D&D General 5e System Redesign through New Classes and Setting. A Thought Experiment.

[Remathilis]

Problem with having several small (actually, medium-size) companies each publishing and promoting their own systems is that inevitably two things will happen:

--- the hobby will fracture into camps each supporting their preferred system
--- some of the disputes between those camps will get ugly (you thought the edition wars were bad, just wait for the system wars).

You sure you want that?

I mean, right now Enworld is divided into people who champion each edition or half-edition of D&D, two editions of Pathfinder, Level Up, Tales of the Valiant, countless indie games like Shadowdark, and all manner of OSR games. We barely can talk about the game without collapsing into factions arguing that X game does/did it better. We can't even approach discussion assuming we are playing the same game.

It's only going to get worse as more and more publishers think they have figured out the secret sauce to fix D&D and the community fractures into smaller and smaller Balkans.

 

[payn]

I mean, right now Enworld is divided into people who champion each edition or half-edition of D&D, two editions of Pathfinder, Level Up, Tales of the Valiant, countless indie games like Shadowdark, and all manner of OSR games. We barely can talk about the game without collapsing into factions arguing that X game does/did it better. We can't even approach discussion assuming we are playing the same game.

It's only going to get worse as more and more publishers think they have figured out the secret sauce to fix D&D and the community fractures into smaller and smaller Balkans.

Honestly, I find this to be exaggeration. Folks have diverse experiences and enjoy talking RPGs in general. While some folks are bent on staking positions instead of talking interests, it’s nothing here at EN World compared to the internet in general.

 

[Corinnguard]

Yup dropping them on top of existing material with little reason.

How many other species in each edition D&D were dropped on top of existing material with little reason? Quite a lot. And if it wasn't a new species, it was a new subspecies. WoTC could have kept the same races from 1e to all of the editions of D&D. No Goliaths, no Tieflings, No Dragonborn, etc. Just humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, half-elves and half-orcs. Edition after edition. But they didn't because they knew new species/new subspecies would bring in more players, who would buy more of their books, etc. Did it matter to WoTC that the introduction of a new species/subspecies in any of their settings was going to be met with bemusement by some of the players?

 

[Zardnaar]

How many other species in each edition D&D were dropped on top of existing material with little reason? Quite a lot. And if it wasn't a new species, it was a new subspecies. WoTC could have kept the same races from 1e to all of the editions of D&D. No Goliaths, no Tieflings, No Dragonborn, etc. Just humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, half-elves and half-orcs. Edition after edition. But they didn't because they knew new species/new subspecies would bring in more players, who would buy more of their books, etc. Did it matter to WoTC that the introduction of a new species/subspecies in any of their settings was going to be met with bemusement by some of the players?

Races were usually an additional on buried in optional source books.

If they added any new ones its usually they were there in the back ground or whatever.

3.0 frcs was a bit more restrained. You know the book now regarded as one of the best.

 

[Corinnguard]

3.0 frcs was a bit more restrained. You know the book now regarded as one of the best.

Agreed. I still own my 3e FRCS book. The 3e version had books covering each area of Faerun with a lot of useful material. I hope the upcoming 2024 Heroes of Faerun is a return to covering more areas of the continent.

 

[Zardnaar]

Agreed. I still own my 3e FRCS book. The 3e version had books covering each area of Faerun with a lot of useful material. I hope the upcoming 2024 Heroes of Faerun is a return to covering more areas of the continent.

Scag was alright but it kinda sucked esicially for the mechanical stuff.

Used my 3.0 frcs today. Wanted a look at the Stonelands.

 

[Steampunkette]

How many other species in each edition D&D were dropped on top of existing material with little reason? Quite a lot. And if it wasn't a new species, it was a new subspecies. WoTC could have kept the same races from 1e to all of the editions of D&D. No Goliaths, no Tieflings, No Dragonborn, etc. Just humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, half-elves and half-orcs. Edition after edition. But they didn't because they knew new species/new subspecies would bring in more players, who would buy more of their books, etc. Did it matter to WoTC that the introduction of a new species/subspecies in any of their settings was going to be met with bemusement by some of the players?

I don't really mind new species, obviously. I just think they should be tailored to their worlds and have the settings built with them in mind. Rather than being all "Well. Everything in all these books now exists in every setting, forever."

I also hate the "All tieflings look like this, now, so we can sell more minis" decision but that's a whole other bag of cats.

 

[Zardnaar]

I don't really mind new species, obviously. I just think they should be tailored to their worlds and have the settings built with them in mind. Rather than being all "Well. Everything in all these books now exists in every setting, forever."

I also hate the "All tieflings look like this, now, so we can sell more minis" decision but that's a whole other bag of cats.

This. New races can also make that setting more appealing to buy as well. Or define the setting eg Darksun.

 

[Corinnguard]

I don't really mind new species, obviously. I just think they should be tailored to their worlds and have the settings built with them in mind.

All the more reason then for someone to make Toril's sister planet of Abeir into an actual setting.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I mean, right now Enworld is divided into people who champion each edition or half-edition of D&D, two editions of Pathfinder, Level Up, Tales of the Valiant, countless indie games like Shadowdark, and all manner of OSR games. We barely can talk about the game without collapsing into factions arguing that X game does/did it better. We can't even approach discussion assuming we are playing the same game.

It's only going to get worse as more and more publishers think they have figured out the secret sauce to fix D&D and the community fractures into smaller and smaller Balkans.

That's true, but I dont think a game for every taste is a bad thing.