s imagination. The game gives guidelines, and it gives you mechanics but it doesn’t always give you scenarios. Some of these third party groups have put together highly creative game scenarios to play. That are highly entertaining, and some have made a few bucks at it.

Hasbro doesn’t want that.

Well, without all those third party guys, I would never have bought nearly as many TSR (now Hasbro) books and products over the years. So in a way the third party groups have propped up TSR (now Wizards of the Coast and ultimately Hasbro).

Why change something that is working and get yourself a LOT of bad consumer sentiment in the process?

No clue, but I bet there is a bonus for someone involved somewhere. But, it is going to ultimately fail. Because there won’t be as many side products that I will enjoy, and TSR isn’t innovating the way it once did.

It isn’t that we hate Hasbro, or TSR, or Wizards (ok maybe a little now), but we love the creativity of these smaller orgs.

Below is a YouTube video I recorded on this whole mess!!

Why do stores put Science Fiction and Fantasy together? Sci-Fi Fantasy Crossover appeal!

When you go into a bookstore anytime in the last decade you have probably seen the “FANTASY/SCI-FI” section and it is all lumped together.

Aren’t those two things different you ask? Does it bug you that they don’t get treated differently?

After all, just a few years ago you could walk into a bookstore and see a section called “Teenage paranormal romance” where young people would fall in love with vampires and werewolves or be torn between those two.

So why is it that teenage paranormal romance gets to be off by itself and these two genres get lumped?

First, maybe we want to readers of that paranormal stuff to not be in the mix with anyone else. Maybe it is just better that way. They probably don’t want to mingle with sci-fi readers, and perhaps vice versa.

Second, Fantasy and Science Fiction do overlap in ways. They are books or series of books that create a world that differs greatly from the one we live in. One were characters aren’t bound by the laws of physics or even magic or lack thereof that we have in our daily lives.

These genres offer a specific type of escape that some readers (like me) are craving. I don’t care if it “isn’t believable” that someone can cast a fireball spell or travel faster than light. I just want a compelling story. If I wanted “believable” I’d head over to action thriller, or pure fiction. I’m here for the fantastical, that that’s why those two get put together in my opinion. And honestly, I hope it stays that way!

Check out the cover, and one of the interior photos of my personal copy of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks for AD&D written by Gary Gygax himself.

Maybe someday at a Con I can run this adventure as a DM and convince Luke Gygax to participate!