D&D 5E [Poll] Do You Like The Direction D&DN Is Heading In?

fjw70 · Jan 25, 2013

I love DDN so far. I like every edition of D&D but none are my perfect edition. IMO each edition has its gems and warts. DDN seems to be keeping many of the gems and eliminating (or minimizing) the warts as well as creating a few new gems.

I am very excited about what I have seen and the potential of things I haven't seen.

Ahnehnois · Jan 25, 2013

Mishihari Lord said:
I wonder if this is true in general, that written responses on a forum will be more negative than a poll.

It does seem to be a regular trend in my observation.

You'll notice that most of the positive responses are mildly positive, the internet equivalent of a shoulder shrug. It's quite common for there to be a bell curve around "above average" when people are asked to make these kinds of value judgments, reflecting perhaps a general optimistic streak . But there are very few people who feel strongly positive, and a larger number of strongly negative responses, and the strong ones are going to be more inclined to post opinions.

Gundark · Jan 25, 2013

The more interesting question is how many will come over when they see the final result? Finalized rules, different layers of complexity, wrapped in a new book with pretty art? Something psychologically appealing about that.

JeffB · Jan 25, 2013

Ambivalent. I could live with the current version after some math tweaks like damage.

But despite my love of things like advantage/disadvantage, and martial dice for fighters, there is nothing there to currently make me want to live with it. I can easily incorporate martial dice and the advantage mechanic into od&d which is my fave version of D&D. My other fave version, 4e, can do anything NEXT can, and often better.Its power system in combat has much more variety and excitement than NEXTs maneuvers. NEXTs spells have been done to death in every other edition of the game.Nothing wrong with them and yet, why would I bother when OD&D/S&W or even C&C does the same thing?

There is nothing in NEXT to make me give up either previous version of the game that I enjoy now, despite the fact I would have no problem using NEXT at the table. There is no compelling reason let alone reasonS to get me to crack open the wallet and put out a bunch of $. :shrug:

Libramarian · Jan 25, 2013

Not really a fan...there is an outside chance that the "Basic" version will be suitable for the 1e-style classic dungeoncrawling that I am into at the moment, but it's unlikely. I think at the end of the day this edition will be thoroughly in the WotC-D&D tradition, with only a superficial attempt made to understand and emulate the TSR editions.

As an example, two of my favorite rules from 1e -- group initiative and gp = xp -- have already been dissed and dismissed from DDN.

I could hack it to fit my purposes, but I don't think I will feel inclined to do that. If I'm going to tinker I'd rather modernize an old edition of the game than retro-ize a new edition, for various reasons.

timASW · Jan 25, 2013

I like most of what I've seen so far with a few exceptions that i can fix easily via houserule with one exception.

I dont like the martial damage dice for classes other then fighter, or perhaps barbarian/ranger type of fighter variants. But I can always strip them from the cleric class as its written now.

However I absolutely hate the current thief. its quite possibly the worst class ever written IMO. I have no idea how i would fix that right now except for totally redoing the class myself. Which could lead to all sorts of headaches.

So all in all right now i would play it but i wouldnt pay for it.

I'm A Banana · Jan 26, 2013

Libramarian said:
As an example, two of my favorite rules from 1e -- group initiative and gp = xp -- have already been dissed and dismissed from DDN.

I wonder how strong the dismissal is.

They're not in the current playtest, but this just could be because they don't need testing. The playtest isn't a preview. There's every chance that both of these rules get specifically called out as ways you could mod the game right in one of the first books about changing rules to fit your style.

Obryn · Jan 26, 2013

I haven't seen anything interesting or innovative enough to hold my interest, and I get the sense this will remain the case on account of the extended public playtest. I think that's forcing the design and setting to be more conservative with too-great respect paid to legacy mechanics.

I still need Next to do something better than 1e or 4e, and get a unique niche. Right now, it seems like I am not the target audience. I'm fine with this, and wish WotC great success, regardless.

-O

Iosue · Jan 26, 2013

Kamikaze Midget said:
I wonder how strong the dismissal is.

They're not in the current playtest, but this just could be because they don't need testing. The playtest isn't a preview. There's every chance that both of these rules get specifically called out as ways you could mod the game right in one of the first books about changing rules to fit your style.

Yeah, group initiative is easy. It doesn't need to be playtested, so you'll never see it in the playtest. Individual initiative gets much more complex. Doesn't mean it won't be included in the final rules.

Likewise, gp = xp sounds like something they'd put in the DMG as an optional rule, a la 2e.

That said, both these rules are old school, and it strikes me that they are aiming the Basic Set at both new players and B/X-favoring old schoolers, so it would not surprise me to see one or both of them end up there.

GX.Sigma · Jan 26, 2013

Yeah, they've already said they want to have lots of options for XP, and one of them is treasure XP.

I ran many sessions of the playtest with old-school group initiative, and it worked just fine. (Until this packet came out and they gave Improved Initiative to freaking everyone, but that's a separate issue.)