D&D 5E 5E and the "Competition?"

[Mark CMG]

I'm starting to see an interesting turn in the evolution of all this discussion on D&D 5E that has me wondering something. The thing I noticed was a number of folks, on message boards and Facebook, including a little addendum in their suggestions for their design ideas, in that they might write something along the lines of 'I hope WotC includes (blank) in their new rules or that it at least makes it into the revision of Pathfinder' or 'I hope 5E or PF starts allowing (blank) in the next edition.' Now these aren't exact quotes but I am noticing similar posts and it makes me wonder if one of the unintended results of the D&D 5E open discussion and playtest is going to manifest in better RPGs throughout the community. Will some suggestions for D&D 5E be so well received that a lot of RPGs might adopt them? Will some D&D 5E suggestions be seen as not good for D&D 5E but wind up being picked up by other RPGs going forward? Thoughts?

 

[TerraDave]

You'd hope.

3E had massive influence through the OGL, and arguably beyond that, e.g. Green Ronin's Warhammer (or Dragon Age...maybe its just them).

4E...is an interesting case. I think it picked up on a certain vibe already out there, but its main influence seem to be more in reaction (retro-clones, PG) then emulation. I guess PF 0 level spells are at will...

5E is a little backward looking...but if it is open, then that alone could allow it to make a wider mark.

 

[Jacob Marley]

I'm starting to see an interesting turn in the evolution of all this discussion on D&D 5E that has me wondering something. The thing I noticed was a number of folks, on message boards and Facebook, including a little addendum in their suggestions for their design ideas, in that they might write something along the lines of 'I hope WotC includes (blank) in their new rules or that it at least makes it into the revision of Pathfinder' or 'I hope 5E or PF starts allowing (blank) in the next edition.' Now these aren't exact quotes but I am noticing similar posts and it makes me wonder if one of the unintended results of the D&D 5E open discussion and playtest is going to manifest in better RPGs throughout the community.

I'd hope that WotC follows Mythic in showing potential 5th Edition DMs all that can be accomplished by using random tables to push adventure.

Will some suggestions for D&D 5E be so well received that a lot of RPGs might adopt them? Will some D&D 5E suggestions be seen as not good for D&D 5E but wind up being picked up by other RPGs going forward? Thoughts?

One can certainly hope so. There is so much good information out there in blogs, message boards, and within many smaller game systems. I think WotC (and others) would be foolish to neglect it.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

That is part of why I said last month that I thought there would be enough good ideas left out of 5E (in favor of other good ideas, we hope) to put together another game or three.

I've been having a bit of fun off and on with a simple homebrew system built along the lines of: "Grab any idea from these discussions that strikes your fancy, and see where it takes you, not worrying whether the resulting system is really like D&D." The only limit I set for myself was that it had to use classes and levels. Everything else is at whim.

Not that anything solid will come out of what I'm doing, but if I'm having that much fun just playing around with the ideas, you can bet someone more serious is thinking, "Now X looks pretty nifty."

 

[NewJeffCT]

I'm starting to see an interesting turn in the evolution of all this discussion on D&D 5E that has me wondering something. The thing I noticed was a number of folks, on message boards and Facebook, including a little addendum in their suggestions for their design ideas, in that they might write something along the lines of 'I hope WotC includes (blank) in their new rules or that it at least makes it into the revision of Pathfinder' or 'I hope 5E or PF starts allowing (blank) in the next edition.' Now these aren't exact quotes but I am noticing similar posts and it makes me wonder if one of the unintended results of the D&D 5E open discussion and playtest is going to manifest in better RPGs throughout the community. Will some suggestions for D&D 5E be so well received that a lot of RPGs might adopt them? Will some D&D 5E suggestions be seen as not good for D&D 5E but wind up being picked up by other RPGs going forward? Thoughts?

As it has been with every edition since 2E came around 20+ years ago, there will be people who embrace the new edition and other who hate it and say that WotC is dead to them. It's just the nature of the beast.

However, I think because of the open playtesting and modular design, 5E will be better received than 4E was (not knocking 4E - I DM 4E and think it's good for me as a DM) because it will hopefully appeal to a wider set of gamers. Whether or not people convert from 3e/3.5, PF or older editions remains to be seen.

I do think some things will be adopted by other RPGs, but I think the nature of D&D being the 500 pound gorilla in the room of gaming lends itself to that no matter what. And, some things rejected by 5E may be picked up by other gaming systems as well.

So, in short, the answer is maybe.

 

[Incenjucar]

Edition changes naturally spawn clones as the new system fails to keep members of its old audience. There's a good chance that people will see 4E's devotees as a potential audience. Certainly, I myself have no interest in playing what some consider "True" D&D, with emphasis on randomness, players playing themselves rather than their characters to solve puzzles that make no sense in the context of the game world, spellcaster dominance, and so forth, now that I have experienced the alternative.

 

[Quickleaf]

Will some suggestions for D&D 5E be so well received that a lot of RPGs might adopt them? Will some D&D 5E suggestions be seen as not good for D&D 5E but wind up being picked up by other RPGs going forward? Thoughts?

Isn't it usually the other way around, with smaller "fringe" RPGs ideas slowly trickling into D&D "mainstream"? Look at Jonathan Tweet writing for 3e or Robin Laws writing in 4e's DMG2. 4e including skill challenge mechanics is often considered an example of this. So are Eberron's action points.

I've never seen D&D's mechanics as innovative - it's the idea that is.

Or do you think something has changed with the new management at WotC and Monte-Mearls duo??

 

[Ratinyourwalls]

WotC has done a lot of bridge burning in the past decade and Paizo has done a lot of bridge building.

Whether or not WotC continues to burn bridges remains to be seen but it clearly hasn't been working out for them.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

... is dead to them. It's just the nature of the beast...

... naturally spawn clones ...

With all the undead and beast running around, I don't know if they can survive the return of old school clones. How are M&M going to get any work done when they have copies of themselves gradually going mad, and thus going to game conventions and spreading nasty rumors about the product?

 

[kitsune9]

I would like to see a good deal of compatibility between the next D&D version and PF. Whether I see WotC adopting CMB or CMD is another matter (for example), but if WotC gets "back to basics" where the base game is simple, very stream-lined, then compatibility should be easy on many levels. With the optional modules, that might get a little bit tricky, but it's too early to tell just how those optional modules will look. I want to be optimistic though!