The Future of D&D Seminar - Full Video from PAX East

Morrus · Apr 9, 2012

ColonelHardisson said:
This is the first one I've seen. I knew they did one, but I guess I missed the video somehow. I would likely have had a similar reaction to the earlier video. It helps to actually see and hear them.

The ones from DDXP are linked to in the 5E Info page. Well worth a watch.

ColonelHardisson · Apr 9, 2012

Morrus said:
The ones from DDXP are linked to in the 5E Info page. Well worth a watch.

Ah, good. Thanks. I must be blind or stupid, or both; I check that page every so often and links to videos somehow never registered. So much for my reading comprehension.

Morrus · Apr 9, 2012

ColonelHardisson said:
Ah, good. Thanks. I must be blind or stupid, or both; I check that page every so often and links to videos somehow never registered. So much for my reading comprehension.

Yeah, they're kinda buried in the middle. I need to work on the layout a bit.

ColonelHardisson · Apr 9, 2012

Morrus said:
Yeah, they're kinda buried in the middle. I need to work on the layout a bit.

No, it's not that. It's my increasing decrepitude. My state of being is increasingly becoming a series of variations on "what was I looking for again?"

Mantriel · Apr 9, 2012

Morrus said:
Yeah, they're kinda buried in the middle. I need to work on the layout a bit.

I missed those too. Would be cool if it would be more visible.

Edit: I changed my mind. Those vids are so bad quality, they are not worth watching. Thank you guys for making the transcripts.

Zustiur · Apr 9, 2012

The more I read and hear about 5E, the more it feels like they're writing it just for me.
That's great, right up until the point where they announce something that I don't agree with. At which point a 'small bad' might seem like a 'big bad' because it's such a contrast from all the good things I'm hearing.
I guess I'm a bit apprehensive; and if I am, then a lot of other players will be too.

Still, I'll live the high for now

Tilenas · Apr 9, 2012

I agree with most of the talk, but "wizards like to blow things up"? Really? Again? As a Eureka Moment?

If anything, that Eureka Moment should have been that wizard players don't want to just blow things up, because that was 4e's whole wizard concept and, in my experience, far from popular...

johnsemlak · Apr 9, 2012

Morrus said:
I'd add that my biggest fear is this whole "modern rules + classic feel" concept, because intuitively I don't see that as being possible. In my opinion, that classic feel was shaped BY the ruleset; that the warts were a feature, not a bug, and that you can't replicate A New Hope with modern CGI.

I can't see how they're going to do that. But they're game designers and I'm not. I'll wait and hope, and I'm predisposed to optimism.

The solution to this is the approach Necromancer Games had in the 3e era. NG understood that 1st edition feel didn't mean they couldn't use the 'modern' (3e at the time) rules. Not only that, but their products took full advantage of options available in 3e that weren't possible in 1e rules. Most (and I stress most--obviously there's a minority that steadfastly stick to old rules) gamers who claim to want the classic feel don't really want the classic rules even if they might think they do.

Morrus · Apr 9, 2012

johnsemlak said:
The solution to this is the approach Necromancer Games had in the 3e era. NG understood that 1st edition feel didn't mean they couldn't use the 'modern' (3e at the time) rules. Not only that, but their products took full advantage of options available in 3e that weren't possible in 1e rules. Most (and I stress most--obviously there's a minority that steadfastly stick to old rules) gamers who claim to want the classic feel don't really want the classic rules even if they might think they do.

I think Necromancer Games was great, but I don't really think that's a fair comparison. Necromancer wrote adventures and monster books, mainly. WotC is writing the core D&D rules, which is a different kettle of fish altogether.

Necromancer published some great 1E-style adventures using the 3E ruleset, and WotC could emulate that and produce different styles of adventure for the 5E ruleset. But we're talking about the core rules themselves here.

Vyvyan Basterd · Apr 9, 2012

Morrus said:
I think Necromancer Games was great, but I don't really think that's a fair comparison. Necromancer wrote adventures and monster books, mainly. WotC is writing the core D&D rules, which is a different kettle of fish altogether.

Necromancer published some great 1E-style adventures using the 3E ruleset, and WotC could emulate that and produce different styles of adventure for the 5E ruleset. But we're talking about the core rules themselves here.

I would argue that you can't get that "D&D Feel" without good adventures. The rules themselves didn't have a 'feel' in 1E, it was the classic adventure modules we all shared.

This was a gap in 4E. There weren't many good 4E adventures. And those that were came along after large swaths of people gave 4E a pass. Those of us who do feel 4E 'felt like D&D' most likely felt that way because we produced that feeling through our own adventures. But I think a new system truly suffers when the publishers can't produce good examples of what an adventure for the system should look like.

My group did have fun playing Keep on the Shadowfell. But it will never hold our regard like Keep on the Borderlands.