D&D 5E The Next Generation

technoextreme said:

Except for the fact that the older fan base is far more volatile, abrasive, and even abusive than the newer fan base. I generally find it hilarious that people will whine and complain about what are generally the most inconsequential of things like Dragonborn.

Click to expand...

technoextreme said:

Except for the fact that the older fan base is far more volatile, abrasive, and even abusive than the newer fan base. I generally find it hilarious that people will whine and complain about what are generally the most inconsequential of things like Dragonborn.

Click to expand...

Steely_Dan said:

And some, like me, find some of the newer fan-base the most passive-aggressive, with an absurd sense of entitlement (lots of throwing toys out of the pram), but these are just opinions.

Click to expand...

GnomeWorks said:

Excising the old influences from the future of D&D would be a mistake. Older does not mean irrelevant, and has been pointed out a number of times upthread, you don't want to alienate those people who grew up with the older references. Makes sense to me. Consider that aspect of my argument retracted.

However, you cannot tell me that support for games reflective of newer media and stories and such doesn't belong in D&D, or should be relegated to splats (as someone mentioned upthread, not sure who or where). As players of psionic characters know, having your stuff relegated to a splat is largely analagous to it being among the largely-ignored part of the demographic. Whether that's true or not is irrelevant - that's the perception.

To the idea that the game shouldn't change based on the whims of current culture - ya, I can see that argument. But there is an underlying current to media, general sentiments you can pick up on if you expose yourself to enough of it that are reflective of changes in the next generation's thinking. Arguing that new things like Avatar or Harry Potter are fads that will fade from the cultural conscious in a few years is facetious - undoubtedly a large portion of the works in Appendix N are almost completely unheard of today. Sure, some references are still present (LotR, as probably the most obvious one), but I'd be willing to bet that a large percentage have since faded from public knowledge, because they were - essentially - fads.

If the issue is that D&D has become so self-referential that you can't modify or adapt or even just outright add new things to account for cultural change because it would be disruptive to what D&D is, then... D&D is doomed to failure. Maybe not now, maybe not twenty years from now, but it will die. The question is no longer one of "if," but "when."

There is something to be said for remaining true to your roots. Holding on to the traditions that have made D&D what it is isn't a bad thing, necessarily. But it is if that comes at the expense of growth, of change, of adapting to the cultural environment in which new gamers will be coming to the fore, then the future holds only stagnation, and D&D will be - at some point - forgotten.

Click to expand...

Steely_Dan said:

I guess this attitude is why we have Vampire as a class, and people clamouring for a Werewolf class, because many seem to want their pet book/show/film/cartoon/comic book/video game etc represented in D&D.

Click to expand...

pemerton said:

What's the rule for when the clock stops?

Click to expand...

Elf Witch said:

I don't know where you get the idea that DnD has not Incorporated new fantasy themes in its books.

Take Harry Potter back in 3E there was a book not by WOTC but OGL called Redhurst Academy which was about students at a magic school.

If you look at at all the options out there at least for 3E there was a way to do almost any theme you wanted. I am not familiar with fourth.

Click to expand...

mudbunny said:

I think that there are two important points that need to be considered:

1 - How much influence (if any) should the past sources of inspiration for D&D have on Next?
2 - Should these sources be cast aside for more modern sources of inspiration?

The influence of past sources shoudl not be removed from D&D Next. However, it should not be so strong so as to exclude the influence of more modern sources like Valdemar, Pern, Harry Potter, Harry Dresden and the like.

Just as the sources in Appendix N helped make D&D in the past more accessible to those that picked it up, including modern sources will make it more accessible to those that pick it up today.

Click to expand...

Janaxstrus said:

Pern is new? I was reading Pern 25+ years ago, soon after I started with D&D. The first book was published pre-D&D (1968), I would hardly lump it in as modern.

Click to expand...

As a grouchy old man, I am perfectly happy leaving all of those you reference out of D&D.

Harry Potter and Dresden are both set in modern times, and don't really have a place in a more fantastical past setting of D&D. Pern, when I last read, didn't have any magic to speak of, and was a more sci-fi setting that happened to include lizards they'd biologically trifled with to create a sort of dragon.

As an older person, with lots and lots of disposable income, catering to the anime-WoW-Harry Potter crowd would be the surest way to not see a dime of my money.

Click to expand...