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Wizards of the Coast is shutting down all their stores nationwide, as well as the Game Keeper stores... http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=11286 There's bound to be other paper RPGers out there that share my grief... :: sobs :: Satyagraha
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Fortunately the company is not going out of business. It will be focusing on game design, and its products will be sold by other stores.
Posts: 1041 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Thank goodness they're not completely shutting down...but it's so very nice to be able to just walk into a store... Satyagraha
Posts: 1986 | Registered: Apr 2001
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:: laughs :: I knew they were completely shutting down (their HQ is about 30 minutes away from my mother's house), I'm just really sad the stores are closing, they have some of the nicest people working at these stores... Satyagraha
Posts: 1986 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Hasbro is the devil. They were already stripping the WOTC stores of all roleplaying-related titles not directly published by Wizards of the Coast. Not even a single third-party d20 book on the shelves. One WOTC store in my town carried a single rack of 3.5 books, and nothing else but board games.
And now they're gone for good. I guess the stores just weren't doing well enough, I don't know, I've never seen their ledgers ... but between this and the gutting of Troika's last game, I'm pretty convinced that Hasbro is straight from hell.
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Oh, I was convinced of that the moment I saw the devil-inspired numerals "3.5". I didn't like d20 much before (although it was better than its predicessor), and I really don't like it now that the 3.5 books are declared the end-all of roleplaying games. I've come with in two or three comments of attacking my best freind over it, because he's a 3.5 weenie/lamer/zealot (English needs a word that means those three things). Why doesn't Wizards just change their marketing policy to 'Send your credit cards and signature handwriting samples to Wizards of the Coast, PO Box...'? Bastards. All of them.
Sorry, it's one of the few things left in this world that gets me mad and keeps me mad long enough to write such a venomous post. How dare they ruin a great roleplaying tradition with their...Gahhh!
Give me Silhouette / Nobilis or give me death!
[Edit] - A little calmer now: Why would you go to a Wizards store for RPGs? Just go to Borders. They've got cheap prices and a decent selection. For better selection, either go to a Con or buy online.
On the other hand, d20 isn't a great system, and much overpriced for the vanilla package (Borders is selling the new 3.5 books as a package for $85.00). Trust me, surf yourself over to www.dp9.com and pick up the Silhouette Core Book. It should be out by now. You'll have a simple, elegant RPG that can be bent to do anything. You'll never look back. If you really want a departure from Munchkins, Rules-lawyers, Power Gamers, Minmaxers, and the like, go buy Nobilis. Even after buying both of those, you're still spending less than you would on the core Dungeons and Dragons books.
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Well that's a bummer. I guess I'll have to take them off the list of potential charitable givers for children's needs. Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Egad. I never thought I'd live to see someone recommend the Silhouette system, which sucks so badly that it's created localized black holes and pretention vortexes in every subdivision where the book's been opened. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I only played three on table, but I played Baldur's Gate extensivly. I could never quite figure out that whole THAC0 thing.
Posts: 650 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Demonstration of the amount of space in Geoff's brain filled with totally useless information:
THAC0 means "To Hit Armor Class Zero". You have a number, usually 20 at level 1. That's the number you have to roll on a 20-sided die in order to hit a monster with an armor class of zero. So if your THAC0 is 20, and you're up against an AC 0 critter, you only have a five percent chance of hitting.
When a monster has an armor class other than zero, you subtract it from your THAC0 before rolling. So an AC 10 monster is easier to hit (50% chance if your THAC0 is 20), and a -10 AC monster is much harder to hit (impossible at low levels).
This system is completely insane. They could have made it much, much simpler just by flipping the Armor Classes around, so you could add them your your THAC0, rather than subtracting them. Would have been much more intuitive.
But the d20 system's big, revolutionary step was rewriting that whole combat system into a set of bonuses (instead of THAC0) and a target number to roll (AC), a system that could also be translated into general rolls against skills and attributes. The process of rolling became more intuitive and easier to learn by habit, making it virtually invisible.
Heh heh. Time to go learn something useful, I think ...
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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I've only played once or twice with THAC0. Almost every other weekend I will be playing d20 with co-workers *which I've played 2 times now* and I must say that its WAY easier than when I tried to play it a long time ago (THAC0)
Posts: 1132 | Registered: Jul 2002
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From what one of the WotC game designers said, version 3.5 came out because of Hasbro's insistence on continual, rolling profits.
Monte Cook explained that ver 3.0 was a long-needed attempt at reworking the game system and that the staff felt very comfortable with what they came out with. The open license agreement on the D20 system almost guaranteed its success since the other games offered by outside companies would still require purchase of the Player's Handbook and DM's Guide.
Well, 3.0 sold like hotcakes and was the biggest thing TSR or WotC had put out in RPGs (take a lot to beat WotC's success with Magic:TG). Hasbro, the new owners, was ecstatic about the sales, but didn't realize immediately how the core books weren't a commodity that the players would buy again and again, unlike Magic cards and whatnot. Why buy a second Handbook or Guide once you had one?
There were, of course, sales of the supplements, but nothing like the big rush to get the ver 3.0 core books when they were unveiled. Hasbro, as a corporation, wanted to recapture that big surge and sexy up the bottom line for their stock-holders.
Well, the game designers had known from the start that 3.0 would need some tweaking once it had gotten out to the general public. As the public got it and played it, the suggestions came rolling back in. The original intention was to offer 3.5 as a single book, incorporating all of the necessary updates and the product would be complete.
But Hasbro stepped in and said, "hey, why not do an entire rework? You guys are already starting to work on 4.0 (for release a few more years down the road), slap what you've already got for that in with the 3.5 stuff and we'll do a quick rework on all the core books."
And, to keep the paychecks flowing, the game designers did just that. And, for the most part, it has been a commercial flop.
Posts: 2848 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I don't play D&D, but I love what WoTC has done with the Star Wars RPG. I've never had more fun roleplaying than when I play that game.
Posts: 4600 | Registered: Mar 2000
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