D&D General Does D&D (and RPGs in general) Need Edition Resets?

[Thomas Shey]

As an example, early on, most games had something like classes and levels. Over time, more and more games have been made with weaker constructions of class and level (like, say, World of Darkness games) or to have no such concepts at all (games that are skill-based, and point buy, like Fate or Gumshoe games). RPGs have evolved to contain such concepts.

In fact, even games with classes have tended to erode the edges of them over time, as the number of people who found the rigidity of early classes unsatisfactory have impacted the hobby.

 

[Staffan]

What would you have in place of the Elemental Planes? There is 4e's Elemental Chaos. There's World of Warcraft's Elemental Plane, which resembles a tectonically active Material Plane world beset by all sorts of natural disasters. I wouldn't matter the latter in D&D.

TBH, I like Exalted's setup.

The world, Creation, is flat. At the center of the world is the Elemental Pole of Earth, embodied in the Imperial Mountain, anchoring the world and projecting stability. Surrounding the world are the other elemental poles: Air (cold) in the north, Wood in the east, Fire in the south, and Water in the west. As you travel farther in any one direction, the world becomes more and more influenced by that element until it becomes inhospitable to human life. Outside of the elemental poles lies the Wyld, the raw chaos from which the world was once forged.

Elementals are material spirits who are a natural part of the world and its processes. Some can dematerialize into a spirit form, but their natural state is material. They are generally not D&D-style "pure" elementals, but things like Wood Spiders or Wind Bears. Powerful elementals generally become dragon-shaped.

 

[Corinnguard]

TBH, I like Exalted's setup.

The world, Creation, is flat. At the center of the world is the Elemental Pole of Earth, embodied in the Imperial Mountain, anchoring the world and projecting stability. Surrounding the world are the other elemental poles: Air (cold) in the north, Wood in the east, Fire in the south, and Water in the west. As you travel farther in any one direction, the world becomes more and more influenced by that element until it becomes inhospitable to human life. Outside of the elemental poles lies the Wyld, the raw chaos from which the world was once forged.

Elementals are material spirits who are a natural part of the world and its processes. Some can dematerialize into a spirit form, but their natural state is material. They are generally not D&D-style "pure" elementals, but things like Wood Spiders or Wind Bears. Powerful elementals generally become dragon-shaped.

I have heard that the world of the Alchemical Exalted, Autochthonia had it's own elemental poles.

 

[jgsugden]

...Things that are subject to design thinking, and are purposefully changed to produce a specific effect, are not evolving. D&D changes from edition to edition, but that change isn't really evolution...

That ignores that there are multiple definitions of evolution. Anytime you gradually change something over time it is also known as an evolution. It wouldn't give Darwin a stiff salute, but it is evolution nonetheless.

 

[Thomas Shey]

That ignores that there are multiple definitions of evolution. Anytime you gradually change something over time it is also known as an evolution. It wouldn't give Darwin a stiff salute, but it is evolution nonetheless.

You can make an argument for it being selection at least; the changes that survive are usually ones the market wants/likes on the whole (the "usually" is necessary because things can perturb that, but then, that's true of natural selection too; your spiffy new survival-positive mutation that is rapidly establishing itself doesn't matter a jot if the whole population that initially has it is wiped out in a volcanic eruption).

 

[haakon1]

WotC actually addressed this point explicitly …
the game will update gradually over time …
Yes, but you don't need to throw out an entire edition at once to bring in new ideas.

If you believe Hasbro.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Hopefully this is said in humor. If not, we also lost gender limits and penalties. And that's a good thing. Prove me wrong.

It was done as a joke, yet some people unironically want some of those things back...

The loss of material components and d4 hit dice is unfortunate.

 

[Vaalingrade]

That ignores that there are multiple definitions of evolution. Anytime you gradually change something over time it is also known as an evolution. It wouldn't give Darwin a stiff salute, but it is evolution nonetheless.

We should just canonize digivolution in real life.

 

[Lanefan]

....yes, and plus/minus isn't what ordinal data is for.

You can't add third place to second place in order to get first place, or any other place! The whole notion is meaningless. That's literally the point.

I'm not trying to add third place to second place to get first place; and yes, that notion is meaningless.

I'm not sure just what point you're trying to make.

 

[Staffan]

I have heard that the world of the Alchemical Exalted, Autochthonia had it's own elemental poles.

Right. Autochthonia has its own flavoring of elements. Steam instead of Air, Metal instead of Earth, Lightning instead of Fire, Oil instead of Water, Crystal instead of Wood, and Smoke instead of Vitriol (an element otherwise found in Hell, not in Creation). Autochthonia's more of its own sub-setting though, that by default is wholly separate from Creation unless something happens to connect the two.