Retconning

This is one of several thoughts/suggestions regarding the upcoming fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons (5e). Relevant news items: nytimes and wizards.

Don’t retcon. When you royally screw up, don’t screw up again by attacking it with a giant magic marker. Doing that just makes you look childish… or like the government. Here’s how you fix it.

When you screw up, acknowledge it and talk to us.

It’s the DM’s right (and I would argue responsibility) to remove stupid things from the game. However, DMs are people too, and we don’t always see things from your point of view. In fact, since you know what you’re going to be releasing in the next year or so, and we don’t… you should assume that we never see things from your point of view. We are completely in the dark about your intentions. We do, however, remember your screwups in the past. This is not a positive situation for either side.

So when you get a bunch of negative feedback on something, you should make a tactful “press release” —to DMs and players, not to the Wall Street Journal— acknowledging that you’re seeing that some folks dislike this particular event in this particular setting. Give us some creative suggestions about how we can (A) put a spin on the event to minimize the negative impact on play and create some interesting opportunities out of it, or (B) eliminate that specific event while still using the other material in that sourcebook. This allows us to (1) see that you’re sensitive to our reactions, and (2) get as much value as possible out of each sourcebook without trashing the book or the entire edition in frustration because it seems like everything that comes after that depends on this wacko event that we have no intention of including in our game.

If you need a practical example, consider the players that you flat-out repulsed with the Time of Troubles. Not only were you changing the rules of the game they had enjoyed up until that point, but you were also trashing the Realms at the same time with this bizarre the-gods-are-duking-it-out-on-faerun-and-every-mage-is-a-wild-mage-now plotline. That was a big deal. 4e was even worse.

This ties in with RSEs, addressed elsewhere… ideally, you’ll stop making these stupid mistakes, but when they sneak in at least respect the setting and your customers enough to help us work around them.

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