How do you feel about the future of D&D after the official announcements?

Morrus · Jan 12, 2012

Interesting that the percentages haven't varied by more than a percent or two since there were just 100 votes.

billd91 · Jan 12, 2012

Morrus said:
Interesting that the percentages haven't varied by more than a percent or two since there were just 100 votes.

But not all that surprising. You can do an awful lot with small sample sizes. The main bias in ENWorld polls (non-random sampling of self-motivated participants) won't be significantly affected by sample size.

bhandelman · Jan 12, 2012

Morrus said:
Interesting that the percentages haven't varied by more than a percent or two since there were just 100 votes.

Now I wonder if someone took all the posts in response and totaled those numbers, how would that compare?

Banshee16 · Jan 12, 2012

delericho said:
Relieved. Hopeful. More than a little glad that we don't seem to be seeing a lot of Edition Warring - maybe people really are ready for reunification.

But not confident. I fear making a D&D that is all things to all people is an impossible task, I fear that WotC may still be labouring under impossible requirements from Hasbro. And I can't help but remember thinking that they were doing exactly the right things with 4e, right until they took an horrific wrong turn.

So, positive, but with significant reservations.

Not to start an edition war, but I'd contest that whether or not they were doing the right things with 4E depends on whether or not you *liked* 4E.

Now, either Hasbro is putting on pressure for them to have shorter lifespans to the editions OR they recognize that something went wrong with the way they went about 4E, and they allegedly lost a number of customers, and cut the edition short. They gained new customers, but there sure seemed to be a heck of a lot of acrimony.....for years.

I wonder where this announcement places Pathfinder? I guess the proof is in the pudding as to how good Pathfinder is. If it's strong enough to stand on its own two feet.

I don't think there's enough info on 5E to really make any decisions. I like what Monte's done, and hope to see some of the mechanics systems of 4E go away (daily, encounter, etc.)......at least with respect to it being the mechanic on which all actions for all classes is determined.

I really liked some of the other elements, like the Feywild etc. Only took 4 editions to get that added into the game.

I'd love to see Wizards act more like Magisters from Arcana Unearthed........a spellcasting system that may have its roots in Vancian spellcasting, but is not so much "fire and forget". He also designed an interesting spell building system for his "World of Darkness" adaptation. But I suspect it may be difficult for them to backtrack on the changes to how magic worked in 4E.

Banshee

Belgos · Jan 13, 2012

Banshee16 said:
I wonder where this announcement places Pathfinder? I guess the proof is in the pudding as to how good Pathfinder is. If it's strong enough to stand on its own two feet.

Banshee

Pathfinder has been standing on its own two feet for some years now.

Azgulor · Jan 13, 2012

Harlekin said:
You are saying way too many sensible thing s today, i can't XP you twice. It is nice though, that your point is immediately illustrated by the post following yours.

Think what you will. WotC's actions & design choices resulted in me having the stance towards them that I do. That said, I'm giving them a chance rather than dismissing them outright.

Glad to see those who have a different viewpoint than you won't have to do without snark between now and the 5e launch...

migo · Jan 13, 2012

I'm positive. A big reason has to do with what really bothered me about 3e and 4e. 3e is released, then bugs are figured out and 3.5 comes out to fix those bugs. 4e is released, some bugs are figured out and Essentials is released to fix them. 3 years first time, 2 years second time. The first releases each time were essentially open betas that everyone paid for.

An open beta for 5e will at least cut that out, and it'll increase the longevity of the system. Although, with 3.5 lasting 5 years, and 4e as a whole barely lasting 4 that still doesn't suggest it'll last too long.

Probably one of the best things they could do is guarantee this one will last at least 10 years. Not holding my breath for that though, but at least it doesn't get split up in two editions.

harpy · Jan 13, 2012

Overall I'm not really sure what to think.

The real problem in all of this that I see is that Hasbro wants $50/$100 million in revenue for D&D and the RPG marketplace simply isn't that.

If WotC could just be left to make a really good $30 million dollar per year game then I think it could all go rather well, but if Hasbro is going to hover over, demanding more be squeezed from the market then it'll mean various strategies and initiatives that will not yield the best game experience, play design, or community development.

D&D shouldn't be governed by stockholders who have no care in the world for D&D, just the money in people's pockets.

Banshee16 · Jan 13, 2012

Belgos said:
Pathfinder has been standing on its own two feet for some years now.

Yes, it has. But it's done that at a time when there was a relatively significant rift in the fanbase.

As such, if 5E does away with the things that caused many people to turn from D&D in 4E, would that shrink Pathfinder's customer base to too large a degree?

I'm cautiously optimistic about the idea of 5E. I'm not sure Hasbro and some of the current designers who created 4E have the same goals in mind for the game, to satisfy my desires for D&D....but Monte Cook's back, and I've liked almost everything he's done over the years.

I don't know how they'll do it though. 2E/3E and 4E were so different, I don't know how they'd reconcile the two systems to create a 5E. They're very much different games.

Banshee

Dice4Hire · Jan 13, 2012

Quite positive. I like their stated design goals and am looking forward to seeing how it works out.

Not sure if it will all work out hos I like it, but still positive.