D&D General Kobold Press Going Down a Dark Road

Bolares · Mar 29, 2023

Parmandur said:
Math doesn't care about anyone's feelings.

And that’s why I broke up with math

Remathilis · Mar 29, 2023

Snarf Zagyg said:
Given we don't know what OneD&D will look like yet, all the weird argument over it seems misplaced. It is likely to be more compatible than many of the alternate systems we see right now (such as LevelUp or whatever Kobold Press is working on). But maybe not! We don't know yet.

We don't know, but given we can glimpse into the playtests of both BF and 1D&D, I'm going to say they have more in common than KP is willing to admit. BF was made to sound like it was going to be 5e with replacements for the stuff not in the SRD, but KP began to tinker and Surprise! they are making the same types of changes WotC is making.

Racial ASI: gone.
Feat/Talent at 1st level.
Race having cultural elements moved/siloed.
Unified spell lists
Greater access to inspiration/luck
New class features
Subclasses having a unified progression (possibly, we have limited reference in BF, but the wizards subclass features were moved to match the fighters in the limited info we have)
Spells, talents/feats and other elements are revised.

As far as using supplements like Xanathar or such, you're going to need to do the same amount of conversion to make it work with BF as you will with 1DD. I'm sure you will be able to run a 2014 fighter, a BF wizard and a 1D druid at the same table in the abstract, but each one is going to end up needing some work to be compatible. In that, BF is Two D&D, One D&D's brother from another mother.

nevin · Mar 29, 2023

with all the printing and binding options for PDF's why is this even an issue. As long as you have the PDF you can print and bind as many copies as your players need.

Snarf Zagyg · Mar 29, 2023

Bolares said:
And that’s why I broke up with math

Really? That's why I find math so hot.

Parmandur · Mar 29, 2023

Bolares said:
And that’s why I broke up with math

Touché

Parmandur · Mar 29, 2023

Remathilis said:
We don't know, but given we can glimpse into the playtests of both BF and 1D&D, I'm going to say they have more in common than KP is willing to admit. BF was made to sound like it was going to be 5e with replacements for the stuff not in the SRD, but KP began to tinker and Surprise! they are making the same types of changes WotC is making.

Racial ASI: gone.
Feat/Talent at 1st level.
Race having cultural elements moved/siloed.
Unified spell lists
Greater access to inspiration/luck
New class features
Subclasses having a unified progression (possibly, we have limited reference in BF, but the wizards subclass features were moved to match the fighters in the limited info we have)
Spells, talents/feats and other elements are revised.

As far as using supplements like Xanathar or such, you're going to need to do the same amount of conversion to make it work with BF as you will with 1DD. I'm sure you will be able to run a 2014 fighter, a BF wizard and a 1D druid at the same table in the abstract, but each one is going to end up needing some work to be compatible. In that, BF is Two D&D, One D&D's brother from another mother.

Yeah, that's the weird part: how similar they hashing out to be.

Iosue · Mar 29, 2023

Snarf Zagyg said:
This whole debate is also weird to me. Given I've written before about the interoperability of the entire TSR era, I don't get this at all. Perhaps it's because people have become more used to the discontinuities between 3e, 4e, and 5e?

I hear you. By any measure, 2nd Edition was a huge overhaul, far beyond anything they’ve suggested for 2024. Classes completely revised, entirely new initiative system, XP for treasure abandoned, monsters buffed. And yet, it seemed to me that even at the time we didn’t think of it as a different game, just the same fundamental game engine given a dressing up.

After going through that, it’s hard to get worked up over the minor cosmetic changes they are contemplating for 5e. It’s going to be the same fundamental engine.

Oofta · Mar 29, 2023

Sorcerers Apprentice said:
D&D Beyond will drop support for those "Legacy" products at some point, when maintaining the codebase that supports them starts getting in the way of adding new content. We'll probably still be able to access the text of those books, but their content won't be integrated in the character builder etc.

I don't see any reason to believe that other than someday there won't be a DDB as we know it, of course. I see nothing to indicate such a radical departure from the structure of the game that old stuff will be completely invalid. Certain functionality might be limited, I see no reason for it to go away anytime in the foreseeable future.