I see what you're saying, and while I don't think you're wrong, I have also seen people react badly to the heist/downtime split of Blades in the Dark or the combat/everything else split in Lancer. So I think there's more going on here.

A good way to be, if you can swing it.

But where will I get the wisdom from?

I know *just* enough about art to know how much work went into that 'really bad job'. 😅

Oh, I forgot! D&D 4e is finally getting the respect it deserved.

Cards is definitely a thing. There's a lot of extremely cool card-based design going on, and a lot of card-based-game designers going "But how will I ever print this?"

(Or maybe this is just because I like card-based design so I see more of it.)

I've seen people play Milkshake on stream so I know it can be done!

Desperately courting that pre-teen voting bloc.

I haven't noticed that, but reading the other responses to Aaron's post has got me thinking that this is a 'blindfolded people try to describe an elephant by touch' sort of deal. Everyone's experiencing something different.

Theory-wise it's benighted out here, man. With very few exceptions it's all personal axe-grinding wrapped up in pseudo-academic language. Got me feeling like Diogenes, fixing to throw raw chickens at people and yell "BEHOLD, A GAME".

Design-wise, relying on the GM (or the group) to already know what they're doing seems to be in. I'm seeing a lot of games released at best 'minimal' but more usually 'incomplete' then papering over that with instructions for how the GM should expand (fix) it in play.

Solo games are in. Smaller creators seem to be (citation needed) feeling an economic squeeze. Crowdfunding isn't what it used to be. Exporting to America is fucked, which is a problem because that's where the big market is.

Sounds like a high-risk/high-reward strategy there.

Tabletop RPGs are so very much my ideal hobby that I struggle to explain their appeal to other people. I just sort of wave Fellowship or something at them and go "Aren't you convinced yet? How about now?"

Me progressively turning the rant into an article into two paragraphs then realising there's nothing to be gained by posting at all.