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

freeAgent · Jan 11, 2012

Falstaff said:
The part that I underlined, can you tell me where you've seen WotC say this is their intent?

Sure,

"A WotC spokesperson answered, "The Forgotten Realms has a rich history and we will support all of it. It is for the gamers to decide which time they would enjoy playing in." That would allow Wizards to take advantage of a massive back catalog of products."

EN World: Your Daily RPG Magazine: Your Daily RPG Magazine

Falstaff · Jan 11, 2012

freeAgent said:
Sure,

"A WotC spokesperson answered, "The Forgotten Realms has a rich history and we will support all of it. It is for the gamers to decide which time they would enjoy playing in." That would allow Wizards to take advantage of a massive back catalog of products."

EN World: Your Daily RPG Magazine: Your Daily RPG Magazine

Right, thanks. I've read those quotes, but I don't see where they say that they're toning down or undoing the spellplague. No big deal, just thought I missed something.

Meatboy · Jan 11, 2012

I'm neutral. I tinker enough with the OGL that I have no problem amusing myself for years at a time. 4e had some really solid ideas, especially monsters, that made it really easy to prep and as the DM I loved that. As a tinkerer though 4e wasn't for me. Its mechanics were so well defined, refined, and oiled that getting new stuff out of it was a chore. Making a new class was just well... ugh

I spend a lot of my free time messing around with the idea of "what is the soul of dnd" and I hope that the designers of 5e can find it better that I have and come up with something that jives with my own assumptions about the soul of dnd.

Retreater · Jan 11, 2012

I originally would've had a negative opinion of the future of D&D after reading Monte Cook's columns. He seemed to have little grasp of the current edition, and to try to graft 3.5 skin onto the muscle of 4E would have created an unholy Frankenstein monster of a game system.

Since it's now clear that Wizards is creating a new edition, they may be able to get it right. They've cleaned up their PR and are involving the fans. That boosts my opinion quite a bit.

I'm still on a cautious "wait and see" level.

Retreater

Divine Bobhead · Jan 11, 2012

Tentatively positive. WOTC has a long way to go to show me that they can create this mélange of different editions into a coherent whole. If they can I will whole-heartedly support it, but I’ll admit it seems like an almost unattainable goal, no simply because of the difficulty but because of the resistance of people who simply want it to fail so they can say that they predicted it. I’ve played all the editions now and I’ve liked things about all of them and hated things about all of them, I look forward to a new edition simply to see what comes of it, with a goal this lofty it may be that the journey is better than the goal itself. Regardless, succeed or fail, I have to admire the willingness to try something like this and risk the chance of failure, particularly since I look at something like this and think it smacks of a “last chance to get it right” dictate on the part of Hasbro. I am more than likely wrong, but I could see it happening and it would be a shame for such an ambitious attempt to fail and result in the shelving of the game for a decade until Hasbro decides it’s “safe” to try again.

johnsemlak · Jan 11, 2012

I'm generally an optimist and cautiously hopeful, but I voted neutral. How much can we feel either way at this point with the information we have so far, or the lack of--no release date, no specifics on the edition, (almost) nothing of what will be left out or included? There's only some very vague indications of what direction they want to take; and it's highly possible that the final product will fail in those directions in many people's minds even if WotC state that those are design goals. We can form some conclusions based on what the design team appears to be, and what WotC's recent and overall track record is, but beyond that, I'd wait for more specifics before I start making a decision on whether I like what's coming or not.

Quickleaf · Jan 11, 2012

I voted neutral, because that's the net of positive and negative feelings.

Positive because "I BELIEVE IN MIKE & MONTE", there's been significant changes in the Wizards' hierarchy, and all the (vague) playtest feedback supports that they've succeeded in merging play-styles with the system.

Negative because they're chained to Hasbro (and all that entails), there's waaaay too much hype in the media, and there's been no defined examples so far of the beautiful synthesis they're promising. Promises from Wizards of the Coast? Hmm...

So neutral, with a healthy dose of skepticism and optimism.

anomalousman · Jan 11, 2012

Positive. The goals are exactly right. Continued fragmentation of the RPG hobby will kill it. What we need is a unified starting point, so that the RPG ecosystem can thrive. It needs to be open.

My quick reading of the RPG community 'what would you want to see in 5e?' threads immediately showed that there is no possibility of a tight game that will unify the community. Every 'I definitely want' was directly countered by a 'definitely don't want'. So we need to start with something viable and expect modding/house rules/rules extensions. We need something that smoothly extends from a quick start simple ruleset all the way up to crazy complexity. And we need the out-of-the-box ruleset to be quick to play and unbroken.

Execution is going to be hard, but they aren't going for a literally nonexistent perfection, but for a viable starting point. Let's hope their legal has the guts to execute the required OGL as well.

Barb · Jan 11, 2012

Very deceptive question. To me D&D isn't the brand, it's synonymous to sword and sorcery role-playing game. As such I'm positive about it's future, there's plenty of people that want to play that style of game, and will be for years to come.

As for WoTC's or Hasbro's involvement in D&D I'm skeptical at best. The whole DDi fiasco still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, and I still can't believe I ever fell for that miniatures ponzi scheme.

My feelings toward the design goals for the new edition are best described by the webcomic xkcd: Standards.

DangerAbe · Jan 11, 2012

Positive.

I played 4E and was very excited when it came out but as I played it I learned to dislike it and then hate it. Fights took too long, classes seemed identical, and every book seemed rushed to market in terms of layout and design (especially compared to the beautiful look and design of Pathfinder). I'm hoping for five things from 5E:

1. Don't add another NEW unrealistic -subsystem. Level, HP, and Armor Class are all unrealistic but I'm fine with them because they've always been there and a million different justifications have been devised concerning their use. I hated "Healing Surges". Old unrealistic things are fine because they are already accepted. Please, WotC, don't add another unrealistic thing to the game.

2. Return to iconic D&D Spells and a combined Spell List with different parts shared by all classes. It's strange when all the iconic D&D spells are now in Pathfinder and not D&D.

3. Create a universal Martial Power List similar to older edition spell lists. Let different martial classes pick and choose different powers like the old Bard/Cleric/Wizard spell list worked. Make them iconic.

4. Have all the core classes and races in the core book! 4E's initial class and race list sucked. WotC, hive us more from the get-go or you'll ruin your first impression.

5. Work out HP and AC so that every fight doesn't take 3 hours!