The Culture: The Decay In Conventional Play Has Been Here A Long Time

"But you can't say that Conventional Play is just a shit videogame."

Yes, I can. Behold! Nethergate: Resurrection from 1998. Now available on Steam and GOG (and updated to run on later OSes), this old PC game has everything that was a regular topic of discussion and publication back in the day but did all of it better.

There is also a Celt campaign.

Ladies and gentleman, at this time a declining TSR saddled the trivumverate that rooked Gygax out of the company published the following titles for AD&D2e (the first suck edition):

• Celts Campaign Sourcebook
• The Glory of Rome Campaign Sourcebook

Or you could use some GURPS books, or some Pendragon supplements, or several others that are now forgotten.

Go ahead, tell me with a straight face that you can recreate the premise of Nethergate and get a game running at the same cost, in the same time, and reach anywhere near the same satisfaction or reach a definitive conclusion in the same amount of time played.

You won't. You won't even get most players to give you the time of day. When Dancey took over, he found this out via the survey but many online then (like me) had plenty of stories of failed attempts at pitching and execution. Conventional Play is far more constrained than either critics or Cultists will admit. That's why so many bled off to boardgames and videogames; those media did better at satisfying the want.

Follow SOBS to Vidya, bend the knee to Jeffro, or quit entirely. Those are your fates, Cargo Cultists. Choose. Now.