So the joke about future D&D editions having collectible randomized rules modules has been around for a few years. But there's always been a germ of truth to it: we knew it was coming in some way, just not exactly how.
Now we do. And no, don't worry - it's not that silly old canard of "Aha! I just got the rare grappling rules!"; that would be silly. No game could work like that.
No, it seems that a more pragmatic approach is being taken. Instead of randomized rules modules, 5E will have a new, proprietary randomized statistics system.
What this means is that - as expected, you have a deck of cards rather than an actual character sheet. Your ability scores are represented by a card - so you might have the "Constitution" card and the "Wisdom" card, while another player may have "Intelligence" and maybe one of the rare ability scores. Accomplishing a task is a very quick and simple card game - it only takes 15 minutes or so.
Your DM, on the other hand, will be collecting dungeon furnishings such as "Wooden Door", "Pit Trap", "T-Junction", "Stairs", and so on. In essence you play your hand of ability acores against the furnishings in the DM's hand. So you may play Strength against a door, or Charisma against the Relectant Guard card.
So where do dice come in? Well, that's easy! That's how you determine the size of your hand. And when you take damage, you lose cards randomly chosen by your opponent. This has the beauty of tying in the conditions system - rather than a positive condition, a condition is now defined by the lack of a card; if you have no Dexterity card, you are slowed, for example. No Strength card means that you're paralyzed.
It's not clear yet how the cards will be sold. The starter box will obviously contain a wide variety of randomized cards, and it's expected that additional cards will come in randomized sets of six or so.
The designers have been careful to describe how this new system will "keep the essence of D&D", and I feel that they have succeeded. I mean, D&D has always been random - dice, wandering monster tables, rolling for ability scores. It's clear that the "essence of D&D" is, in fact, randomness.
The spell cards are a thing of beauty. I know, you're expecting each spell to be a randomized card; but no - that would be silly. No, what we have is a much more elegant system. Each spell attribute is a randomized card - duration, range, area of effect, targets, and so on. You also get elemental cards to represent the damage type (or protection - that's random, too), and a card for each school of magic. There's only one card per school, though, so if you have more than one spellcaster you'll be "sharing" the magic. It can be quite tricky when you turn over a high damage fireball, and then your next card defines the target as "yourself", but that's just part of the risk of being a spellcaster. You get to describe the spell yourself, making it very freeform and flexible. For example, you might get the cards "ice", "30' radius", "9d6 damage", "illusion", "all allies", and from that you have the complete freedom to describe an awesome icy-burst damaging illusion spell which hits your allies.
One disadvantage of the system is that I discovered that "Initiative" is a rare card. I'm not sure how that's gonna work out in play.
More news as we get it!
Now we do. And no, don't worry - it's not that silly old canard of "Aha! I just got the rare grappling rules!"; that would be silly. No game could work like that.
No, it seems that a more pragmatic approach is being taken. Instead of randomized rules modules, 5E will have a new, proprietary randomized statistics system.
What this means is that - as expected, you have a deck of cards rather than an actual character sheet. Your ability scores are represented by a card - so you might have the "Constitution" card and the "Wisdom" card, while another player may have "Intelligence" and maybe one of the rare ability scores. Accomplishing a task is a very quick and simple card game - it only takes 15 minutes or so.
Your DM, on the other hand, will be collecting dungeon furnishings such as "Wooden Door", "Pit Trap", "T-Junction", "Stairs", and so on. In essence you play your hand of ability acores against the furnishings in the DM's hand. So you may play Strength against a door, or Charisma against the Relectant Guard card.
So where do dice come in? Well, that's easy! That's how you determine the size of your hand. And when you take damage, you lose cards randomly chosen by your opponent. This has the beauty of tying in the conditions system - rather than a positive condition, a condition is now defined by the lack of a card; if you have no Dexterity card, you are slowed, for example. No Strength card means that you're paralyzed.
It's not clear yet how the cards will be sold. The starter box will obviously contain a wide variety of randomized cards, and it's expected that additional cards will come in randomized sets of six or so.
The designers have been careful to describe how this new system will "keep the essence of D&D", and I feel that they have succeeded. I mean, D&D has always been random - dice, wandering monster tables, rolling for ability scores. It's clear that the "essence of D&D" is, in fact, randomness.
The spell cards are a thing of beauty. I know, you're expecting each spell to be a randomized card; but no - that would be silly. No, what we have is a much more elegant system. Each spell attribute is a randomized card - duration, range, area of effect, targets, and so on. You also get elemental cards to represent the damage type (or protection - that's random, too), and a card for each school of magic. There's only one card per school, though, so if you have more than one spellcaster you'll be "sharing" the magic. It can be quite tricky when you turn over a high damage fireball, and then your next card defines the target as "yourself", but that's just part of the risk of being a spellcaster. You get to describe the spell yourself, making it very freeform and flexible. For example, you might get the cards "ice", "30' radius", "9d6 damage", "illusion", "all allies", and from that you have the complete freedom to describe an awesome icy-burst damaging illusion spell which hits your allies.
One disadvantage of the system is that I discovered that "Initiative" is a rare card. I'm not sure how that's gonna work out in play.
More news as we get it!
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