Were people's expectations of "Modularity" set a little too high?

[ForeverSlayer]

I've come across complaints about the modularity of D&D Next and I feel like the problem is, people have basically set their expectations way too high.

I think what these people expected was to be able to sit down at the table and play a game of 4th edition or 3rd edition or 1st/2nd edition using Next and that just isn't going to happen.

I think the whole idea was to use bits and pieces of all those editions into the creation of D&D Next in order to give people the "feel" of these editions while being something new.

I like the direction the game is going and I hope they iron out the "clunky" parts that I don't agree with.

 

[ComradeGnull]

I think expectations definitely got too high quickly- particularly, I think some people took 'modularity' to mean something along the lines of 'we're not going to publish a game, we're going to publish a kit for building a game'- like when you flip through the core book, the first few chapters are going to be on selecting the combat system, magic system, skill system, etc., that you are going to use, with no 'default' assumed.

Along the same lines, people's expectations about how 'modular' the playtest kits will be has also been a little too high. Just because something is not described as being an option, or being something that can be relegated to a moduled, in the playtest document, that doesn't mean that is the final form of a rule or system. There are limits to how much flexibility they can give us during the 'test' phase without seriously undermining the utility of the feedback they are getting during the playtest.

The same thought occurs to me when I see people already talking about houseruling and modifying the playtest rules extensively. "We ran a playtest game, but I swapped out the skill system and used something else, and we ignored specialties and selected feats individually, and I did some guesswork to port over Dragonborn as a playable race, and we created our own version of the Paladin class..." Um... Ok. That's great if you were doing that just for fun, but in terms of providing meaningful feedback to the publisher, not sure how useful it is to take an incomplete system and immediately start houseruling it and extending it in ways that may or may not be compatable with the future direction of the rules.

 

[GX.Sigma]

I think what these people expected was to be able to sit down at the table and play a game of 4th edition or 4rd edition or 1st/2nd edition using Next and that just isn't going to happen.

I've run playtest sessions that felt exactly like old-school D&D (Caves of Chaos with some imported CD&D mechanics), and I've seen a session that felt exactly like 4e (Chris Perkins' live game at GenCon). It's definitely a thing.

 

[pauljathome]

I've come across complaints about the modularity of D&D Next and I feel like the problem is, people have basically set their expectations way too high.
.

I'd claim that WOTC made some pretty strong claims wrt what it expected to achieve with its modularity. People maybe went a little further than those claims but only maybe and only a little.

The situation is actually turning out more or less exactly as I expected. The modularity is far, far less than promised.

 

[jrowland]

Let's be fair here: We have 2 playtests, neither of which showcase ANY modularity. I think it's a bit premature to judge modularty when it hasn't even been presented.

I think its encouraging that people are modifying extensively with these limited playtests without ANY modularity guidelines. It shows that these "core" rulesets *can* be modified.

There is no point in providing a new edition that is exactly like a previous edition, nor is there a point to providing a new edition that is modifiable to mimic nearly exactly a previous edition. One would simply play the previous edition, or re-release content of old editions (which WotC is doing by-the-way, as a nod to those who want the exact game).

A new edition that allows one to play in the style of previous editions, is a better idea, and one I think WotC is aiming for. Set your expectations for a previous-edition-like-experience or a new experience and I think you won't be disappointed.

 

[Umbran]

I've come across complaints about the modularity of D&D Next and I feel like the problem is, people have basically set their expectations way too high.

Yes and no.

I think the final product may well be modular as people seem to expect. But what we have now isn't very near the final product. Folks seem to have gotten the idea that they'd see the modularity early on in the playtest, before the foundation upon which that modularity was based was fully tested.

 

[Ahnehnois]

In terms of modularity, I expected the equivalent of the 3.5 core rulebooks plus Unearthed Arcana from day 1. Will we get it? Perhaps not. Is that unreasonable expectation though? I don't think it is.

We already have a toolbox edition of D&D, we just need a cleaner and better written version of it.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

While people's expectations of modularity may or may not be too high, modularity has fallen fall short of the promises they made for it in the early days just after the announcement of 5E. They promised that 5E modularity would allow you to run any playstyle of D&D, and 5E hasn't come close to delivering that to this point.

 

[Shadeydm]

I suspect we are already playtesting a few modules and that they will continue to swap modules in and out with each playtest release. Its really pretty smart to not call them modules if they did a significant portion of playtesters would likely pick and choose which ones to use not a good thing for testing purposes imho.

 

[ForeverSlayer]

While people's expectations of modularity may or may not be too high, modularity has fallen fall short of the promises they made for it in the early days just after the announcement of 5E. They promised that 5E modularity would allow you to run any playstyle of D&D, and 5E hasn't come close to delivering that to this point.

Question?

Which playstyle are not able to have with Next?