WotC James Wyatt is on the Dungeons & Dragons Team Again

[darjr]

James Wyatt said at the end of that RPG.net thread

Thanks for the kind words, folks. I'm very happy in my new position!

It's not at all unheard of for D&D and Magic to share resources. Mike Mearls worked on Lorwyn, Matt Sernett worked on Rise of the Eldrazi, and Jennifer Clarke Wilkes has worked extensively on both brands. Jenna Helland and Adam Lee from the Magic Creative Team have done a lot of work on the D&D side recently. And I wrote that Liliana story while I was still on the D&D team. Lots of creative cross-pollination.

 

[Scribe]

what is apparently wrong with tieflings?

Everything they turned them into since 4e.

Pre 4e? Nothing at all.

 

[TwoSix]

Everything they turned them into since 4e.

Pre 4e? Nothing at all.

Weird...I played a tiefling in 4e as a human with a touch of devil lineage, and absolutely nothing bad happened.

It's almost like the described setting in the books is subordinate to whatever you want to do at your own table. In other words, no edition can change anything, because the books simply provide suggestions and provide new ideas.

 

[Hatmatter]

I would love to see 6e.

It is not something to fear if you do it at your peak. Other companies do it. Magic does it. Imagine mobile phone companies just said: ok, our customers are used to their phone. It has some flaws, but we should really not improve it, so everyone can use their old phone forever.

RPGs are constantly evolving. It is dangerous to not do some kind of overhaul as is doing it too fast.

5e has been very stable for years. Tasha is experimental in some ways. Such books often were test drives for concelts of the new edition. I would really ne surprised if 23 does not give us 6e.

My view is different. I think the fixation on endless editions in role-playing games exhausts the brand at a certain point. There is certainly a period where the game can be improved, but at a certain point, the lack of stability of what actually constitutes the game will catch up and undermine the game and, in the case of D&D, the community. Now, if an update could be done that would not require everything (Monster Manual, all of the adventure paths, the campaign settings, the supplements, etc.) to be updated for a new edition, I would feel different, but at this point, I think there is far too much to gain for the game designers to take the game and the storylines in directions it has never been before, rather than try to reiterate the game itself yet again. I see no reason why the game could not continue as it is for years and years, there is a vast amount of imaginative terrain that has not been touched.

Not to mention, I would love to see Wizards of the Coast publish different role-playing games as well.

 

[Scribe]

Weird...I played a tiefling in 4e as a human with a touch of devil lineage, and absolutely nothing bad happened.

It's almost like the described setting in the books is subordinate to whatever you want to do at your own table. In other words, no edition can change anything, because the books simply provide suggestions and provide new ideas.

Absolutely, I ignore everything post 3.5 for Tiefling. Doesnt mean the concept as of 4e was worth keeping.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

and then they put it into a system that held it at arm's length and treated it as disposable flavor text.

It’s really wild to me how...just...vastly, unreconcilably, different another person’s perception of a thing can be. To me, the mechanics supported the lore in 4e more than any other edition, by actually making abilities directly do what they say in the description and do the work of making concept come to life in the gameplay, and by pretty much every single game mechanic on the player side, even the smallest feats and minor items and such, had specific lore describing them.

Agreed on how good the lore was, though.

 

[darjr]

That’s the curse and magic of D&D.

 

[Zardnaar]

Using City of the Spider Queen as inspiration for a new campaign.

Drow campaign done BPCs have returned, others borrowed from other products.

Szith Morcane is the base, recover Maerimydra is the goal.

Wyatt wrote that Adventure.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Absolutely, I ignore everything post 3.5 for Tiefling. Doesnt mean the concept as of 4e was worth keeping.

While that doesn’t mean that, sure, the 4e tiefling is fantastic and way beyond worth keeping, except that the 5e art tends to be better for them, because it toned down the horns and face spines and all that and got rid of the butt foreheads.

 

[Zardnaar]

While that doesn’t mean that, sure, the 4e tiefling is fantastic and way beyond worth keeping, except that the 5e art tends to be better for them, because it toned down the horns and face spines and all that and got rid of the butt foreheads.

Not a big fan of the look. Horns and tails look very silly.

4E setting was fine imho, if they left it at that no problem.

But they shoehorned crap into FR that mostly got retconned out do it didn't stick in FR and no Nerath either.