> Voivode
>
> Please illuminate me then. . . I don't see how the succes of D20
> , which I do think will be successful, is going to impact the
> rest of the established gaming industry negatively.
"Negative Impact" is too subjective and vague to quantify, so I'll just say
that I think it will cause fewer new games to be released with totally
home-grown rulesets. It will create a situation which encourages D&D gamers
to try new settings, while allowing gamers who are outside of the D&D fold
to be lured into D&D-like gaming through new and creative settings.
> That is what I don't see. Say we have 100
> total gamers in the world and 15 of them play games other than
> d20.
There are two reasons not to play D&D - you don't like the setting, or you
don't like the mechanics. The 2e version of D&D (and the 1e version) had a
lot to dislike in terms of mechanics. For those who don't like the setting,
d20 also lure them in because it will be attractive for those who create new
settings. Those who don't like the mechanics also fall into three camps -
the 'flat randomizers', the 'exponential randomizers' and the
'skills-based'. The ones who like a flat randomizer might be lured back
into the fold of d20 because of its clean implementation.
For the exponential randomizer crowd (Shadowrun, et al), a d10 or d12 with
open-ended rolls is perfectly legitimate under d20. The entire d20 system
could be retro-fitted with a simple mathematically generated cross-reference
table of old DCs to new DCs (I can supply the basic formulae if you are
interested). The class vs. skill system is also easy to retrofit, despite
the complication that you can't describe the effects of experience. What
you CAN do is create a new experience table (per Dancey) for your
'universal' class, in which Levels are scaled directly to individual Feats
and Skill points. If you drop Hit point progression, you can get the dark &
deadly feel of a cyberpunk realm. Even the combat system is completely up
for grabs, if you want something even more simplistic or frighteningly real.
Of course it will require effort on the part of a designer, but it will
require less effort to start with a balanced system and modify then it will
to start with no system and design from scratch. What many players know
intellectually but fail to grasp intuitively is that randomized mechanics
are nearly all the same, but expressed differently. All the clever tricks
that most designers come up with are simply variations on one of a handful
of basic themes. d20 standardizes the expression of those themes, so the
illusionary differences fall away, leaving only the basic randomizer.
To me, d20 is more than D&D, more than fantasy, more than flat randomizers,
more than Classes, Levels and Skill progression. It is a philosophy of
mechanics whereby high numbers are better, the skill/ability of a character
is measured with positive modifiers to a die roll, and the obstacles of
circumstance describe the target difficulty of the task to be performed.
Its hallmark is consistency. Think of it as a common mathematical notation
more than mathematics itself. Many games don't have this philosophy (2e D&D
is a notable example), but I think the vast majority of the game systems out
there could benefit from a generous application of this philosophy, just as
Newtonian calculus was much more accessible using the modern system of
notation.
> I don't
> see this "situation" changing. What I do see possible and
> actually hope for
> is that the number of gamers rises to 200. There is a great possiblility
> that there will still be 15 gamers playing the other games. It
> is even more
> likley that another 5 or so from the additional 100 will end up playing
> other games because D20 doesn't suit their desires.
Once the OGL gets rolling and every wanna-be game designer throws in their
two cents worth, virtually every system ever conceived will be available to
those who want to use the d20 logo. The only people who resist d20 at that
point will do so emotional rather than intellectual grounds (despite their
vocal claims to the contrary). That will never change, but they will always
be a small minority of the players.
> Sure this means that
> where once 15% of the gamers were playing other games and now
> only 10% are,
> but the actual number of "gamers playing other games" has gone
> up. This is
> a win for those companies that make other games. They don't need to
> increase the percentage of the market, just the numbers.
I never expect d20 to achieve 100% acceptance. A 90% acceptance rate would
indicate that it was wildly successful in my opinion. However, if the RPG
player market can be accurately modeled as a synergistic network, then the
more people who play d20, the more powerful the draw will be to continue to
use it. A unified front in the industry will make it that much more able to
fight against computer games and card-trading games for new players. The
majority of the money spent in this endeavor will come from WotC - there is
no other player in the RPG industry large enough to make a significant
impact. Therefore, it makes sense that if RPGs are to move from a cottage
industry to a modern standardized industry, it should be based around the
system provided by WotC, if that system is sufficient to encompass the
desires of the vast majority of gamers. D20 is flexible enough to do just
that.
I also expect that true d20 will very quickly be augmented by an OGL
rulebook that covers the things that are prohibited under d20. It won't be
a complete PHB by any stretch, but it will include the character creation
and advancement rules in a setting-neutral format, which can be customized
by the next game designer to fit their world without having to buy the PHB.
I think WotC will still win here, because once a player buys into d20
system, it is only a matter of time before they try other d20 games, which
means eventually most will try D&D.
-Brad
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