So I’m thinking of buying the core books for “Dungeons & Dragons” 2024 Edition.
Really. That’s it.
Now I’m fully aware that for the last couple of years I have railed against the corporate machine that is Wizards of the Coast, the makers of D&D since the 3rd edition. They are objectively bad for D&D, bad for tabletop gaming in general, just plain bad.
And what of Hasbro, the corporate overlords who own WotC? Those who demand the bastardization of D&D, forcing it into primarily digital play and micro transactions like it is a Free-to-Play video game… Yeah, those guys? What of them?
Well, what of them? I can still buy the books in physical form. I can still play in person, without paying a single dollar in microtransactions, despite how Hasbro would prefer I play their (oops, I mean WotC’s) game. I don’t have to follow the corporate line, they don’t control me! I roll my own dice.
I ROLL MY OWN DICE!
So, what is it about “Dungeons & Dragons” 2024 Edition that has me considering buying those core rulebooks? Well… I was looking at my shelves of roleplaying books the other day. I have actual official D&D books for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th edition, with games based upon the other editions (“Full Metal Plate Mail” based upon 1974’s 0E, and “Old School Essentials” being a reworked version of Basic/Expert (B/X) D&D) filling out the collections. But now that all three of the 2024E D&D books have been released, I feel the hole they represent in my collection.
Would I play 2024E, if I owned it? Probably not, but I don’t play “Full Metal Plate Mail” or 4th Edition, either. They still have a place in the collection. That collection would be clearly incomplete without them, and the completionist in me has me really wanting to buy the 2024E books.
That’s it. I’m a TTRPG whore. WotC/Hasbro can fuck themselves, I don’t want to give them money for their objectively bad products (Glue bound? Seriously, WotC?), but I want to complete my D&D collection, damnit!
Oh, wait. The 2024 SRD should soon be in the Creative Commons, if I read correctly. Maybe I just need to take those rules, combine them all together into a single digital file, them slap them up on Lulu.com, printing myself my own truncated version of the 2024 Edition.
At least it would fill that hole in the collection, without giving WotC or Hasbro a dime.
