Ryan dancey hints that DnD will become a board game....

[Layander]

Would you play if he is correct? Keep in mind he is an important figure in dungeons and dragons and not just some opinionated person.

Ryan dancey...
I think that commercially successful TRPGs of the future will be constructed more like a family game – something that can be unpacked, learned quickly, and played with little prep work. These games will give people a lot of the same joy of “roleplaying” and narrative control that they get from today’s Hobby Game TRPGs but with a fraction of the time investment. Wizards is already experimenting with this format, as is Fantasy Flight Games. It seems like a good bet that there is a substantially profitable business down this line of evolution.

 

[delericho]

It did seem to me that something like "Arkham Horror" or any of the D&D boardgames could quite easily be converted into a pretty satisfying (if basic) roleplaying game.

If D&D were just a boardgame, I wouldn't really be interested, no.

However, I could see the possibility of WotC doing a Starter Set in a box, providing a small number of boxed expansions, but doing the bulk of the RPG-side expansion via the DDI. Under such a model, there may or may not even by a Core Rulebook as we know it in print.

But... I think that's too much for people to swallow. If the goal is unity, they're going to have to avoid wholesale slaughter of sacred cows, and printed books is one hell of a sacred cow.

 

[Wormwood]

I'm going to need much more evidence than that to even begin speculating.

But it wouldn't be the end of the world.

 

[Rechan]

Didn't they say 5e would not be on a grid?

 

[enrious]

Didn't they say 5e would not be on a grid?

I've seen no such official announcement one way or the other.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Would you play if he is correct? Keep in mind he is an important figure in dungeons and dragons and not just some opinionated person.

Ryan dancey...
I think that commercially successful TRPGs of the future will be constructed more like a family game – something that can be unpacked, learned quickly, and played with little prep work. These games will give people a lot of the same joy of “roleplaying” and narrative control that they get from today’s Hobby Game TRPGs but with a fraction of the time investment. Wizards is already experimenting with this format, as is Fantasy Flight Games. It seems like a good bet that there is a substantially profitable business down this line of evolution.

He was an important figure in Dungeons and Dragons, and he has always been an opinionated person!

He's feeling vindicated at the moment because of the troubles Wizards of the Coast are having, but he's not always on the money.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I think selling it in a boardgame format could work and may even be necessary to reach a decent sized new audience. But it will still not be "limited" to just that, or be designed to be a pure board-game where storytelling is entirely optional.

 

[mkill]

There are tons of small indie RPGs out there that already work like this. They are smaller, self-contained systems that can be learned and played in an afternoon.

I don't think this is the way D&D as a whole will go, but I could imagine a series of self-contained modules under the D&D brand. They'd include vharacter generation and basic story generation tools. Lighter than a basic set, but more flexible than a prewritten module.

 

[Morrus]

The tone of the verbiage WotC has been using thus far indicates the opposite to a boardgame.

 

[herrozerro]

Though I dont think it's necessarily a bad thing to try to make the D&D brand more accessible to a wider audience. making it appeal more as a family game isn't the worst thing in the world.