D&D 5E Creative and innovation?

Sadrik · Apr 25, 2013

How creative and innovative do you want 5e game mechanics to be?

This is a pretty straight forward question but I'll frame it a bit. The mechanics as shown are they very creative and innovative (this can be seen as positive and negative) or are they very sated and mild. Based on their stated goal of bring the divergent editions back together and being able to accomplish the feel, not duplicate the mechanics of prior editions, have their changes thus far been innovative and creative? Do you want that?

Umbran · Apr 25, 2013

For me, creativity and innovation are means to an end, not an end in and of themselves.

Thus, I really don't care if they are creative and innovative. I care that the resulting game is fun to play. If that means same-old-same old (but good) mechanics, that's fine. If that means thinking outside the portable hole, that's good too.

I'm A Banana · Apr 25, 2013

There have been some innovative things. Bounded accuracy and the advantage/disadvantage mechanic and using ability scores as the game engine and bonus dice instead of flat bonuses...all clever little mechanics.

delericho · Apr 25, 2013

Umbran said:
For me, creativity and innovation are means to an end, not an end in and of themselves.

This.

wedgeski · Apr 25, 2013

I really don't mind, the game's the thing. I don't think design constraints (e.g. bounded accuracy) represent innovation as much as lessons learned, but I suppose that's arguable. Having said all that I certainly admired 4e for its radical thinking.

Dausuul · Apr 25, 2013

It's not really a straightfoward question, because you aren't defining what you mean by "creative and innovative." I think the design team has shown great creativity and innovation in finding ways to meld the strong points of previous editions. But much of that creativity is about using old tools to accomplish new goals. As Kamikaze Midget says, bounded accuracy was a big innovation, but there are no new mechanics involved in it.

Sadly, I cannot participate in your poll, since I hate pickles.

Ahnehnois · Apr 25, 2013

I don't see much reason to buy a roleplaying game if it doesn't innovate somehow. My current one isn't expired yet.

Then again, I won't buy it unless it's good either. That's kind of important too.

sheadunne · Apr 25, 2013

For me . . .

I'm taking creative to mean the reorganization and display of mechanics to better represent the way the game plays. This might be 1e > 2e or 4e --> Essentials or 3e --> 3.5. I want 5e to be creative. I think it has to be.

I'm taking innovative to mean the creation of new mechanics to play the game in a new way. This might be 3e --> 4e or 2e --> 3e. I don't want 5e to be innovative. I think it has to be in some respect based on their goals.

My feeling that 5e should be creative and not innovative is probably why I dislike the advantage/disadvantage mechanic since it's innovative, but don't have a problem with backgrounds, which are more creative display of existing mechanics (feats, skills, fluff, etc).

This isn't to say that I don't like innovation in general, I just don't particularly need it in D&D at this stage. The problem with D&D is that it has had several innovative moments and which moment do you focus your creativity on. 3e? 1e/2e? 4e?

But anyway, it's fun to think about.

Scrivener of Doom · Apr 25, 2013

Umbran's got it right.

Rune · Apr 25, 2013

I just want a game that does what I want it to do (or makes it easy for me to tune it to do so). Where that means creative and innovative design is required, I hope to see it. Where that means tradition is adhered to, I hope to see that instead.

Basically, I'm looking for the game that feels like D&D, can be run in many ways (with very little work), and can cater to different types of players at the the same table. And so far, I think they've got a good start toward those goals.