The reason many still associate D&D and anything else remotely related to it with fat, basement dwelling, socially inept virgin incels is because those people actually made up a significant percentage of the original following of the hobby. Because it’s founders were only a half step away from most of those descriptions in many cases. And anybody that insists otherwise is either willfully ignorant or, more likely, angry at being called out by association because they’re the same.

So either get over it or go join the people that still insist that the confederate flag is anything but the war banner of a rebellion raised as an attempt at preserving slavery as a legal institution. You have the same mindset and validity as they do on this matter.

Kind of. As a concept but not the definition people that use it attribute to it. The act of people getting that definition wrong is itself a memetic behavior.

That would be the actual definition, yes. But many if not most people who use the word “meme” to mean “funny picture and caption” don’t actually know what the word meme refers to. So they go by some definition originating from Reddit, Facebook, 4chan, etc.

“They’re weird looking dragons, I tell you. They fly really fast but somehow do it without flapping their wings, they have short, fat tails, and when they go really fast they blow jets of fire out their arses!”

Yeah, and my personal opinion of the Drow is that you can still have matriarchal spider themed villains and not be “problematic” if you just st officially decannonize all of the weird-ass kinky fetish stuff that Ed Greenwood wrote into their original description. And the same can be said of most “problematic” things in Forgotten Realms, which is the source of a lot of the stuff that many consider to be “generic D&D.”

Seriously, go through the deep lore of FR and you will find a bunch of stuff that reads like it was written by a horny thirteen year old that wants to be edgy and kinky but clearly doesn’t know how fetishes or anything occult actually work beyond involving leather, whips, and bloody sacrifice rituals at orgy parties like a midwestern church granny will tell you happen every time anybody plays Dungeons and Dragons. I wonder where they got that impression from…

Short answer, no. There is a lot of nitpicky fine print and “nuance” involved but while you cannot copyright rolling a twenty sided die you can copyright a bunch of distinct and organized thoughts and specific groups thereof, such as the collection of rules that make up a class or subclass. If that class, subclass, spell, made up monster with a specific name and abilities, etc is published in some work that is sold for profit then legal action can occur.

Anything under creative commons effectively becomes public domain. If it appears in a WotC book, digital content, etc and is not specifically under CC, like say spells and subclasses from any supplement not included in that (such as Xanathar or Tasha), it is copyrighted and WotC can and will sue you if you republish it.

Maybe if those games had more appealing rule systems, other publishers would make products using them.

If it’s under a CC license you can literally publish it yourself with a few things tacked on. That’s what creative commons does. It’s basically public domain at that point.

Among other things, yes. Some things I have seen do strike me as logical tweaks and fixes much like 3.5 was to 3e, but some are clearly attempts at “fixing” PR problems by people who don’t understand why they’re having those problems in the first place. And at least in some cases I expect are personally responsible for said PR problems. It’s kind and like a Three Stooges skit about corporate mismanagement, but they honestly think they’re doing a good job.

My only thought upon seeing this is what an overstimulated eight year old would rattle off the top of their head if you told them to make some wicked awesome homebrew that doesn’t worry about any of that “balance” nonsense. Or actual rules at all really. It’s just a bunch of words that someone overheard D&D players say mixed with attempts of sounding like a fast talking comedian.

I haven’t actually played Mage, but from what I understand the rules for magic are basically just make up something that you can justify being covered by the disciplines/schools you have points in and more dots means you can get away with cooler stuff.

What really disturbs me about this is that somewhere out there is a living, breathing human who thought of it. I will probably never actually meet that person but the nonzero possibility of doing so shall henceforth haunt my thoughts and dreams forever.

Apply the Harkness test (self aware intelligence, physical maturity, and ability to communicate consent). Both humans and centaurs pass assuming the individual is a willing adult, horses fail twice due to being nonsapient and uncommunicative.

At that point she didn’t have any sleeves.

So what are the chances the two damned souls fighting Angie are actually Redwen’s parents, trapped by some infernal contract loophole because they tried to not pay? Or they tried to offer themselves in their daughter’s place but the devil just said he’d take the whole set? It would add an extra layer to them thanking Angie for protecting their child.

Just start by giving a speech with a bunch of BS buzzwords about traditional brand value recognition and proven growth practices and they’ll wait until the financial reports come in before calling for your head. Much like many executives, shareholders rarely actually understand how the companies they own and operate actually function. They just want to be reassured that they will be getting money without having to actually do anything and the little people can take care of the nitty gritty “work” stuff.

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I’m amazed that none of these comments are mentioning the subject line of the post is a reference to “Stop! Hammer time!”

Yeah. Start by chopping any seven figure (or more) executive salaries in half, then rehire all those people who actually create products for the company. Then go back to making products people actually want rather than overpriced collector sets of material with almost no actual content in them or turning preexisting products into subscription based services. Coming up with new stuff is one thing but when you have literally fifty years of history to see what people like from your primary products it shouldn’t be difficult to not alienate a massive customer based.

Don’t overcomplicate things. Not every single NPC you meet demands a half hour RP session. I’m Bob, this is Sally, the guy in clerical robes is Father Steve, and the dude in the plate is Sir Dinglus of Berryvale. Yeah, he has a weird name but that’s apparently normal where he’s from. Off to the southeast somewhere. You folks have a nice day.