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It's funny, because it almost feels like I've won some sort of election.  I'm acutely aware of the pressure of the position, the expectations,  and the current atmosphere among D&D fans. I think I had a few  minutes of ecstasy. Since then, it's been a long week and a lot of  thinking.

This is also a new position in the department. I'm taking on a lot of  Bill Slavicsek's responsibilities. Bill's responsibilities have  broadened to include more things like boardgames, novels, Heroscape, and  so on. There's a lot more to D&D than just the RPG. The RPG is my  corner to play in, while Bill looks over the entirety of D&D.

Believe me, I realize how difficult this job is. There are far more  paths that lead to my screwing up than to my doing a good job. It's the  geek equivalent of running a professional sports team. Do well, and  everyone loves you. Screw up, and you'll never hear the end of it.

There's something pretty basic to the job, though. The gist of it, when  you boil it all down, isn't rocket science.

Way back in the misty days of the 1980s, when I first discovered  D&D, I thought Gary Gygax, Tom Moldvay, Doug Niles, Tracy Hickman,  and the entire TSR crew were demigods. I loved poring over Dragon  magazine, reading through adventures like Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun  again and again, and studying the DMG. I devoured the Dragonlance novels. I fought  battles across our basement floor with legions of BattleSystem counters.  I filled the few, precious pieces of graph paper I had with dungeons. I  designed classes and monsters. I loved D&D.

Then, something happened. TSR dropped Gary. Greyhawk was pushed aside.  When 2e came out, I was torn. There were plenty of things to like about  the game, but the attitude around it was off. It almost seemed like the  people behind D&D didn't particularly care for the way I loved  D&D. Maybe I was completely irrational, but the game felt changed in  some insidious way.

As time went on, that feeling only increased. There were bright spots,  most notably Dungeon magazine, but a lot of the stuff TSR put out didn't  really speak to why I fell in love with D&D in the first place. I  wanted to love D&D, but it wasn't really clear that the company  behind D&D wanted to return that love.

I actually stopped playing D&D for a few years. I ran a grand total  of one (terrible) campaign in college. I wasn't really sure that D&D  was something I'd be involved with anymore. I bought a PS 1 and started  playing lots of console games. I ended up sticking with RPGs, but I  kept to games like Deadlands and Unknown Armies.

Then something pretty cool happened. In 1999, at my very first GenCon, I  sat in the audience as Ryan Dancey announced 3rd edition. It was like a  religious revival. One presentation and free t-shirt later, and I was a  complete convert. My friend Nate called it a money grab, an appeal to  munchkins. I think my exact response was, "**** you dude. This is the  best thing that's ever happened to D&D."

For whatever reason, the entire presentation of 3e's announcement felt like it had been directed  straight at me. I was a complete D&D goob again. Hallelujah, praise  Gygax, my faith was restored.

A year later, my faith had been well-placed. 3e was awesome. D&D felt like the game I always  had wanted it to be.

In looking back, I think that my job is fairly simple. I want people to  love D&D. I want people to feel like the game is in good hands, that  the hand at the tiller is confident, smart, and genuinely interested in  the good of the game.

It's easy for me to look at this as the chance for me to make D&D  into the game I always wanted it to be, but that would be disingenuous.  It'd be the height of vanity, a monument to arrogance. D&D can't be a  game that caters to a single person. It's bigger than that. It lives  and dies by the collected spirit of every person that's ever picked up a  d20, put pencil to graph paper, or leaned close to the table as the  last character standing, clutching his last hit point, rolled his attack  against the BBEG.

Of course, actually doing that isn't simple, but it helps to have a  goal. I can't force anyone to love D&D. I can't legislate the game  into popularity, or commission a survey that will tell me exactly what  to do.

What I can do, though, is watch, listen, and learn. I can put everything  I have into D&D and hope for the best. At the end of the day, you  guys get to judge whether I'm doing a good or screwing up by buying or  avoiding the products I help make. That gets back to the election thing.  You guys didn't put me into office, but you sure as Hell get the chance  to kick me out.

If you have any questions, the best way to get in touch is by dropping a  line to my work email address (it's my first name dot last name at  wizards dot com, or drop a line to dndinsider at wizards dot com). I  can't answer everything, but I'll try. I'll also record answers to  interesting questions on the podcast. I'm on vacation this week. I like  reading web forums to see what's up, but they're not always the best  place to answer questions.

May 16, 2010 -- 8:03AM, Hocus-Smokus wrote:

How he can feel that 3E was a return to the basic premise of D&D and 2E was not is beyond me, but whatever floats his boat. 3E was the biggest departure from the rules since OD&D became AD&D (actually moreso, but that's for another thread). The entire presentation feels a little more like corporate butt-kissing than honest reflection, but hey...times are hard. Do what you need to do to keep your job.

That being said, I'm sure the game is in good hands. He seems to have his work priorities in order, and, coming from soneone who owns two businesses, that's a damn good start. And the butt-kissing part can be very beneficial, especially if you have a boss like me who rather likes having his butt kissed. He seems very aware that it's the fans who can ultimately sink him (and WotC in general), so catering to them as a whole is a very wise decision. Time will tell, as the old saying goes.

Even though I've grown my share of rancour towards 3e over the years I do have to say that when 3e was announced I felt very similar.

Of course at the time my tastes were also different than they became during the last decade: we were still happily playing 2e, but games like Deadlands and Alternity were challenging our notions of what mechanics should look like; the CRPGs that I played, like Daggerfall and Fallout and Ultima, were just as full of dense, bizarre quirks as D&D.

3e provided exactly what I wanted... in 1999.