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| A Abraham Neddermann Die |
Rifting off of Sean Robson's blog,
Is the OSR Running Out of Steam? And a comment
Richard left about being more selective of which posts you read. The question is, what three subject on OSR blogs are done to death? When you see them you just groan and think not another one. And I'm sure more than a few of you smart guys are going to say posts that ask a question. :P
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Hmmm...I don't know that I think there are any topics done to death. I mean, I don't particularly care to read a lot of "building a better mousetrap" rules tweaks, I assume that means I'm the right audience for it, not that it's bad.
ReplyDeleteI suspect cycles of topics, E.G., descending vs. ascending AC come and go. Just as I can't keep up with all the OSR goodness coming out, I equally can't find time to troll the backlogs of Dragonsfoot threads. Something brand spankin' new for me is old news and dead for others.
ReplyDeleteIt might be more than three, but I'm probably not the target audience for posts...
ReplyDelete- with a picture of a die (only joking, and I'm probably not that smart),
- presenting supposed implications in a founding document,
- concerned with playing a game 'right',
- repeating information or news already widely-disseminated or coming from well-known blogs with little or no additional content,
- apparently taking a corporate hook, line and sinker, or
- allowing comments that will then be ignored,
... but I read most like this anyway in the hope of understanding the thinking better, and maybe being persuaded.
For me, random tables of everything got old pretty fast and I'm sure we have all of those we ever need. Also, I think 'Why 4th Edition Sucks' articles have had their day; now we can start gearing up for 'Why 5th Edition Sucks' articles ;) (though to be honest, I suspect that many of us are past caring what WotC does anymore, and we likely won't see the same backlash against their future editions).
ReplyDeleteThree things done to death:
ReplyDelete1. Edition Wars (for OR against)
2. People making "truth declarations" about gaming aspects/concepts (i.e. all first level characters are novices, PCs are not supposed to be heroes but rather glorified tomb robbers, story has no place in sandbox games, high mortality is sacred, etc.)
3. (the big one for me) Doomsayers predicting the end of the hobby as a whole or the OSR specifically (so what if you are right? Let's dance as the world burns, folks, and roll those dice like there's no tomorrow!)
I pretty much blog to vent my thoughts about the hobby and hope to converse with some like-minded folks. It's a lot of self discovery through venting with the potential side benefit of getting feedback from others. Other than that, I don't expect to offer anything too profound, nor do I care. I just want to occasionally talk about the hobby. I wouldn't care if the RPG blogosphere became that sort of realm, and had nothing more to do about product reviews, selling products, stumping for cons, etc.
I'll pretty much read anything. I might like to see fewer people bagging on the big companies and their games (I've especially become tired of the constant sniping at WotC and 4E - even 5E! - from some bloggers).
ReplyDeleteI absolutely do not believe the OSR is running out of steam or that any aspect of it is overdone.
ReplyDeleteThe OSR is "just" another part of the hobby now. Role-playing games as an industry have changed, new media has been embraced. We have kickstarter and digital distribution now, lots more one-man creative efforts and a general attitude that if we don't like what we're offered we can do it ourselves and share our work like never before. The OSR comes from this and so long as people feel inclined to publish I think it is here to stay.
"Sandbox" is starting to sound a lot like "Synergy" to me in some places... not all, but some. Basically, buzzwordy and vacuous.
ReplyDeleteAnd in a few places, the topic even picks up pseudo-religious overtones that bug me... as if people who don't lay out huge sandboxes are heathens of sorts.
I like sandboxes fine, but there's more than one way to play these games. Same thing goes with the edition wars comments, although I have to say that creative jokes about different games/editions can still make me giggle.
OSR bloggers that post political commentary get blocked. The web-o-tron is awash with political punditry. Please banish it from my favorite corner of the nets.
ReplyDelete