When I was younger, I too hated the Shemp shorts. I too only knew that I didn't like them because Curly was gone. When I read about Curly's life and that Shemp replaced Curly after his declining health, I developed new respect for Shemp. Now both my daughter and son love the Stooges, and they too express disappointment when "it's a Shemp one"... but they always laugh and that means Shemp was doing something right too.
My gut is that WotC is scrambling to make up for the many fissures that 3.0/3.5/4E/DD Insider have caused to D&D's standing in pen and paper rpgs. My group has switch to Pathfinder after a stint playing 4E.
I'm really liking Pathfinder, though I was a staunch holdout for D&D. They still sell pdf books and they allow SRD's. These are huge for a group like mine where we can't all afford to buy new rule books. The open access to there system allows us to get our less rule inclined players to get to the game.
I'm really liking Pathfinder, though I was a staunch holdout for D&D. They still sell pdf books and they allow SRD's. These are huge for a group like mine where we can't all afford to buy new rule books. The open access to there system allows us to get our less rule inclined players to get to the game.