"Universes Beyond" Seriously?

 So the big announcement from WotC was that they're rolling out "universes beyond" content for 5.5e. 

I think most of my blog readers know this. They also probably know I'm not WotC's target demographic. But here's my thoughts on this anyway. 

First off, is anyone surprised? Since the days of 2E, when TSR was cranking out the setting products, they realized that people love these. People want books of lore that they can dive into and study, and use as the base for their campaign. And every major edition has seen re-releases, with updated stat blocks/content, for many of these settings. 

So we're getting a new 5.5e Dark Sun, and Dragonlance, and there's probably already Forgotten Realms since that's their main setting anymore. But they're also doing World of Warcraft (like someone did back in the d20/SRD/OGL days) and Star Wars (like they did back in the d20/SRD/OGL days AND the 4E days) and probably some Final Fantasy or Diablo (again, they did that back in the day) or Marvel Supers tie in content. Just like with Magic: the Gathering. 

I'm aware of the MtG tie in sets, with Marvel, Final Fantasy, etc. I haven't bought Magic cards in around 20 years now. Maybe a bit longer. So I don't really care what they're doing with the game. It's always been more about milking the random pack dollar than about the game itself, but I got out and haven't looked back. And now, with D&D (official D&D anyway), I'm also out. 

So I really don't care if WotC is going back to try again with the old campaign settings and with brand tie-ins. They're trying to make a buck, and from what I hear the "Universes Beyond" thing is making them a ton of money through MtG. So it makes sense from a business standpoint to try it with D&D. 

From a player/fan perspective, I think this is a bad idea. They tried to make D&D the be-all-end-all of RPGs, not just the 800lb gorilla of them. We had all these official, licensed, and unofficial nerd media tie-ins 25 years ago. And a lot of them sucked. 

A lot of those old tie-ins (Wheel of Time, Star Wars, Warcraft, Diablo, various superhero properties, various non-supers comics, all sorts of video games, and just about every fantasy/sci-fi book or movie franchise) needed to either twist the rules of the game to fit the media property, or else needed to twist the media property's "canon" to fit the game mechanics. 

Sure, a few instances, things worked out pretty well. The Diablo stuff fits right in with D&D, because those games were heavily inspired by D&D to begin with. The d20 Star Wars games were pretty poor representations of the media, to be honest. The WEG d6 is of course my favorite, but I've heard good things about FFG's current game. I don't know many who look back fondly on d20 Star Wars (there are some, but not many). And does anyone seriously think 5E D&D will be a better fit? 

Anyway, I'm gonna keep doing my thing. WotC will keep doing theirs. And they'll probably make a ton of money making sub-standard game products with big franchise tie-ins. I'll make a pittance making substandard game products without the big franchise tie-ins (but with enough references to them, wink-wink). And I'll be happy. 

Because why do I need WotC to do any more of my imagining for me? 

Designing a Card Game

My older son and I have been working on ideas for card games recently. Our first foray is now available for sale. We've played the game quite a bit here at home, and I've also tried it a few times with some local board gamer friends, who really enjoyed it. 

Castles: A Game of Medieval Rivalries 

That's a link to DriveThruCards. 

The game is designed to be quick to learn, easy to play, and fun. Each player is trying to build castles. Castle cards are played in front of you, and each has points, from 1 to 5. Action cards can help you or hinder your opponents. On your turn, draw a card and play a card. Simple. 

 

 

Once one player has five Castle cards in front of them, each other player takes one more turn. The player with the most points (not necessarily the most Castle cards) is the winner. 

A game takes around 15 minutes to play, and with 60 cards in the deck, it should suit games with 2 to 6 players. The most we've had is four players, so far, but that went well. Played/discarded cards get shuffled and made into a new deck when the draw deck is empty, so 6-person games (or more?) don't need to worry about running through all the cards. 

The proceeds will go to Flynn, to help him save up for university expenses. 

I'll post updates with other ideas when we get them worked out.

Disney, hmm?

Just cogitating on some things in the news besides Obama's victory (qualified yea!) [That's about as political as I'm gonna get here, don't worry.]

Disney bought up Marvel a while back, but pretty much have left Marvel to do their own thing. 

Disney repurchased Pixar, but pretty much leave them to do their own thing.

Disney has just purchased ILM, including Star Wars.  After thinking about this, I say good!  At worst, anything they turn out won't be any worse than something Lucas might have done were he inclined to do so.  And thinking about the general quality of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (first and fourth were good, middle two were decent enough) and the John Carter movie (movie was fine, Disney just stuffed it up on marketing and accounting), they'll likely do a good job with any future Star Wars movies.

And getting things away from the Skywalker story would be a good thing, IMO.  We don't need movies about Leia and Han's kids or old Jedi Master Luke, there are novels that already cover those if you care to read them.  Give us some awesome new stories in awesome new parts of the Star Wars Galaxy, please!

Arnold Schwarzenegger is returning as Conan!  King Conan of Aquilonia!  Awesome!  Looking forward to this, even if they don't use one of Howard's original tales (although the Scarlet Citadel or Hour of the Dragon would both make good movies, IMO).  I'm cool with letting original Conan be Original Conan, the comics Conan and the movie Conan being alternate universe things, like how the comic book, old Fox cartoon, and movie X-Men are similar but not the same.

And now Disney is thinking of picking up Hasbro, and WotC.  Well, at least I guess we know who will be making any future Star Wars CCGs and RPGs if this goes through.  Again, if Disney takes a fairly lax hand with WotC the way they have with Marvel and Pixar, this could be good.  If the Mouse House tries to micromanage the gaming business, well, at least we've got the OSR.

Plus, a Bargle movie, or something in the Star Frontiers or Gamma World universes would be cool.  You know Disney will be in charge of future D&D movies, maybe we'll get one that doesn't suck!

Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em

then he bummed a cigarette, asked me for a light

So some people have their panties in a bind about WotC finally trying to do what they do best with the D&D line--sell kids collectible cards.

Why not?  It worked with their minis line.  Sell people on random blind packs of minis for their games, or to play the table-top minis game they came out with.  According to some anecdotal evidence, they made more money off minis than they did off of splatbooks in the mid- to late oughts.

They've made piles of cash with Magic and Pokemon card games.  Why not tie it into their premier RPG?

I'm not playing 4E, and don't plan to ever pick up the books, so why should I be upset that they're 'making the game into something else?'  They've already done that.  That's kind of the point of making a new edition to them.  Remake the game the way they want it, rather than just retread the past.  It's a valid way to view things, even if it's one I don't think is necessary (along with most of the rest of the OSR types).

I'm sitting here wondering, though, if maybe something like a card mechanic might be fun.  I've got several thousand Magic cards sitting in my closet.  They could easily be used for something of the sort.  Maybe not all of them, but enough of them could be used to provide some temporary bonuses and the like in an RPG. 

And I've already shucked out plenty of money for them, so no need to invest in further cards.

Or I could just use the GIMP and make my own...