D&D 5E Mike Mearls interview re: Ghosts of Saltmarsh

_NewbieDM_ · May 21, 2019

[FONT=arial, sans-serif]I interviewed Mike this weekend in LA regarding Ghosts of Saltmarsh...

[/FONT]https://newbiedm.podbean.com/

pukunui · May 21, 2019

Not quite Mike Mearls in a box but it’ll do. Thanks!

_NewbieDM_ · May 21, 2019

You got it!

Morrus · May 21, 2019

Oh, he was there, then?

Parmandur · May 21, 2019

Good interview. Interesting to learn that the book was going to resemble TftYP more, but Welch pushed for more generally useful material when she was brought on board. Also, Mearls wrote all of the Greyhawk narrative lore based on his time running Keoland for Living Greyhawk: Welch edited it as a Greyhawk newb to make sure it would be generally useful, while Kim Mohan was brought in to make sure it was solid for Greyhawk afficianados.

Lastly, the vehicle rules are revealed by Mearls as being based on as-yet unreleased mass combat rules they are still working on...

lowkey13 · May 21, 2019

*Deleted by user*

Parmandur · May 21, 2019

lowkey13 said:
So, I am largely supportive of the WoTC release cycle so far (do not over-saturate the market with content), and method (not putting too much crunch out, and mixing stuff around), but that said.....

At some point, there is a concern that you're going to have too many rules spread out between books, as opposed to within a single source.

I think if we ever see a 6E, it will be more of a reorganization, with rules from latter books baked into the core three.

dave2008 · May 21, 2019

lowkey13 said:
So, I am largely supportive of the WoTC release cycle so far (do not over-saturate the market with content), and method (not putting too much crunch out, and mixing stuff around), but that said.....

At some point, there is a concern that you're going to have too many rules spread out between books, as opposed to within a single source.

5e Rules Cyclopedia?

Parmandur · May 21, 2019

dave2008 said:
5e Rules Cyclopedia?

Yeah, exactly...

DEFCON 1 · May 21, 2019

lowkey13 said:
So, I am largely supportive of the WoTC release cycle so far (do not over-saturate the market with content), and method (not putting too much crunch out, and mixing stuff around), but that said.....

At some point, there is a concern that you're going to have too many rules spread out between books, as opposed to within a single source.

Yeah, but what's the other option? NOT put out any more rules?

At some point, the consumer needs to decide for themself what it is they need to play their game. Do they need vehicle rules? Do they not? If they do, is expecting them to buy a new book that has them included in it really too much to ask?

And what's the other option... do a reprint of game mechanics in 3 years time that binds just all the new game rules from the previous books into one volume? Who's going to buy that? Especially considering that if a person needed one of the rule sets from one of the books for their game, they're not going to just delay their game waiting for the combined volume to be released... they'd buy the book that had rule set when it was available for immediate use.

And let's also be real here... we already do have the "combined volume" of rules for the D&D game available for us. It's D&D Beyond. If having all the game rules together in one place for fast access and ease-of-use is an imperative, no one should be sitting on their hands waiting for a hardcover book to show up in 2022. They instead should use the money they would have spent in 3 years and just get a subscription to D&DB now, thereby getting their desire without relying on WotC to hopefully decide to put out a repetitive crunch book down the line.