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Note: updated below In the DDXP NDA-limited play reports, there was one scenario that stood out for attention: Turns out that was all just something one DM thought would be a great idea and not at all part of the 5e system they were playtesting: This makes a lot of the "system reports" we're...

If the problem is magical healing, why not reduce magical healing instead of shortening someone's life by 1% every time they're healed? Cuz, to be honest, the aging thing seems like it would be a great incentive for someone to only adventure for, at most, a few weeks before retiring. If I know...

The distinction between strategy and tactics doesn't make sense. This poll doesn't seem particularly useful.

What would the purpose be of this whole system? I'm not sure what, as a game designer, you're trying to do here. What makes this more fun to play or to run? What kind of fantasy novels or movies are you emulating? How often would this become important enough to keep tracking? How often do you...

What bothers you about 4e saving throws?

So, just to note, you think that the main factor in the success or failure of 4e D&D was the OGL vs the GSL? Do you think that 5th edition could be avoided by simply taking 4e, dragon boobs and all, and putting that under OGL? Would that action allow WotC to recapture market share from...

Actually, you're committing some serious logical errors there. You might as well say "3.x didn't have dragons with boobs, 4e did, therefore dragons with boobs are the cause of 4e losing money!" Plus, talking about 5e internally in 2010 doesn't really tell us much of anything in terms of how...

I really don't like it where one character's relative effectiveness to another comes down to a series of dice rolls at the beginning of their careers, so I guess we just have different views on the value of randomness in ability scores. Given that ability scores are apparently going to be more...

Yeah, I think they're heading for a bit of a PR disaster by announcing this early (with press release and NY Times interviews and so on) and then not offering up anything for the masses to chew on. (Their "select bloggers get details on this but are under NDA" strategy also seems a poor choice...

It doesn't seem likely that something which never appeared in D&D would be a central mechanic in a backwards-looking "unity edition." The closest D&D has ever gotten to something like this was the point-buy system in Player Options: Skills & Powers.

What YOU say makes the most sense, but it's not at all what Monte said.

What you describe is actually not a bad for character generation. If you were intending to present this as a bad idea, I'm not sure you actually succeeded. The system you outlined here would indeed be an "extremely" or "very" level of race involvement in a character. It has some other...

Here's an example of a poll that asks about how race affects your character. To what level should your character's combat and non-combat abilities be tied specifically to race? E.g. your hit points, armor, weapon proficiencies, and skills. (A) Extremely: Race should be more important than...

It's a poll about mechanical effects for race, and yet it talks primarily about "impact on story" which doesn't mean anything. What does "impact" mean in game mechanics terms? To some people, "race should matter" means that, a la 1st edition AD&D, you can't be a wizard if you're a dwarf. To...

I'd rather have them doing their best job to provide a quality game, than to have D&D Next become entirely about "crowdsourcing" and producing a bland and inoffensive game-for-everyone that nobody really wants to play.

Monte wrote: So I'm trying to envision this as pertains to skill checks, and I'm finding it a little odd. Let's say we have the following: * Player T, who has a long list of skills and feats (a la third edition). * Player F, who has a short list of skills, feats, and utility powers (fourth...

Except the poll isn't straightforward. "4e is Moderate to None" is your interpretation, but it's certainly not contained in the poll. I don't think the effect of race on a character in 4e is "Moderate to None" -- especially given how important those +2 ability score bumps are in 4e D&D. Again...

Your point #2, I don't necessarily see as bringing back much of anything to the company. People who are strongly invested in buying non-WotC D&D Next books are not necessarily a big audience or an audience which will buy a lot of D&D Next books. Point #3, yes, more "books" produced -- but those...

Yeah, the poll is pointless because all it will do is reinforce Monte's opinion -- which he carefully does NOT spell out -- of what is meant by terms such as "very" and "moderate." I think 4e hit it about right -- stat adjustments + skill bonuses + minor features + one encounter power, and feat...

I don't know I agree about the same Pandora's Box that you see, since 4e healing is based on exactly what Gary Gygax always said hit points were about -- they're not all just about your physical wounds.