This Week's Random Gaming Thoughts

• The latest Next packet renamed the "Wizard" class - now it's "Mage" and I am amazed at the amount of commentary on such an insignificant switch. It's fun though - you can tell the age/experience level of many of the comment-makers though as they post things like "that's definitely a move towards World of Warcraft fans" or other assumptions that it's always been "wizard" and this is some kind of radical change. Heck, some of us still abbreviate them as M-U's without even thinking about it.

• Lots of people on the boards calling for non-spellcasting rangers. I still don't get this. There's a lot of retro in Next and rangers have cast spells since OD&D. Where does this come from? Maybe I've been watching too much Bill Cavalier but there's already a class of non-spellcasting rangers: IT'S CALLED THE FIGHTER!

• 13th Age is to 4E as Castles and Crusades is to 3E

•  Really getting tired of RPG books referred to as "product". Aren't these supposed to be labors of love? Isn't this a creative niche hobby thing? Isn't most of this "product" created by companies with fewer than ten employees? If so why do we have use corporate lingo to describe it? Sure, the WOTC guys can call it that, but Tinydice Press doesn't need to use it in their "press releases" or on podcast interviews - talk about it like you give a sh*t, not like you're a corporate salesman who had nothing to do with the creation of the "product". Yes, I work in corporate marketing and some of that stuff has a place but a lot of it is just buzzwords and trying to sound trendy. You don't need it in RPG's! The same thing goes for "brand" too - I'll save that for another time

• I really like the Cortex Plus system as it appeared in the Marvel Heroic game. It's a cool change of pace game from D&D and a lot of other traditional type RPG's. That said I really don't care for the licenses they keep picking up. Even as a fan of Firefly, I don't really need a game dedicated to it, and if I do I have Traveller. I know we have the Cortex Hacker's Guide but MWP please consider developing some non-licensed settings for your really cool system - I think there's an audience for it.