Sacrosanct
Legend
I work in project management as my day job, so we are constantly doing after action reviews (AAR) and lessons learned meetings. Well, it's been 5 years now since the core rulebooks were released. We've had 5 years to really evaluate and soak in how it all went. And we've had years of discussion good things and bad things. Based on the other thread about 6e coming out, I was thinking what lessons learned we'd pull from 5e to apply to 6e.
So....after having all this time to process and look at things more objectively, what would be your big items? Things that had a significant impact, good and bad?
Me:
What went well, and are "must repeats":
public playtest
marketing strategy
diversity in artwork
design philosophy (each game table can adjust rules to fit their table, no numbers bloat, not rewarding system mastery, playable in TotM)
Support via DM's Guild
What were hurdles and are "must avoids":
Quality of books (the PHB quality was bad. Almost on the level of 1e UA)
Reduce ambiguity (including not making promises you know are out of scope. I.e. modularity)
Have digital package almost immediately (like what D&D Beyond is)
Ability score balancing. I.e., avoid having INT as a dump stat for all non casters because there are hardly any INT skill checks or saving throws in the game by making INT have a greater impact in the game (like more saving throws that rely on INT)
What are "wish list" items (nice to have, but might not be in scope)
backwards compatible
rethink sacred cows:
So....after having all this time to process and look at things more objectively, what would be your big items? Things that had a significant impact, good and bad?
Me:
What went well, and are "must repeats":
public playtest
marketing strategy
diversity in artwork
design philosophy (each game table can adjust rules to fit their table, no numbers bloat, not rewarding system mastery, playable in TotM)
Support via DM's Guild
What were hurdles and are "must avoids":
Quality of books (the PHB quality was bad. Almost on the level of 1e UA)
Reduce ambiguity (including not making promises you know are out of scope. I.e. modularity)
Have digital package almost immediately (like what D&D Beyond is)
Ability score balancing. I.e., avoid having INT as a dump stat for all non casters because there are hardly any INT skill checks or saving throws in the game by making INT have a greater impact in the game (like more saving throws that rely on INT)
What are "wish list" items (nice to have, but might not be in scope)
backwards compatible
rethink sacred cows:
- classes. take an extensive poll of what players want to see, which may mean a sacred cow gets left out (if you only have 12 slots for classes in the PHB, maybe warlord replaces ranger)
- races. same as classes