D&D 5E cancelled 5e announcement at Gencon??? Anyone know anything about this?

[Mark CMG]

After reading the article on the planes on Wikipedia it is readily clear that a lot of planes were just developed for the sake of existing and not for any real game play value.

Do tell.

 

[Gryph]

I'd call it common courtesy not to badmouth anything that you know a lot of people enjoy.

But since they're basically slamming their own work or that of former colleagues, they seem to think that courtesy isn't called for.
Kind of ties in with loudly complaining about how ridiculously broken 3rd edition was when it was time to promote 4E.

And yet, in my case, it was absolutely the right play to make for them.

I had stopped playing 3e for a number of reasons, mostly related to what I consider broken and not fun levels of crunchiness. When I read some of the developer comments about 4e, particularly when they pointed out problems they saw in 3e, it motivated me to give it a try. I might have eventually anyway, but I am reasonably sure that I would not have bought the 3 core books and H1 as soon as they were available. Nor would I have sought out my local Meetup group and made sure I had a group right away.

My point is, I recognize that you, as a fan of the then current edition, did not like the approach they took in discussing the coming edition. That has very little to do with what they "should" have done. What they "should" have done is talk about it in the manner that they felt would attract the most interest and ultimately generate the most sales.

At the time, I believe that is exactly what they were trying to do. In hindsight, they may have guessed wrong, we will honestly never be able to determine if a different approach would have garnered more sales or not. I am, personally, sceptical that releasing a significantly different version of the game while being complimentary to the current version would have resulted in stronger sales and player adoption.

 

[GSHamster]

Do tell.

I adored Planescape. But a lot the para-elemental and quasi-elemental planes seem to be there for the sake of symmetry more than anything else. Or to fill in a cosmological hole where you want elementals that have traits of two elements, and you need a home for them.

I.e. A magma elemental has both Fire and Earth traits. So it comes from the plane of Magma, which is in-between Fire and Earth.

It is to be remembered that this elemental cosmology was the original creation of Gary Gygax back in 1e days. Planescape really didn't change anything, just tried to present these odd planes as places where you could adventure. I don't think they were entirely successful in that regard.

Still, there's a difference between disagreeing with prior decisions, and making fun of those decisions. Imo, as a matter of courtesy, you should only poke fun at your own work. It just seems mean-spirited when you do it to other people's.

 

[SSquirrel]

Sorry guys. I was going to announce Fifth Edition, which I've been working on for several weeks during my lunch breaks at work, but Russ convinced me not to, since it would cut into sales of ZEITGEIST. We'll probably release it some time in 2014.

The first adventure will be World Cup-themed.

I'm very behind but:

One vuvuzela included w/every PHB! It can double as a Horn of Blasting to boot

 

[Mark CMG]

I adored Planescape. But a lot the para-elemental and quasi-elemental planes seem to be there for the sake of symmetry more than anything else. Or to fill in a cosmological hole where you want elementals that have traits of two elements, and you need a home for them.

I.e. A magma elemental has both Fire and Earth traits. So it comes from the plane of Magma, which is in-between Fire and Earth.

It is to be remembered that this elemental cosmology was the original creation of Gary Gygax back in 1e days. Planescape really didn't change anything, just tried to present these odd planes as places where you could adventure. I don't think they were entirely successful in that regard.

Fair enough. I wonder what other planes some people would find superfluous that others would mention as ones they used to good effect. I recall a game where a villain (a demon, actually) that came from the magma plane (our GM called it something else at the time, IIRC) was very difficult to defeat. I suppose it could have just as easily come either the Fire or Earth plane and we might not have cared but it was used and the campaign is remembered with fondness.

Still, there's a difference between disagreeing with prior decisions, and making fun of those decisions. Imo, as a matter of courtesy, you should only poke fun at your own work. It just seems mean-spirited when you do it to other people's.

For me, it's why a lot of this "big tent" push rings a little hollow.

 

[Argyle King]

wha?

No I don't think there was ever any planned announcement of 5e. Either the "source" or Morrus is blowing smoke.

What if... Morrus is the source?

dun dun dun

 

[I'm A Banana]

Since when is making fun of something that almost seems like it was a joke to start with hyperbole?

Subjectivity. Not everybody sees it as a joke. Shemeska saw it as a potentially awesome adventuring site. I did, too. The designers did not.

In my mind, it's a problem that the designers did not, and it's a bigger problem that the designers felt like other peoples' fun wasn't good enough for their D&D.

Again, it's something like Mike Mearls doing an interview on 5e and saying, "Minis combat?! That's the antithesis of fun. So boring and tedious and unimaginative! Gotta make delicious hamburger out of THAT sacred cow! D&D is not about playing with little plastic toys, I think we all outgrew that by the time we were 8."

If I do that, it's a little different -- I'm some jagoff on the internet, and nobody really cares what I think, and what I think isn't going to majorly affect D&D one way or the other (unless Mearls really is in my head).

If I become a D&D designer and say that, as I'm designing 5e, a lot of minis combat fans would be rather justifiably provoked to nerdrage over it.

Designers have a responsibility to be aware of how their audience has fun with what they make, if only so that they can effectively design a good game that embraces that. I think perspective like that makes a designer better. Arrogance and condescension don't help anyone make anything better, they just help people defend what they don't want to see change.

 

[Lidgar]

So remind me again when "Eric Noah's World" was changed to "Extremely Negative World"?

Must have been when that whole Vacuum Plane collapsed.

 

[Then]

That was a conditional sentence. If you accept the second part of the sentence(clause), you have to accept the first part too(condition).
This is what I am saying to you.

No I don't. The important part is what i underlined and bolded. That allows people, like you for instance, to go out into the ether and talk about how "Morrus was the first to report....."

What does that mean me of all people? Aside from meeting him like three times at Gen Con I really don't know the guy.

And yet you've done nothing but try to insert yourself into the whole 'conversation'.
"If they confirm a 5e announcement was canceled that is basically doing a 5e announcement. I did hear rumors from some pretty reliable sources at the con though."
"I was with him (Morrus) when he got one of the messages and I know who the source is. The person is not one I know that would spread unfounded rumors and they are in a position to know. I was a little surprised when I heard who Morrus was getting the information from."
"It's not my place and voicing the name is just going to fan flames. They want to remain anonymous and Morrus also doesn't seem to want to name names. It's not my job to out people who don't want to be outed."

 

[Hussar]

/snip

Saying something is stupid when a sect of your players uses it is not diplomatic.

/snip

Yeah, I think sect is the perfect word here.