D&D 5E What Does the Game Need Now?

[Azzy]

A better D&D website... I'm not a fan of the current incarnation of WotC's site. :/

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'd like to see more options for races. I liked that Xanthar's provided some Racial Feats (though not enough for me). I'd also like to see some sort of 'level progression' maybe for races where they each have different options presented as racial features as opposed to just getting everything at first level. Kind of like class abilities but for Races. This way, every mountain dwarf wouldn't look alike and it would add customization for each character.

I'd love to see more race feats, and maybe even race variant features for classes. Or a module that expands Background into something like 4e's Themes, where you get stuff at level 5 and 10, comperable to what you got at level 1, with options to choose from to further distinguish your character.

The only thing I still need for D&D 5e is buyable, fully updated PDF versions for all books. Then I would be 100% satisfied I guess. Without being able to search for keywords, everything just takes so much longer. And it's super annoying to read the rules AND then also take all the errata and check if anything was changed.

Don't think I need anything else.

OH WAIT! It also needs a video game that 100% follows the ruleset. Including turn-based combat.

I donn't understand the desire for a 100% ruleset following videogame, but I do want them to be more hungry for good 5e based video games. I'd honestly flip my lid in happiness is someone could convince them and the company that currently owns DDO to do a rebuild of that game using rules closer to 5e. IMO, the active combat in DDO, and little things like jumping higher and swimming faster if you improve the appropriate skills, set it apart in a very good way from any other MMO.

But I'd love to see a new spiritual successor to Neverwinter Nights or Baldur's Gate that was both DnD based and true to the spirit of those games. Including the controversial Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance games for the playstation 2.

Anyway, have you checked out DnDbeyond? Not only does it have an online compendium that has everything offically published in one place, with keywords, filters, hyperlinks, and tooltips, but you can download the books on your mobile device for offline viewing, and eventually that functionality will be part of the desktop version.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Hopefully the beadles product does sell well and they and other competitors start looking at lower priced options.

When I went to their website to make sure I was spelling their name correctly and to make sure I remembered the right price, I also noticed that any mention at all of the lower level versions of the set had completely disappeared from the site. I think there were originally three or four lesser versions of this set mentioned on the site, though with no details or prices.

 

[clearstream]

Noted D&D blogger Mike "Sly Floursh" Shea recently asked this on Twitter:

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https://twitter.com/SlyFlourish/status/1063808500676075521


What does D&D need next?

We have two campaign settings, one in stores. Three official accessories with monsters. Extra subclasses. Lots of races.
There are a wealth of minis, both random prepainted and non-random unpainted. We have dungeon tiles. There are dice. We have tactical maps, both blank and printed. Lots of adventures, both new and classic. Books for kids, including the newly relaunched Endless Quest.
And that's before getting to the absolute wealth of amazing 3rd Party Products from Green Ronin, Kobold Press, Nord Games, and others.

I imagine the two big requests will be "psionics" and "the artificer". Or the inevitable flayed horse of "a better ranger".
Okay, but what else is left for the game beyond just more? More subclasses. More adventures. More monsters. A big ol' generic more. Aka bloat.

Things like gods have been covered by Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide and Tome of Foes, limiting the need for a Deities & Demigods. And the updated mechanics of planes are covered quite well in the DMG, so the Manual of the Planes is less necessary.

Why?

When stopping to reply to Sly Flourish, I realized I’m almost “good”. That the edition feels close to complete.

I can think of a couple good options, but a lot of ideas just feels like content for the sake of content. Books because they're expected each year and not because they really fill a gap in the game.

For me, a book of a few hundred statted NPCs for the Forgotten Realms. From lots of named but generic characters, to a few score characters from the main narrative. That would be useful.

 

[Retreater]

My wishlist...

More short adventures (not the massive hardcover books)
High level play adventures
Psionics
"Crunchy" tactics rules option add-on
An app that allows campaign management, character creation, note sharing, combat tracking

 

[pogre]

O.P. is right, the game is pretty much complete.

After four long years of this edition, it is time to start working on 6th edition!

While I am kidding, I think they could release a few optional rules packets to make the game more cinematic to benefit the streamers and T.V. people.

For me, I am happy with where the game is at and adventure support is all I really would like to see.

 

[MNblockhead]

I think the perfect balance for me would be the encounter tents, maps, some glossy paper handouts.

And maybe props and painted minis as premium options.

I feel like wotc is missing out on fully realising sales for the d&d ip. Next year our dm is going to run dragonheist and the players and i would happily buy a set of painted minis for a marked up price vs buying a bunch of boosters and hoping for the best. Likewise if there was a good option for packages maps, images of places and enemies and handouts that we could give him to hand over to us during the course of the campaign i think itd be a very tempting option.

Much of the core demographic of the game is changing. I feel customers are getting older as a whole, with more income to spend on their hobby. And this is a currently missed opportunity for wotc.


Hopefully the beadles product does sell well and they and other competitors start looking at lower priced options.

Right. An this is more perplexing considering that they are owned by Hasbro. If they did it right, they could cross marked this. For example, they already have board games with interlocking titles and unpainted or painted (for premium sets) that are based on the current adventure paths. But the tiles are not matched to locations in the actual AP.

Couldn't they come up with a boxed set that had paper battlemaps and cardboard tokens (painted minis for premium sets), but also include some D&D boardgame style rules and scenarios--like the current board games--so that they could be sold as an independent game/toy, but also be useful to groups running the D&D AP?

I'm sure that they *have* thought of this and I'm completely underestimating the cost and demand for such a product.

Kinda like the Microsoft Surface. I love the idea of a table-top, family-game sized tablet that can run games and be used as a battlemap, but the mass-market potential is low. Most people are not going to want a display they have to lay flat, taking up table space. In-person VTT and digital tabletop is a small subset of a small market and will likely continue to be a DIY solution for quite a while.

 

[MNblockhead]

A better D&D website... I'm not a fan of the current incarnation of WotC's site. :/

Yeah. Funny, in 2014/15 I would visit at least once a week. I have not going to the WoTC home page, other than via links from ENWorld or other sites, in well over a year.

DnD Beyond has become my go-to for "official" WoTC content, even though it is a third party. But even that site doesn't draw me more than a couple times a week at most. I really only use their forums for tool and service related questions.

ENWorld is the my daily or multi-daily source of D&D news and discussion with the bonus of some discussion of other systems. If I had more time, I would use Reddit more but with limited time, ENWorld wins out, even though the design feels a decade or more out of date.

 

[Gavin O.]

I'd really like to see more specialized subclasses, or subclasses that encourage you to play the class very differently. The best example I can think of is the Paladin Oath of Redemption, but also things like the Druid Circle of spores, or the Bladesinger Wizard. There are plenty of options available to play a generically strong member of any class, so what I'm hoping we see more of now is class options that work really differently.

 

[MNblockhead]

My wishlist...

More short adventures (not the massive hardcover books)

This. While the Adventurer's League modules and the DM's Guild Adept program with print on demand gives this to some degree, it doesn't scratch my itch. I liked Tales from the Yawning Portal a lot, but many people don't want to spend $30+ on a full hard cover when they may only use a couple of the adventures.

Instead, I would like to see "mini campaigns." Something more than a 4-6 hour adventure, but still something that could be completed in a few sessions. It is hard for many groups to keep going long enough to complete the typical APs.

They could even mix this in with deep dives on monsters. Have a trilogy of adventures based on an aboleth, cultists who worship it as a god, and a small sea-side town/village being corrupted by it. Design it to be completed in 12-16 hours. Give a deep dive on aboleth ecology, behavior, tactics. Stat up some new minions and theme-appropriate monsters. Throw in a new magic item or two. Perhaps a couple theme-appropriate new spells. Include pre-rolled PCs so you can just pick up and play. If printed: include a few tear out battlemaps and 2D miniature sheets (something even easier to include if a PDF).

High level play adventures

Yes, this would especially benefit from one-off or mini-campaign treatment. Most groups don't last long enough to get to high-level play. While these adventures could be used for groups that have been playing a long time, they would also be great for players that what to just play a few sessions in the 4th tier.

Psionics

Sure. You could even include psionic rules in a mini-campaign about aboleths or mind flayers.

"Crunchy" tactics rules option add-on

Not sure we'll see much more of this for a while. Very few groups even use the variant tactical rules in the DMG. For myself, I don't think I would want much more combat complexity in my games. I would play one of the many strategy board games I have.

An app that allows campaign management, character creation, note sharing, combat tracking

They are licensing out to third-parties for this. Which is the appropriate way to go about it. It creates a lot more competition and variety. On the other hand it can create too much choice, confusion, buyers remorse, and everything that comes with too much choice, but I prefer choice, even if that means I occasionally pay for the same content more than once.