Contrarily, I think this gets at a part of the edition wars. The D&D Pope does exist, and publishes proclamations at regular intervals (for $49.95 MSRP each), and the Protestant gamers froth in their fury at the perceived abuses of their game that these contain.

Woah, that metaphor is getting too good for comfort.

Anyway, the tangential point I’m trying to make is that the grognardiat does perceive the officialness of 4e as a slight on their home games. There will always be people who say that deviations from the current official rules is “playing the game wrong”, and that does grate. It’s unavoidable so long as there is a canonical version, blessed by the D&D Pope to be in the spotlight.

Not so say that grognards don’t get in canon arguments, what with their “RAW” this and “RAW” that. Nobody who’s online can avoid analyses of the rules as-is, whatever the edition, and this will always produce a few people who escalate from trying to perfectly understand/use one particular set of rules to declaring that these are the zOMGbest rules. That’s why edition wars are inevitable.

Tribalism, too, is inevitable on the internet. Going from “I’m the only one who does X” offline to “there are others who like X as much as I do!” online, and the resulting tribe-like communities, is just the Network Effect at work.

d7´s last blog post: Essential reading on Beliefs in Burning Wheel

Man, do I have to run around the internet giving my few words of wisdom to distill the above into its atoms? The one kernel of truth, that even on our crankiest days binds us all to EGG’s baby?

The best edition of D&D is the one you play with your friends, house rules and all.

- When you shift one square because your daily power lets you, to the cheers of your friends, you’re playing the best edition of D&D.

- When your only sword becomes breakfast for a Rust Monster to the jeers of your friends, you’re playing the best edition of D&D.

I do think there are a few fundamental elements to D&D: Themes of adventure and treasure, the stat block at its simplest (the 6 attributes, HP, AC), the opportunity to beat up kobolds. The rest are the infinite variations spawned from a few simple and elegant notes. Even the old-school folk know it. They just get grumpy sometimes because some of those variations grate on them, but it doesn’t stop their love of the game, not really.

These discussions will come and go much quicker when we realize that these are individual opinions, not ex cathedra proclamations from the Pope.

I see all too many new-edition people who’ve clearly never played an extended old-edition campaign, and too many old-edition people who’ve clearly never played a new one. I see too many people on both sides who have people-related problems and blame the systems. (I’d have to lump your cleric of war in that category, actually — I’ve seen the same thing happen under 1e. You play a cleric, some groups will expect you to just heal them.)

I’m hoping it starts to calm down soon. I seem to recall the 2e/3e bitchfest going on for 18 months, give or take, though, so we might have another 9 months in store…

@noisms: I suppose if you can sit down at the table not caring who you’ll be playing, that works. I usually like to have a background in mind by then, though. I’m not sure I’d want to dedicate the first session to hashing all that out, just to get the benefit of additional randomness.

But that’s just me. Your mileage may vary, to coin a phrase.

noisms´s last blog post: More Extracts from My Game Idea Grimoire

1. Each side likes to lump everyone into buckets. I’m this, or that, you’re this or that. That’s no different from the comments here and the comments there and the comments everywhere. I’m probably guilty of it as well when I get too worked up over what is, after I calm down and think about it, just a simple expression of fondness for what I enjoy.

2. I have preferences and I have people that I like to play with. I happen to identify with those who play OD&D and older versions. Why is it wrong to say “I like to play this way and this way comes from older versions – I find nothing in particular that I like in the newer versions or in the way the vast majority of people who I’ve personally met, play these new versions” ? Why is that a Bad Thing?

I like the 3d6 chargen, I like ’save or die’, I like the whole kit and kaboodle and I have a lot of fun with the way I run/play it. I’ll be glad to take the slings and arrows for what I like, because I’m still going to do that at the end of the day. I may even enjoy a pickup game of something else now and then.

Chgowiz´s last blog post: Ask My Wife About the Solo Game

@Scott: I think you’re right–the end result’s the same. 1e, 2e, 3e are respectively the same games they’ve always been. But what we want out of a game–and therefore, I think what we tend to highlight about those experiences–certainly can change.

Zachary´s last blog post: Friday Discussion: Which RPG Rules/Setting Would You Love The Rights To?

Are you somehow implying that there are people out there who play their D&D with other rational adults! Mature human beings? Who (GASP!!!) might be friends with one another? You mean we’re not alone?