The New Oral Tradition

[Tolerant Fanboy]

A how-to guide to optimize specific character traits? My god, this couldn't be more twinky if it was written in cream filling on yellow cake...

I will omit any opinion I have on 4e, having never played it. I am enjoying campaigns of both Exalted and Pathfinder at the moment, though.

 

[nick kessler]

In response to Crunchy English (at the top of page 1),this is exactly the kind of approach we should bear in mind. D&D, of course, is a game, and can be played however you want to. The thing I kind of dislike about all this D&D commentary is a lot of people (including WotC) are alienating players in the process of trying to be helpful. It doesn't make any sense, but I think game designers gave up a long time ago and have turned to moneymaking practices.

 

[Blackbird71]

WoW railroad talent trees? How? Feats which have been in D&D since forever?

You are aware that there was a time not that long ago when D&D did not have feats at all, right?

 

[Lord_Kristof]

I believe the new "oral tradition" is captured in the Wizards podcasts nowadays.
The Penny Arcade and Robot Chicken episodes show new gamers how the game can be played.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/podcasts.aspx
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/videos.aspx

Let me just say that I think those Robot Chicken videos are awful. They are amusing to watch and all, but if this is what the creators of D&D think an RPG session should look like, I'll just stand over there in the corner and cry myself to sleep.

Seriously, that one session they're playing is atrocious. The worst possible way of introducing the hobby to new people is to make it a chore, and that's exactly what the GM did there...

For some more thoughts on that, I put down an entry in my gaming blog a while back. Have a look. http://lets-talk-about-games.blogspot.com/2010/10/rpg-geek-introducing-people-to-rpgs.html