Fast forward to today. The problem? There is no longer any competition in the RPG sphere, 5E has put them all in the dust. And the greatest RPG geniuses end up going to Video Games sphere and making more than the tens of dollars they could make in RPGs. What is D&D left with? The scraps. And specifically in the biggest companies (or the biggest we can muster), we have corporate-overlord bootlicking DEI hires. The most useless, soulless, pointless, brainless wastes of flesh imaginable. Poster children for both birth control and abstinence. All the good people set out on their own. Some of the bad as well. And those people compete. And that's why the indie scene is where all the good stuff is now.
Years ago, I said that when 6th edition comes out, nothing will fundamentally change in D&D. This was true since time immemorial because everyone is scared shitless of fucking with the bones of D&D. The last time they did it was 4th edition, and even it's most die hard fanbase will tell you that the game ceases to be D&D (they think it something better, but there's no accounting for taste). Now 6th edition has arrived in everything but name (that comes next year when calling it D&D 2024 sounds old and shitty). This new crop of retards didn't even manage to get all the books to come out on the 50th anniversary.
And they changed the game again. Pre-bloated it, effectively removed the purpose of races, half-ass removed alignment, removed any semblance of dungeon adventure as the baseline loop. They proved me wrong. And they'll know why I should have been right when nobody buys or plays this, and D&D goes dormant again like the stretch between 2009 and 2013. Except I fear this one is going to last longer. Well, fear is too strong a word. Expect. I have access to my outlaw games and grognard ways. I'm not scared that D&D is going back to the basement. I welcome it. We need to move the hobby back to the fringes so it can grow again. Artistically grow that is. Everything out now is slop. And 6th edition is sloppier than late-stage 5th edition.
If we can get back to where there are dozens of single-person companies with an idea, persistence, and a dream it would be for the best. Your Kevin Crawfords and Chubby Funsters will naturally rise to the top of the food chain. Your Kelsey Dionnes and Ben Miltons will fall off the face of the fucking earth. Because in a very real sense, adequate isn't good enough anymore and adequate is the best these people can produce. Adequate is what 5E was, and it brought us to the cycle of mediocrity that was late stage 5E. D&D hasn't seen greatness since the Rules Cyclopedia. I look forward to seeing it again. In a few decades, after all this woke bullshit has blown over and we're in a period of enlightenment again. It MIGHT be starting now, but I don't think it is. We've seen false starts to the end of woke before.
