D&D 5E Jonathan Tweet & Rob Heinsoo: Making their own 5th Edition?

pauljathome · Apr 11, 2012

GM Dave said:
Does the shinny new thing in the room pull attention away from the others or is Pelgrane Press still small enough that the others don't notice?

Pelgrane Press Ltd 13th age

I like the pretty pictures and the tiny snippets of the world. I found that they alone inspired at least a couple of character concepts.

I have a lot of respect for the authors.

The game has an announced date. And a sufficiently well defined (and limited) scope that the goals seem achievable by that time.

Right now, it excites me far more than DndNext.

Its likely going to be significantly smaller than DndNext. But Pelgrane press is an established company with a good reputation and both authors have a good following. I'd expect this to be a good success by Pelgrane Press's standards. With a possibility of it becoming a real hit.

Pelgrane · Apr 11, 2012

I've wanted to work with Rob Heinsoo for a long time; and we discussed possibilities at GenCon 2010. Rob and Jonathan game together and are both part of Fire Opal Media, so having both of them work on a project is a real treat. Rob ran a game for us at GenCon 2011, and on that basis we decided to go ahead with the joint venture.

JT and RH have final say over the creative side; Pelgrane is running playtests, offering advice and publishing. Lee is doing the art direction.

Pelgrane Press is wholly owned by me. This project has no connection with WotC, though we do hope that Mike Mearls and his team feel free to pick through the open elements of 13th Age. Neither Jonathan or Rob have looked at 5e or discussed it with 5e playtesters.

We knew there would be a 5e at some point, but the actual announcement of 5e did come as a surprise to us. It hasn't affected our planned schedule at all, though - we've always been intending to have something at GenCon this year, even if we don't quite get the final game out.

I hope that 5e is a massive, massive success as that will be great for all of us. Even aside from sentimental reasons, WotC is still the category leader, and adds water to the pond which floats all the boats.

triqui · Apr 11, 2012

Ars Magica and 4th editon seem to be ice and fire. I don't know what JT and RH can pull together, but it will be interesting, no doubt of that.

Whizbang Dustyboots · Apr 11, 2012

Anthro78 said:
Variety is the spice of the gaming world. I wish the D&DNEXT folks would take a page from this playbook: stop trying to make a game for all people (or editions) and instead make a good game.

Tell that to Hasbro's shareholders.

William Ronald · Apr 11, 2012

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Tell that to Hasbro's shareholders.

It is too early to tell what 5E will look like. I would prefer to have the entire gaming industry do well, and try to get some new people into the hobby. (I am delighted that my local Pathfinder Society Group got several new people lately -- including two under age 18.)

So, I am interested in this product as I like a lot of the concepts. The question of how well any game will succeed depends on a lot of factors -- the quality of the game, marketing, and how it is received by the public being among the most critical.

My hope is that we are seeing a gaming renaissance and we will have a lot of good ideas and products coming out in the next few years.

qstor · Apr 12, 2012

I'm going to have to check it out. I'm not part of the playtest.

Mike

Droogie128 · Apr 12, 2012

This is really exciting, considering we still don't know what DDN "does". We know what they're trying too do with it, but we still have no clue what it brings to the table that no other edition does.

For example, 1e was a major step forward from basic. 2e revised 1e and added Thac0 and a ton of settings. 3e completely overhauled the system, changed the AC mechanic to be more intuitive, added some more complex combat rules, feats, etc. 4e brought in the powers sytem and healing surges and balance as a design goal.

That being said, again, we don't know what DDN "does". If it is nothing more than a retroclone of every edition ever made, I don't think it's going to pull people away from their current game.

This game really has me interested. They just need to find a way to get it out there to the masses. Paizo already had an established fanbase through the magazines and adventures.

Gorgoroth · Apr 12, 2012

sweet!

Can't wait to try / buy this.

Me and my gaming groups play a healthy mix of RPGs, mostly PF and 4e (I personally avoid all the rest...too busy + old grognardy to learn 8 million systems to play for a few weeks tops). Anyway...combining the best elements of both editions, while not shying away from killing a few sacred cows along the way, would make me very excited. If anything, not being an *actual* D&D could allow the designers the freedom to truly fix what's broken, or at least evolve the hobby into interesting new (possibly broken) ways. Part of the fun of any edition is discovering those things, and patching them. When you are a in a team with your DM, you can do a lot. I really didn't like how in 4e everyone had to stick to RAW if they wanted any gamers, because it's so rigid and codified that if you change a power or nerf it, it just gets retrained to something equally broken eventually. (or just as likely, nerfed into oblivion making the entire character worthless mechanically, requiring a re-spec or a brand new one).

*rubs hands together* also, if Wotc are smart, I hope they get "inspired" by the best elements of this game, to make DDN even better. I plan on supporting whatever game system I like on any given day, and even if I only ever play this one for a year, that will be some decent coinage coming from me, at least. I support quality products from any publisher, provided it's at least somewhat similar to D&D in scope and feel.

Alphastream · Apr 12, 2012

Mark CMG said:
the communal nature of the OGL makes it an integral part of game design if it is indeed to be utilized to its fullest. I'm sure it's beyond the ability of the designers to make any use of it at all if management and legal aren't on board. It's a darn shame and likely to harm the process if those ducks can't be lined up in short order. It might already be too late to really leverage its full potential. We will see.

Are you sure you aren't just reflecting your pro-OGL bias? Wizards hasn't finished the core of the game sufficiently for an open playtest. Add to this that tons of gamers out there have no idea what the OGL is and just play games created solely by the primary RPG company (not third parties). Couple that with the OGL having been a major problem for Wizards' revenue (creating very little revenue over time, creating competition that undermines their future strategies)... you really think Wizards should be rash and come out with a publicly shared OGL strategy before the edition's core is even finalized? I would hope they would be smart enough not to do that.

Incenjucar · Apr 12, 2012

I'm not much of an RPG-hopper, but I'll definitely have to check it out. I owe both of these guys that much for a loooot of fun over the years. Just hope the editing is better than in Heinsoo's last RPG.