The Human Target
Adventurer
Man WotC must have kicked a lot of your grandmas in the teeth.
Who cares about a press release?
Who cares about a press release?
D&D 5E D&D Next Release Date Set -- Summer 2014
- Thread starter Cybit
- Start date
S
Sunseeker
Guest
It wouldn't surprise me at all to see them release some thing console only. Happens with every multi-platform game.
TrippyHippy
Hero
I think 'multi-platform' simply alludes to the point that the D&D brand is worth more to WotC/Hasbro than the profits of the game itself. You can read all sorts of articles, reports or reviews in all sorts of sources that utilize 'D&D' as a fairly universally understood term. The game is considered to be significant, in game design terms, beyond the sub-genre RPG hobby it spawned. Computer-based and board games probably sell a lot more these days, but sticking the 'D&D' brand on them requires that you have a core game from whence they come from.
As such, their design policy was as much convincing gamers that it was 'the real D&D' as much as anything else. Having read and played the play test, and seen some of their preview modules, the game does indeed look like classic D&D. Although people may have quibbles with certain rules aspects (including myself - +1 to all human stats!..grrr..), the basic design precepts have been successfully met.
There has been something of a trend in recent years for new games essentially trying to replicate the experience of old 'classics' using new mechanics. D&D has had Pathfinder, Castles and Crusades, Dungeon World, 13th Age, Dungeon World Classics, and so on. Other games have also seen clones. If there is one wish of mine for D&D is that we see game designers actually consolidate a little, rather than keeping splintering off all the time. While having lots of games can be seen as a creative pool of competition (which is good), it can also be divisive ("I won't play that version of D&D, only my personal favorite!"). It also channels the creativity of the hobby away from other areas - new setting design and world creation for example.
For me the RPG of the year was Numenara. It wasn't necessarily a game for me, but it was significant because it was very much focused on the original setting, rather than putting heavy emphasis on innovative mechanics. And it was hugely successful. If you look at the games made over the last decade or so, the emphasis has generally been on mechanics (the whole 'System matters' hullabaloo), with original setting based games few and far between. Maybe, these trends are going to change in the aftermath of D&DNext.
As such, their design policy was as much convincing gamers that it was 'the real D&D' as much as anything else. Having read and played the play test, and seen some of their preview modules, the game does indeed look like classic D&D. Although people may have quibbles with certain rules aspects (including myself - +1 to all human stats!..grrr..), the basic design precepts have been successfully met.
There has been something of a trend in recent years for new games essentially trying to replicate the experience of old 'classics' using new mechanics. D&D has had Pathfinder, Castles and Crusades, Dungeon World, 13th Age, Dungeon World Classics, and so on. Other games have also seen clones. If there is one wish of mine for D&D is that we see game designers actually consolidate a little, rather than keeping splintering off all the time. While having lots of games can be seen as a creative pool of competition (which is good), it can also be divisive ("I won't play that version of D&D, only my personal favorite!"). It also channels the creativity of the hobby away from other areas - new setting design and world creation for example.
For me the RPG of the year was Numenara. It wasn't necessarily a game for me, but it was significant because it was very much focused on the original setting, rather than putting heavy emphasis on innovative mechanics. And it was hugely successful. If you look at the games made over the last decade or so, the emphasis has generally been on mechanics (the whole 'System matters' hullabaloo), with original setting based games few and far between. Maybe, these trends are going to change in the aftermath of D&DNext.
Last edited:
Incenjucar
Legend
Plenty of RPG books are put out that focus on setting, but these tend to be one-shot items based on TV shows or books or video games or anime cliches.
The trend toward mechanics-based design makes a lot of sense given the creative of the gaming population - a very large number of DMs and GMs ignore the majority of setting information and come up with their own ideas, making a large portion of written material essentially waste for them. At the same time, building a setting into a rules structure feels like it limits that setting to those rules - there's no reason you can't play a game using WoD rules set in the Forgotten Realms, but many people who might like the setting but hate the rules may not want to pay for pages and pages of spells they can't actually use as-written which comes with the setting info.
TrippyHippy
Hero
I'd like to see some data to back up assertions like these, but besides all that, I actually hate reading a new set of rules for pages and pages in each new system that actually purports to do the same thing the original game being cloned was set to do.
I guess what I'm interested in is creativity going into games, rather than just niche filling - and is why I do not include things like licensed settings when I say 'original settings' - or indeed established settings from decades ago (like Forgotten Realms). Numenara has a lot of antecedent source material from novels and movies and whatnot, but it is essentially an original setting written for a modern game, rather than an attempt to adapt an existing setting to a preferred set of rules.
Also, I find a lot of the objections to specific rules from gamers can be really arbitrary and pernickety these days too ("I won't play any game with a D20 in it!", etc) - as if the only way you can create a particular feel for a setting is the manner and system in which you roll the dice.
I'm sure somebody could reel off pages and pages of arguments why Pathfinder, 13th Age or Dungeon World or anything else produces a better D&D experience than D&D itself….but I'd rather just get on with playing and creating, regardless of the system. And if game designers are going to make a new system, I'd rather it be for a new setting or genre than hasn't been done already a bazillion times before.
Last edited:
I suspect it might refer to a variety of PDFs, Ebook formats, online character builder and compendium, as well as the print versions as well as "other" D&D products apart from the RPG.
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad
Similar Threads
