WotC is Listening

Rechan · Aug 7, 2010

Mordenkenian’s Magical Emporium is a book of magic items designed to inject more story and descriptions into magic items. Not just a bland history, but a real story hinted at by the item’s description. The big news with this book, and all magic items in Essentials and going forward, is that magic items will be given “Common, Uncommon, Rare” designations. Common and uncommon items can be bought and created by characters. Rare items can only be given out by a DM. Most items already in existence are going to be retroactively classified as Uncommon, and almost all items going forward in new books will be Rare.

Player’s Handbook: Champions of the Heroic Tier is a set of options, almost like Unearthed Arcana, for characters to pick from and DMs to choose to use in their games. Character themes (introduced in Dark Sun) will be here for core D&D characters, in addition to new options, new feats, and non-combat options like Blacksmith professions that don’t cost feats to acquire.

Emphasis mine.

From the Q&A:

PDF and E-books for the game books: again, nothing to announce quite yet, but probably soon.
In the DM Kit and Rules Compendium, there will be alternatives to the “Treasure Parcel” system of giving out magic items, including random magic item tables. The new item rarity system also factors into an alternative system.
Races in Essentials will be retro-fitted to have an option in ability score adjustments, just like the PHB3 races.
The team is aware of how some groups dislike stun and daze, and so they’ve been using it more sparingly in the design of monsters. They are also taking more into account what happens when Solos get stunned or dazed.
One of Mike Mearls’s new job duties is to reduce the amount of errata in new rules going forward so not as much is needed.
One of Mike’s personal goals is to make the D&D books more interesting to read by themselves.

These things, above all others, show that WotC is at least listening to us. The complaints we have about 4e. The things we want out of 4e:

Unearthed Arcana like options.
Less Errata.
Better story to magical items.
Some variance to parcels, random tables.
Dealing with Daze and Stun.
Enjoyable reads for books.
Ebooks

I think this is a great sign. That we are being heard and they are working (slowly but surely) to not just make the game better, but to make it better when we ask for it.

ArcaneSpringboard · Aug 7, 2010

Rechan said:
I think this is a great sign. That we are being heard and they are working (slowly but surely) to not just make the game better, but to make it better when we ask for it.

A sign of a good company: Find out what the customers want, then sell it to them.

Kzach · Aug 7, 2010

[/QUOTE]
I like a lot of that.

Rarity of items is a great idea. Honestly, that's one of those really simple ideas that you think, "Geez, why didn't I think of that?" and yet will make a fairly big impression on the game. I can already imagine saying to players, "This vendor has a very small chance of having a rare item, so if you want something let me know and I'll roll to check if he has it,"

Vicar In A Tutu · Aug 7, 2010

I run 4E, it is my system of choice for heroic fantasy, but there are some issues with it that really bothers me. Bland magic items and the taxing parcel treasure idea, are two of my major peeves. The fact that 4E books also tend to be a bit generic and boring (or at least dry) to read, is another. Though I think this last point has been slightly improved in MM3 with their new design philosophy.

mach1.9pants · Aug 7, 2010

WotC is listening....

.....argh and I have misplaced my tinfoil hat!

Oh not that sort of listening, phew. Cos honestly I am in the process of updating all my books to the errata, Mr Mearls, honest. My books will be 100% WotC compliant before the end of the weekend, or the next maybe.

And yes:

"Unearthed Arcana like options.
Less Errata.
Better story to magical items.
Some variance to parcels, random tables.
Dealing with Daze and Stun.
Enjoyable reads for books.
Ebooks"

WIN WIN WINNITY WIN!

fba827 · Aug 7, 2010

Kzach said:
I like a lot of that.

Rarity of items is a great idea. Honestly, that's one of those really simple ideas that you think, "Geez, why didn't I think of that?" and yet will make a fairly big impression on the game. I can already imagine saying to players, "This vendor has a very small chance of having a rare item, so if you want something let me know and I'll roll to check if he has it,"

I suspect that the alt-treasure award system being released (it was mentioned in one of the descriptions for upcoming products) will have something sort of like what you just said.
Kind of like roll X on the common list, and if you get high enough it tells you to roll once on the uncommon or rare list, etc. And that villages and towns won't have more than one or two uncommon /rare items in their shops, etc.

alleynbard · Aug 7, 2010

Looking at all of the info coming out of Gencon, I was happy to see they were listening and acting on the concerns some people had. I think this is fantastic and I cannot wait to see all of these future releases. WotC proved to me they are a company to be supported. I was already a fan, but now there is the potential for me to become an incredibly loyal customer. I will look over these future releases a bit before I make the final decision, but this is great news.

I am extremely excited by the news that the 3rd Season of D&D Encounters is focusing on the Keep on the Borderlands. That pleased me greatly.

I'm A Banana · Aug 7, 2010

This + Essentials = WotC is doing quite well in my head.

I like 4e, I play and DM it, but I've got some big gripes. All of this will go a long way toward shutting my big yap.

mach1.9pants · Aug 7, 2010

Haha yeah I think that the essentials (and other stuff) has had the desired effect on some of the non 4E DnD fanbase, even if it means some just have another look.

Henry · Aug 8, 2010

Since Treasure Parcels don't seem to be gettin' much love across several of these threads, I might as well go on record as saying:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the treasure parcel system.

I don't mind alternate systems, but the treasure parcels are the FIRST time I've ever been able to properly gauge the wealth I'm handing out to my players without over or under-guessing. This whole "having one lump sum" thing and guesstimating how much I've given out over 5 or six sessions doesn't cut it for me. But striking off of a numbered list 1 to 10, and then just divvying up the wealth listed there in various creative ways, is a godsend to me.

Dole out all the alternate systems you want, just don't get rid of the treasure parcel idea in the future entirely, WotC!