Transformer
Explorer
My impression, honestly, is that the designers never intended that Next be modular to the degree that everyone is expecting. I admit I don't have any particular quotes to back this up, and maybe someone could refute me by going back to early announcements and interviews. But I really suspect that people are anticipating some kind of erector set D&D, where almost everything is a separate piece that can be dropped in or pulled out as desired, and there are ten different subsystems that you can choose for every little thing, all on top of an extremely bare-bones core.
People talk about two or even three complete combat systems, where you have something extremely basic and bare-bones, and then a whole separate section clearly labeled "Tactical Combat Module 1" which details a whole optional set of rules for miniatures play. They talk like there's going to be a version of the Fighter which is almost like a different class, complete with AEDU powers. And here's this thread, in which some people are expecting every arcane caster class to be fully compatible with three or four different magic systems.
I really don't think WotC ever promised any of that. They said a few vague things about modularity and "adapting the game to your table" and "playing the D&D you want to play" towards the beginning, and people's imaginations just ran with it. Now, I'm not saying you're wrong to want that kind of modularity; maybe you're absolutely right to want it. I'm just saying that I don't think most of us forumites and WotC are (or ever have been) on the same page here. There isn't going to be a whole separate rules-set, complete with its own chapter in the PHB, for grid combat. Every single caster class is not going to have four different alternative subsystems for how its magic works. That was never the plan.
This article is a great example:
Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Rule-of-Three: 05/29/2012)
As KaiiLurker pointed out, all they talk about in that article is some very minor tweaks to facilitate a high-magic or low-magic game, maybe something you'd find in a sidebar. But evidently someone looked at that article and concluded that every caster class would have multiple magic systems, perhaps depending on what the DM wanted in his campaign. I'm a bit afraid of what's going to happen when we see more of Next and everyone realizes that they've been expecting a level of modularity that WotC never intended to promise.
People talk about two or even three complete combat systems, where you have something extremely basic and bare-bones, and then a whole separate section clearly labeled "Tactical Combat Module 1" which details a whole optional set of rules for miniatures play. They talk like there's going to be a version of the Fighter which is almost like a different class, complete with AEDU powers. And here's this thread, in which some people are expecting every arcane caster class to be fully compatible with three or four different magic systems.
I really don't think WotC ever promised any of that. They said a few vague things about modularity and "adapting the game to your table" and "playing the D&D you want to play" towards the beginning, and people's imaginations just ran with it. Now, I'm not saying you're wrong to want that kind of modularity; maybe you're absolutely right to want it. I'm just saying that I don't think most of us forumites and WotC are (or ever have been) on the same page here. There isn't going to be a whole separate rules-set, complete with its own chapter in the PHB, for grid combat. Every single caster class is not going to have four different alternative subsystems for how its magic works. That was never the plan.
This article is a great example:
Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Rule-of-Three: 05/29/2012)
As KaiiLurker pointed out, all they talk about in that article is some very minor tweaks to facilitate a high-magic or low-magic game, maybe something you'd find in a sidebar. But evidently someone looked at that article and concluded that every caster class would have multiple magic systems, perhaps depending on what the DM wanted in his campaign. I'm a bit afraid of what's going to happen when we see more of Next and everyone realizes that they've been expecting a level of modularity that WotC never intended to promise.