D&D 5E The Next Generation

[El Mahdi]

Hey, old people.

And yes, I'm talking to you...

*snip snip* (a mass of irrelevant, minimalizing, derogatory, and exclusionary diatribe) *snip snip*

So, you've felt excluded, and your answer to that is to now exclude others...

Yeah, that sounds like a recipe for success.

Seems to me that if older players are now irrelevant, and you've always been irrelevant (and with the attitude displayed here may just remain so), then what's the point for WotC to even bother making a new game?

Pack it up boys, it's all irrelevant. Go home. Nothing to see here.

 

[Elf Witch]

As an old fart coming up to my 55 birthday my first thought was bite me. Part of this comes from that attitude that I hate with Hollywood that what I like to watch on TV does not matter because I don't fall in the right demographics.

I walked away and came back and read it again and still think in a lot of ways you are wrong. First as others have pointed out Frodo and Conan are not in the distant past both had movies in the last ten years. A lot of what DnD has is things from legends like great wizards like Merlin and knights like from Arthurian literature. That stuff is timeless.

As for the other sources you mentioned I am a huge SF and fantasy fan and I have never read Vance, Moorcock or the Gray Mouser stories and it didn't stop me from getting into the game.

My son and his gaming group are in their twenties early 30s and they don't have not read Vance yet it does not stop them from enjoying the game.

I do think that a well designed game should allow you to play many different styles from traditional LOTR style fantasy to Harry Potter.

You don't have to kick the old to the curb to add the new.

 

[GX.Sigma]

I am 19 years old, and most of the D&D players I know are sub-30.

I don't want D&D to give up its rich history--that's what drew me to D&D in the first place (and why I was disappointed with the first version I ever played, 4e).

I do agree, though, that D&D needs to be able to do Harry Potter. It's like what Mearls was talking about at PAX East--these are today's stories, D&D has to evolve. If I say "you can be a wizard" and someone says "like Harry Potter?" I need to be able to say yes. D&D needs to stay out of the way and let her play the character she wants to play.

 

[Incenjucar]

The issue isn't that D&D contains the old stuff, it's that it hasn't grown much as a product, and indeed keeps rejecting its own interesting possibilities. We did, in fact, get Airbender rules - but not until after the edition that introduced it was publicly cancelled.

That said, there is the issue of whether the current designers are able to design for a younger market in a significant way. They may not have the ability to branch out that much, and most of the younger design folks are likely going into more profitable types of games with a less hostile and more fluid audience.

 

[Dausuul]

I do agree, though, that D&D needs to be able to do Harry Potter. It's like what Mearls was talking about at PAX East--these are today's stories, D&D has to evolve. If I say "you can be a wizard" and someone says "like Harry Potter?" I need to be able to say yes. D&D needs to stay out of the way and let her play the character she wants to play.

D&D already does Harry Potter every bit as well as it does Gandalf. In fact, I'd say it handles HP rather better.

 

[fuindordm]

If someone says "like Harry Potter?" I need to be able to say yes. D&D needs to stay out of the way and let her play the character she wants to play.

I think the 12-16 classes offered by core already do a pretty good job of letting players find a PC that corresponds well with the heroes from stories of any decade.

However, I also think it is high time for D&D to offer alternative magic systems alongside the Vancian in the core. The 3e sorcerer was a feeble effort in that direction but still a helpful addition.

What needs to happen is that the spell casting classes embrace a wider range of magical styles. From what I've heard, WotC is making moves in this direction.

Ex: Henry Porter is a sorcerer who needs a wand to cast all his spells. This one is easy: add a F component to all spells, and grant an extra spell known per level in exchange for the extra limitation. A handful of new feats and rules tweak would suffice to round out the system. You can also get a lot of mileage out of replacing the V, S, M components with completely different limitations.

I'm not saying everything can be done with the available classes. But the PH could provide guidance for tweaking the classes to suit your taste, and it would be great to have one or two alternative magic systems (drawing on the same library of spells) alongside to support other literary styles.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I think part of the strength of a truly modular system is that it doesn't need to choose.

Grandpappy and his neckbeard can continue to play Conan-inspired loincloth fantasy, and Zak and his lunch table dweebs can play Digimon-inspired anime-fantasy and we can all share a basic resolution system and interchangable rulesets.

And I can play both of them, because I am a sucker for new stuff.

 

[WheresMyD20]

Does D&D really have to try an emulate every new fad that comes along?

What ever happened to just making new RPGs to handle new stuff? If you want to play Harry Potter, then there should be a separate Harry Potter RPG. Why is everyone so desperate to piggyback on the D&D brand?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Does D&D really have to try an emulate every new fad that comes along?

It did in the '70's and '80's and '90's, I don't know why it would be any different today.

 

[WheresMyD20]

It did in the '70's and '80's and '90's, I don't know why it would be any different today.

Nonsense. It didn't try to emulate Star Wars, He-man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc.