D&D 5E My Best Idea for 5th Edition

[ren1999]

Release the first Player's Handbook 6 months after a 5th Edition (turn based only) video game and take player comments of the game and use them as a play test for the book material.

Or better yet, open a 5th edition online game for 6 months and let people play test on it for free. Change the rules and programing as comments continue to come in. Design the book material from it.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Release the first Player's Handbook 6 months after a 5th Edition (turn based only) video game and take player comments of the game and use them as a play test for the book material.

Or better yet, open a 5th edition online game for 6 months and let people play test on it for free. Change the rules and programing as comments continue to come in. Design the book material from it.

No thank you. I want a tabletop RPG, not a computer game.

Plus, how long would it take to design and troubleshoot such a thing? Answer= years, espeically with frequent changes being made.

 

[Lanefan]

Release the first Player's Handbook 6 months after a 5th Edition (turn based only) video game and take player comments of the game and use them as a play test for the book material.

Or better yet, open a 5th edition online game for 6 months and let people play test on it for free. Change the rules and programing as comments continue to come in. Design the book material from it.

That really would give us a tabletop game designed like a video game.

And I don't mean that in a good way.

A video game, despite its programmers' best intentions, always has limits. Limits - in the case of a CRPG - on where you can go, what you can do when you get there, who you can interact with, how and under what circumstances those interactions take place, what the possible results are, and even who and what you are to begin with. Etc.

A tabletop game has no limits other than the imagination of its players and the tolerance of its DM. Everything else, including the written rules, can be treated as mere guidelines if so desired; and video games don't do 'guidelines' very well.

That, and any playtest comments on the videogame would really only help them design a better videogame.

Lanefan

 

[Kzach]

They already did this with 4e!

*boom*tish*

But in all seriousness... no.

 

[blalien]

You are really underestimating how difficult and expensive it is to design, program, and maintain a video game. Not to mention Wizard's horrible record with software.

 

[trancejeremy]

So you want 5e to come in out 2016, then?

Have there actually even been any 4e video games released? There was that Dragondale game, I think, but that was an ARPG. And there is a Neverwinter Nights facebook game in the works, but I don't think that's out, is it?

 

[dkyle]

And there is a Neverwinter Nights facebook game in the works, but I don't think that's out, is it?

There's a DnD facebook game that is a turn-based, light version of 4E.

The Neverwinter MMO, due out later this year I believe, is based on 4E, but is action-oriented, not WoW-style pseudo-turn-based.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Hate to jump on the slap-down bandwagon, but...

No.

Besides, a video game takes even longer to produce than a tabletop game.

 

[the Jester]

Release the first Player's Handbook 6 months after a 5th Edition (turn based only) video game and take player comments of the game and use them as a play test for the book material.

Oh God no.

Or better yet, open a 5th edition online game for 6 months and let people play test on it for free. Change the rules and programing as comments continue to come in. Design the book material from it.

Oh God no. Really, this would be a disaster for both the videogame and the rpg.

 

[delericho]

Yeah, I'm afraid I agree with the choir - I want a pen'n'paper RPG, not an electronic game. I have nothing against the latter, but the design considerations for each are different, and WotC should recognise that.

Of course, much of what you're suggesting is already being done - WotC will be using the open playtest (and playtests more generally) to give themselves the best chance of getting the eventual published game 'right' at the outset. How well they succeed remains to be seen, of course.

I think there is merit in your suggestion in one other area, though - I think they would be well served in using the DDI to expose much of their supplemental work before it goes to print. This would allow them to gather and apply the errata before fixing it in a difficult-to-change format, thus (hopefully) eliminating the constant ongoing errata of 4e.

(The reason I think this is a good idea for the supplements but not the core is simple: they tend not to have the ability to playtest supplemental material to anything like the same extent. Opening it up early on the DDI would help correct this.)