D&D 5E Ruminations on 5E (serious)

[Aria Silverhands]

D&D, 5th Edition will be in the form of a player content driven MMO/Neverwinter Nights style program with a monthly subscription fee. Content will be moderated via advanced filters and prohibitive subscription costs to be allowed to upload 3d content. All content will have peer review options at the conclusion of an adventure (whether they finish it or not) and these stats will be easily viewable, sortable, and searchable. They will also be linked to the builders profile.

Builders will gain "levels" by creating content by having it reviewed. The more levels they gain, the more default options they can use and opens up the creation of higher level content with more scripts. The rules themselves will be a more complex version of 4th Edition since computers will be handling the majority of the calculations.

At least, that's my opinion of what 5th edition might entail in ten years or so.

 

[Minicol]

For instance, 4E has built "the math" from the ground up, balancing practically everything for every level, for every character. If "the math" is already balanced for every possible iteration of combat interaction, how can this be made better in the future? It's already perfected (in mathematical terms).

Please, seriously ....

How can you seriously believe that ANYTHING in 4e is balanced as of now ????

It is SSSOOOOO balanced, that they kept changing the 1st PHB text every week or so in the past few months judging from the news on this site alone. And then, there all the upcoming books, none of which are written. And all of them will unbalance the game.

There will never be any perfect system, that's simply not possible.

 

[essenbee]

... with rules tweaks focusing on deeper simulation ...

That would be a real step backwards IMHO. D&D should be about fun and imagination.

 

[Orius]

I agree. Let's play 4e for a month before we start talking about 5e. Sheesh.

 

[SaffroN]

And if the system can't be improved mechanically, what will 5E be?

As far as 5th edition is concerned. I think that there will always be room for improvement. However, 4th edition is several hundred steps in the right direction.

I defiantly agree that the Math of 4th edition is a vast improvement to previous editions. It would be very very difficult to make improvements to.

Balance (different to the math) is always an issue. You can tweak things to high heaven and never truly achieve it. Just look at the changes to WoW's classes. They are consistently reworked and tweaked so they they can walk the tight rope of balance. No edition of DnD will ever be truly balanced, and I don't expect it to be. (I do expect it to have some degree of balance, i just don't expect it to be perfect.)

I will say this tho. If any edition of DnD ever moves to just being a MMO (ie: no physical books, dice rolling, etc) Is when i will stop being a customer. I don't mind having the option of using a virtual tabletop, I just don't want it to be my only option.

 

[Incenjucar]

5th Edition will probably introduce more granularity and customization through more transparent math systems (eventually, I hope, they just TELL US the math flat out), and they'll either expand on or reduce the new systems they've introduced. I can see "Social Combat" getting interesting optional in-depth rules (Orcs get +4 to Sarcasm vs. Elves!), and maybe even an "economy mini-game."

But they might introduce some of that THIS edition, hard to say since it isn't out there yet.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I see that there is a possibility for a new paradagm shift. 4E is focussed on providing optimal game playability. That is a goal I agree with, but there are some sacrifices made in regards to "Simulation" and "Rules as Game World Physics".
Maybe 5E could integrate the 4E gamist aspects and modify the rules to provide better simulative aspects.
(Can I have Minions Barroom Brawls end not deadly by RAW? Can I tell the story of the high level Captain of the Guard dropping from his horse and dying?)

Another possibility is that 5E could go further in the narrative area, and characters will get more "story-telling powers" - say a special ability that allows you to acquire a Connection, the ability to flat out say that the princess you just rescued falls in love with your character, or an ability to declare an opponent as your nemesis. (That's all stuff I remember from the Torg Drama Deck).

This approach might even be more likely then the simulationist one, simply because the story-telling aspects of role-playing games are its unique strength compared to computer games. Games don't allow you to affect the story as you see fit, only as far as the programmers have allowed to. A game mechanic that allows you to declare any random NPC as a romantic love interest simply cannot work in a computer game. (Or can it?)
Collaborative story-telling could be a new design space that is to be explored in 5E.

 

[WhatGravitas]

5E (if it is produced, and I dearly hope so, because the opposite would be worse) will be a product of the next large staff turn-over and their preferences.

Currently, 4E bears the hallmark of the current trends (some Forge theory and concepts) and the preferences of the developers (e.g. Baker's Warlock, Mearls Buttkicker attitude).

By the time 5E will come, there will be another turn-over in the staff, so we'll get a system that evens out more kinks of 4E (because it will show some, just as 3E) and incorporate the new developers preferences.

Cheers, LT.

 

[BryonD]

I think 4E is an attempt to tap into a market of non-gamers and 5E will be an attempt to bring D&D back to its gamer base.

 

[Aria Silverhands]

There's no mistaking the marketing spin in 4e design. They're trying to slice away a piece of the MMO pie.