Obscure elements of D&D you would love to rescue

[steeldragons]

Wow. Lotsa good stuff here...I'll second and third (possibly even 4th) a few:

1) Potion miscibility
2) Morale and interactive mod's (with the proposition of a game divided and/or focused on combat/explorative/interactive, separately, I have high hopes we'll see at least some of this again)
3) Intelligent/ego[-maniacal, optional ] weapons or any magic items for that matter. I think the idea of a fighter arguing with his armor or helmet or battle axe is just fun.
4) Druidic Language and Thieves' Cant (I hadn't realized they'd fallen out of fashion, but I think they're just some good flavorful fun. Alignment lang's, not so much.)
5) CAMBIONS! (good one Stormonu)
6) CASTING TIMES! (I think LOTS of a "wizards is overpowered" arguments would fall by the wayside if thi came back)

I'll add to this...and it'll NEVER happen, but I can dream and the thread asks for last/forogtten tidbits we'd like back, so here goes...

7) DROW ARE BADASS EVIL! Possibly THE most badass evil race to be found...in the Underdark/subterranean realms at least, if not anywhere. Finding/crossing paths...even just SEEING a Drow warrior/priestess/mage should make the party quake in their greaves. "Oh S#!T! The Drow are involved in this?!? We need to get out of here/find reinforcements!"...or, even better, "I see a charcoal grey elf disappear into the shadows? What was that? *URK!*" [slumps over unconscious...if not dead.]

I want all of their innate spell-abilities, special weapons and armor that disintegrates in the sunlight, poisons, and demon-summoning goodness...er..."badness"...brought back [or "out"] with a vengence...as only a race of inherently evil exiled near immortal highly magical elf culture could have.

If I never again have a player say to me "I want to play a drow..." or "I'm half-drow." or "quarter drow on my father's side...he had this magic panther and bequeathed me his scimitars"...it will be too soon.

Drow as very difficult [read as "for high level parties"] BBEGs, and not available for PCs, would be a lovely returning/reinforced D&Dism, for me.

Again, a Steel Dragon can dream.
--SD

 

[KidSnide]

It's not obscure, but I'd like to see many of the old AD&D modules adapted for D&DN. I would hope that it's easier to convert to 4e and it would make a nice supplement to new adventures in Dungeon.

I'd also like to see a shot at the Battlesystem / Bloodstone Pass and the Birthright styles of game, but with the benefit of 20 years of advancement in game design.

-KS

 

[Raith5]

I love to see unexplained enigmatic pictures of characters like emirikol-the-chaotic

 

[Lord Mhoram]

It's not obscure, but I'd like to see many of the old AD&D modules adapted for D&DN. I would hope that it's easier to convert to 4e and it would make a nice supplement to new adventures in Dungeon.

A conspiracy theory/pipe dream I came up with a while ago -

They are reprinting 1st ed.
Caves of Chaos is the playtest.
Maybe other PDFs/reprints for sale.

Publish the module with no changes, and add D&DN stats as an appendix. Get money from those that didn't get on the Next bandwagon, and generate sales to new customers.

 

[jodyjohnson]

A big paragraph or two front and center of the DMG and PHB that says the DM can exclude anything he/she wants and add in anything she/he wants - whether from previous versions, magazines, the web, or stuff he just made up.

Of course followed by the 'DM consult your players' paragraph and social contract discussion.

Then present the 'rules' as guidelines.

 

[P1NBACK]

But you can do that already No special rules needed.

This response sort of boggles my mind. Technically, we don't need special rules for anything. We can make up our own rules for elves and how fireball works. We can just describe it all and flip a coin when we need some randomness.

But, you're not doing that are you?

Having fleshed out rules for domains, castles, and other forms of player ownership and whatnot is a huge boon.

 

[Kinak]

I'd also like to see a shot at the Battlesystem / Bloodstone Pass and the Birthright styles of game, but with the benefit of 20 years of advancement in game design.

I'd love to see coverage for the old 2nd Edition settings.

Now, they clearly wouldn't want to print a whole line of products for each, but a book (or boxed set) for each would be amazing. I'd cheerfully pick up a Birthright book, a (pre-factions imploding) Planescape book, and a Spelljammer book even if 5E is terrible.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[the Jester]

So you're not just a grandfather of assassins, you're the dirty old grandfather of assassins. We always suspected...

"Come sit on Uncle Grandpa's lap."

 

[Libramarian]

Alignment mapping.

Speaking generally -- rules put into the game to make it more fun, rather than to make it less unfun, if you catch my meaning.

 

[Lwaxy]

But, you're not doing that are you?

Yeah I do. Or more precise, I have a very changed set of houserules (a game of its on, really), and I allow my players to participate in creating the world if they want. Steeldragon has a thread regarding that, and it seems most DMs do it in one way or the other.