WotC Hasbro CEO Chris Cox talks about D&D on NPRs Here & Now. Topics include Layoffs and OGL.

[Henadic Theologian]

Speaking as a woman who was around during that time, the way I remember it was that mostly you rolled your eyes at the art and moved on. There wasn't much choice because that kind of thing was so ubiquitous, so you expected that sometimes you'd have to push past it to get to the good stuff. Which means that kind of everything started at a -1 or more, to the point where sometimes you didn't even really notice it.

I also remember having a sense of levels of cheesecake--did the cover just have a busty sorceress in a tight but not particuarly low-cut dress? That was pretty tame and I'd barely even pay attention at the time, but I bet it would get some blowback today. But I'd side-eye a full-on chainmail bikini that covered less than half of the "territory," especially if paired (on the same character) with a chainmail loincloth slit up to there. That would be a clue that this thing might not be intended for me--call it a -5.

To be fair there was plenty of Conan style beef cakery as well, maybe not as much, but plenty.

 

[jayoungr]

To be fair there was plenty of Conan style beef cakery as well, maybe not as much, but plenty.

Yeah--I think on the whole, people were just a lot less sensitized to cheesecake/beefcake than they are now. Whether that is better or worse than today, I'll leave as a subject for others.

 

[darjr]

A small group of people had a talk with Chris Cox this week and he confirms he's a roleplayer and is currently playing in a campaign set in Kara-Tur. He's keen on updating Kara-Tur for modern D&D but did not announce any firm plans. He listened politely to ideas for expanding coverage of the settings and for looking into republishing the novel range beyond the recent Drizzt reprints, but seemed (maybe understandably) keen to avoid making any firm commitments on anything. Still, interesting.

@Morrus

 

[Henadic Theologian]

A small group of people had a talk with Chris Cox this week and he confirms he's a roleplayer and is currently playing in a campaign set in Kara-Tur. He's keen on updating Kara-Tur for modern D&D but did not announce any firm plans. He listened politely to ideas for expanding coverage of the settings and for looking into republishing the novel range beyond the recent Drizzt reprints, but seemed (maybe understandably) keen to avoid making any firm commitments on anything. Still, interesting.

You ninja'd me, dang sorry didn't see your post until after I made a thread about this.

 

[darjr]

You ninja'd me, dang sorry didn't see your post until after I made a thread about this.

I think it deserves a new thead