But March the fourth made me whimper
When the news it was delivered
Sad news from the Troll Lord
And then on every message board

I can’t remember which of my dice
I chose to roll that very night
For the man who got it right
The day the DM died

So, bye, bye Mr. d20 Guy
Failed the final saving throw and then didn’t survive
And all around the world, the gamers did cry
Sayin’ thank you Mr. d20 Guy
Thank you Mr. d20 Guy

Have you read the PHB
And have you looked through the DMG
And what the heck is a drow (drough)
This is going to be so f’n cool
My dwarf barbarian will make you drool
And I really think you pronounce it drow (cow)

Well I know that things are looking grim
The dragon’s looking right at him
Made a percentile roll
I’m now hiding in shadows

I was a lucky halfling, that’s a fact
Stole lots of things and put ‘em in my pack
But I knew I could never go back
The day the DM died

I started rollin’
Bye, bye Mr. d20 Guy
Failed the final saving throw and then didn’t survive
And all around the world, the gamers did cry
Sayin’ thank you Mr. d20 Guy
Thank you Mr. d20 Guy

Now, for over ten years we’ve been rollin’ well
I even took my paladin to hell
But, boy, the rules have really changed
I was really sad to see half-orcs go
And what the hell is THACO
But, man, I really dig the weapon speed

Oh, and while the king was in L.A.
The jesters took his game away
The boardroom was adjourned
When the DM did return
And with pirates that would block the way
The king was told he couldn’t stay
But all that madness went away
The day the DM died

We were rollin’
Bye, bye Mr. d20 Guy
Failed the final saving throw and then didn’t survive
And all around the world, the gamers did cry
Sayin’ thank you Mr. d20 Guy
Thank you Mr. d20 Guy

Holy moley I’m checkin’ out the ranger
Two-weapon fighting makes him a danger
DM’s think he’s a pain in the ass
Player’s monk ran out of gas
Every flurry just seemed to pass
Leaving the bad guy without a scratch

Now I really like these brand new feats
My half-orc fighter’s really neat
I tried to run a game
Oh, but it just wasn’t the same

‘Cause the players have kids of their own
And no one remembers what to roll
And we were shocked down to our soul
The day the DM died

We started rollin’
Bye, bye Mr. d20 Guy
Failed the final saving throw and then didn’t survive
And all around the world, the gamers did cry
Sayin’ thank you Mr. d20 Guy
Thank you Mr. d20 Guy

Oh, and there we were just running the race
A generation losing pace
With no time left to game again
But come on let’s look through this brand new book
Man these powers really cook
You mean I get to play a dragon

And as I watched the gamers laugh
The memories came flooding back
Time it can go so fast
No living in the past

And as the dice rolled on into the night
I realized it just felt right
And I held back tears with all my might
The day the DM died

He was rollin’
Bye, bye Mr. d20 Guy
Failed the final saving throw and then didn’t survive
And all around the world, the gamers did cry
Sayin’ thank you Mr. d20 Guy
Thank you Mr. d20 Guy

I knew that when I read the news
I had just bid my childhood adieu
And I just sighed and turned away
I went down to the local store
Where I had gamed some years before
But the man there said that gamers couldn’t stay

And on the web the players mourned
About the game that he had born
Not a bad word was posted
The game master was toasted

And many folks admired the guy
Who’s rollin’ dice up in the sky
We told ourselves that we could cry
The day the DM died

And they were rollin’
Bye, bye Mr. d20 Guy
Failed the final saving throw and then didn’t survive
And all around the world, the gamers did cry
Sayin’ thank you Mr. d20 Guy
Thank you Mr. d20 Guy

They were rollin’
Bye, bye Mr. d20 Guy
Failed the final saving throw and then didn’t survive
And all around the world, the gamers did cry
Sayin’ thank you Mr. d20 Guy

So why the reaction to change? There are typically two reasons; 1) A fear of the unknown and 2) An expectation of loss. For example, people who played D&D had been playing 3rd edition for many years before 4th edition hit the shelves. They had time to digest the ruleset, play with it, and make it their own. But 4th edition had new features and updates of which they were completely unaware. And, because of that, they expected to lose features of their game that they hade come to know and love. And even when the new edition did hit the shelves, the people who resisted change would read with a critical eye, looking for anything that would support their theories. By the way, replace “3rd edition” and “4th edition” with “2nd edition” and “3rd edition,” respectively, and you have the same reaction.

What about the edition wars? Should you try to assuage people’s fears or argue with them? In short, no. The longer answer is, “it depends.” If you read something on the internet and a person/people are grousing about the changes to “their beloved game,” then you’re not going to be able to change their minds and you’re just going to get frustrated at their “inability to see things my way.” And why is that? Because you have no personal stake in them. In a personal setting, you interact with people directly. You are there to help them along the way, holding their hand when necessary, and present a friendly face to let them know that the change is not going to hurt them. In the anonymous environment of the internet, these posters don’t know you from Adam and so you’re rebuttals to their arguments will fall upon deaf ears.

In real life, however, that’s where it goes from “no” to “it depends.” If you have a friend or acquaintance who is complaining about changes, then you might be able to calm their fears and, perhaps, get them to at least reasonably examine the changes before forming a negative opinion. Even then, it may not be worth your time, but your relationship with them will give you a better idea on how to proceed. You may even be able to convince them to take the rules out for a test drive to see how they run and then see if their opinion still holds water.

So, in the end, it all boils down to the fact that people are people and human nature regarding change has not changed much (read: at all) in the centuries we’ve been on this planet. In gaming, edition wars will come and go. The best that you can do is to try things out for yourself and then form your own opinions. And if you come across someone with a negative opinion of something they’ve never really taken the time to get to know, you only have one option: Kill them and take their stuff.

First this:

WIZARDS OF THE COAST SUES EIGHT FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Tolena Thorburn
Wizards of the Coast LLC
425-204-8011
tolena.thorburn@Wizards.com.

April 6, 2009 ‹ Wizards of the Coast LLC today filed three lawsuits in US
District Court for the Western District of Washington against eight
individuals, including named defendants located in the United States, Poland
and the Philippines, for copyright infringement of its recently-released
Dungeons & Dragons® Player¹s Handbook® 2. The lawsuits allege that the
defendants illegally distributed the Player¹s Handbook 2 via free
file-sharing websites and that these illicit uploads resulted in a
substantial number of lost sales and lost revenue to Wizards of the Coast.

³Violations of our copyrights and piracy of our products hurt not only
Wizards of the Coast¹s financial health but also the health of whole gaming
community including retailers and players,² said Greg Leeds, President of
Wizards of the Coast. ³We have brought these suits to stop the illegal
activities of these defendants, and to deter future unauthorized and
unlawful file-sharing.²

The complaint alleges, among other things, that one or more of the
defendants purchased digital copies of Player¹s Handbook 2 and then
illegally posted the copies onto popular file-sharing sites for free access
and download by the general public.

Then this on RPGNow:

Wizards of the Coast has instructed us to suspend all sales and downloads of Wizards of the Coast titles. Unfortunately, this includes offering download access to previously purchased Wizards of the Coast titles. We are in discussions with Wizards about their decision to change their approach to digital sales of their titles and will post more information as we have it

And finally this from WOTC_Trevor on ENWorld:

Hey all. I wanted to step in and shine a mote of light on the subject. First off, this cesation of PDF sales has absolutely nothing to do with the Internet Sales Policy. I know it’s the 6th of April and I can definitely see how the two would appear linked, but the truth is, this is a completely seperate matter.

Unfortunately, due to recent findings of illegal copying and online distribution (piracy) of our products, Wizards of the Coast has decided to cease the sales of online PDFs. We are exploring other options for digitial distribution of our content and as soon as we have any more information I’ll get it to you.

It’s times like these I just want to slap whomever makes these decisions upside the head and tell them to face reality: Pirating happens! That’s right; it happens!

It’s an unfortunate side effect of the business. If you release something that people want, then there will always be people willing to steal and give it to them for free. And this is not a new phenomenon. Before Wizards was releasing their material in PDF format, people used to scan in the books and make them available for download. They’ve always been out there and they always will be. All this does is drive yet another wedge between Wizards of the Coast and what is slowly but surely becoming a less loyal fanbase.

Oh and this can’t really be about money. Seriously. Because if Wizards thinks they’re actually losing a lot of money in “lost sales” because of this, then they must expect it to have been number one on the Wall Street Journal‘s list of top non-fiction books last week instead of number four, right? It’s number 14 this week. Now, I’m not naive enough to think that this pirating doesn’t cost Wizards any money, but there’s no way it costs them enough money to warrant pulling all of their electronic material and going home.

More than anything, I’m mad because of this. It’s infuriating to think that a company could have had such a great relationship with its customers for so many years (I’m refering to 2000 – 2008 with the release of 3rd edition and the generous availabilty of the material to other companies to help enrich the genre) to pulling everything away and basically saying, “Don’t f*** with us or we’ll take it away from you.” Maybe the last eight years were just a setup…

(Click an image for a larger view)

In 1E (AD&D), here’s how the PHB defines what a cleric should be.

The cleric is dedicated to a deity, or deities, and at the same time a skilled combatant at arms. (AD&D PHB, page 20, para 3, line 4)

Clerical spells, including the druidic, are bestowed by the gods, so that the cleric need but pray for a few hours and the desired verbal and somatic spell components will be placed properly in his or her mind. (AD&D PHB, page 40, para 4, line 1)

So in 1E, you had to pick a god lest you be without spells. And no one wanted that. 2E continued this line of thinking when it came to clerics.

The cleric receives his spells as insight directly from his deity (the deity does not need to make a personal appearance to grant the spells the cleric prays for) as a sign of and reward or his faith, so he must take care not to abuse his power lest it be taken away as punishment. (2E PHB, page 33, para 3)

So, again, clerics must choose a god to worship. But a funny thing happened in 3E.

Choose a deity for your cleric. …You may also choose for your cleric to have no deity. (3/3.5E PHB, page 32, para 6)

Instead, they meditate or pray for their spells, receiving them through their own strength of faith or as divine inspiration. (3/3.5E PHB, page 32, para 5, line 2)

So in 3E, it was decided that clerics no longer had to choose a god but, instead, could just rely on their inner strength and devotion to their cause. This trend continued in 4E.

All clerics choose a specific faith to which they devote themselves. Usually this faith is the worship of a specific patron deity—for example, Moradin, Pelor, or Erathis. Sometimes clerics are devoted to churches that venerate groups of deities or even philosophies. (4E PHB, page 61, para 5)

So if you look at the progression of D&D throughout the years, from edition to edition, clerics have moved away from having to rely on gods to being able to rely on themselves alone. The question is why? I have a couple of theories on the matter.

• Theory 1: Hasbro, or just the designers of 3E, didn’t want to embroil themselves in another “Christian Controversy.”

Throughout the 1980′s D&D was put through the wringer with everyone and their brother making claims that D&D was satanic and contained “real spells.” So, to either appease these people or to simply leave themselves an out, it was decided that the option to not choose a god be put in. This would, hopefully, lessen the impact on people who were extremely faithful and felt off-put in being forced to “worship” a god other than their own, even in a fantasy setting.

• Theory 2: Religion has become less important to society at large so it was decided to make it less important in the game as well.

Our society has shifted away from traditional religious teachings lately. This is not a judgment at all, just an observation. Because of this, the designers possibly wanted to reflect this in-game, thereby allowing someone who was uncomfortable with being forced to choose a god play the cleric they wanted without having to do so.

• Theory 3: For purely metagame purposes.

It makes cleric character creation, initial and long-term, faster and less limiting to not have to choose a god. You simply have more choices available to you.

Honestly, I don’t know which one, if any, of the theories are correct. If I had to guess, given the nature of 3E and 4E, I’d probably go with theory number three.

What I do know is that the gods are less important to clerics in newer editions than they were in older editions and, truthfully, that saddens me. I’ve always seen, and played, the cleric as a champion of their faith; one who was willing to stand up for their beliefs in the face of inevitable turmoil. A strong character, inside and out, who was eternally devoted to the god they believed in. But that’s just me.

So what do you think? Why do you think that choosing a god is no longer important to clerics in D&D?

Trapped in the mysterious Castle Amber. you find yourselves cut off from the world you know. The castle is fraught with peril. Members of the strange Amber family, some insane, some merely deadly, lurk around every corner. Somewhere in the castle is the key to your escape, but can you survive long enough to find it?

Published in 1981 and written by Tom Moldvay, this module is a classic. In fact, it’s been rated as the 15th greatest D&D adventure of all time. Now, it’s not a classic because its an epic adventure or because the adventurers run through it are so memorable. No, it’s because it’s so. freaking. weird.

I have actually played through the first part of it and I could never wrap my head around it. A few years back, someone on RPGnet decided to update it to 3.0 and run his players through it. I highly recommend taking the time to sit down and read it. It’s long (24 pages) but definitely worth it.

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=116562

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“It ate our mule!” exclaimed Scarlet.

“Don’t get me wrong, lady,” he said. “I’m just a regular guy trying to get by in the world. Even if it isn’t my own.”

The Mysterious Mule-Eating Mist was gone, and age caught up with the Château in an instant, crumbling the walls and toppling the turrets. Before long, the manse was in ruins. The players cheered heartily at the sight.