5E - How would you structure it?

[Dausuul]

By the time 2014 comes around... e-readers, tablets, and smartphones will be so commonplace that EVERYTHING to do with 5E will be computer web-based.

I agree. Everything I'm seeing strongly suggests that the Character Builder and its ilk are the way of the future. My group used to be fairly sophisticated gamers who had no problem juggling complex character stats. We played high-level 3.5; we played Iron Heroes; for quite a span of time we played White Wolf's original "Aberrant," complete with three different flavors of point buy for the same stats.

Now my players are totally dependent on the Character Builder. Any time I propose any sort of character option or house rule, the first question I hear is, "Is it in the CB?" I'm not immune, either. I recently tried making a 4E character by hand--an Essentials hexblade--and I forgot feats. As in, no feats at all, for a 15th-level character. Not some obscure modifier nobody ever remembers, but feats.

Some gamers will continue to play pencil-and-paper, and I think WotC will continue to supply them for quite a while to come, if only because a lot of the staff grew up in the days of Gygax and TSR and will go to great lengths to make a business case to the Hasbro suits that PnP needs to be continued. But as time goes by, it will become more and more of a legacy operation. You'll know the focus has truly shifted when material from new books starts being released online the same day (or earlier!) as the dead-tree version hits stores.

So what will the electronic face of D&D look like? Well, you can pretty much see the shape of it now. It's a web-based, integrated suite of player and DM tools, designed to be used either as electronic aids for tabletop play or for purely online gaming. The players have the Character Builder. The DM has Adventure Tools (the new web version). It'll be a lot fancier, with more bells and whistles, but it's the same basic framework we've got now.

 

[ggroy]

But as time goes by, it will become more and more of a legacy operation. You'll know the focus has truly shifted when material from new books starts being released online the same day (or earlier!) as the dead-tree version hits stores.

Or the dead-tree version is only available as print-on-demand.

 

[MortonStromgal]

I would make 2 lines that are compatible with each other.

D&D Basic (ie the monopoly approach) everything you need in one box for a campaign (5 adventures, 2 levels per). So you would have D&D: Dark Sun, D&D: Ravenloft etc etc (like you have Monopoly Star Wars). You can have Dark Sun 2 for the next tier etc.

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons would look alot like Gama World (ie the Magic approach) you would have card expansions and pre-painted minis etc. Everything could be added to a Basic game or also some rule books to stand on its own.

 

[kitsune9]

My opinion will come in the viewpoint of a fan since my industry is finance, not marketing.

1. The physical product is a box set. It includes:
a. A 64 page Player's Handbook (gives some base classes and a few races)
b. A 96 page DM's guide (includes a section on monster manuals)
c. A 16-32 page introductory adventure
d. Poster map tiles
e. Tokens
f. Dice

2. A second larger tome that fills in the gaps. It has all the rest of the classes and races, full level progression, and additional combat rules. This will be an optional rulebook because the core game will actually be in the box set.

3. Online support. I think DDI does the trick so I don't think I would change it. Just make sure that all the tools are completely integrated and incorporate a lot of social media. Use Facebook or the next Hottest Website to host a really strip-down cooperative rpg games.

4. Partner with Hasbro to have more D&D tie-ins. I thought the D&D Clue boardgame was a cool idea. Let's get a Monopoly game too. Let's create a cute Chutes and Ladders / Candyland fantasy version. Also, we need a fantasy equivalent of Dora the Explorer or Kai-Lan dolls.

5. Should there ever be a computer rpg / MMORPG of the D&D game that comes out again, if there's a physical copy to be bought, offer players a collector's edition of the game by including the box set. Or....failing that, partner with a company that has an awesome rpg and write a rpg using the D&D ruleset and that box set is in the collector's edition. My only criticism of Bioware/Green Ronin for their Dragon Age rpg was that there wasn't a collector's edition where each gamer who bought the computer game got a copy of the box set.

Happy Gaming!

 

[TikkchikFenTikktikk]

D&D will not be online only.

 

[ArcaneSpringboard]

To be clear, I don't think a "5E" is necessary. Not only that, I don't think we'll ever see another release of D&D labeled with an edition.

They've done a brilliant thing by taking the "4th Edition" off "Essentials".

IMHO, the core of 4th Edition is damn near the apotheosis of D&D. With this base they have plenty of design space to do to D&D what WotC has been doing to Magic for 15+ years. The pre-Essentials 4E stuff will be like early magic sets: still compatible, played by many though not most.

While the course has been plotted for 2011, I can see something like what I've outlined above coming into play in 2012.

Exactly. Given the development of the digital tools and the massive database, there isn't any way that they're going to risk that I think.

Any '5th' edition is going to be fiddling around the edges...more like 1e to 2e as opposed to 3e to 4e.

 

[SoulsFury]

I like the idea that there will not be any new edition of D&D. I like to think that every few years, there will be an Essentials type books that revamp classes that are still balanced and compatible with all the previous classes. Lets pretend after Essentials, there will be a like called Progressives. So then there would be 3 types of clerics, all are the same type of character but have 3 distinct playing types. That way, newer players can buy new stuff and learn that way, while older players and DMs can stick to their old ways, while they all play together. We don't need new editions. The current rule set is easily used to create a myriad of options that can forever change. Boo to a new addition.

 

[DEFCON 1]

D&D will not be online only.

The game itself, "online only"? No.

The products that give us the rules to play? Eventually, yes.

If the online player and DM tools are good enough to generate as much (if not more) of a subscription revenue stream than selling hard copy books do... you betcha they'll stop printing books (or at least not in anywhere the same numbers.) In five years time, the proportion of fiction and non-fiction "real" books printed versus sold on e-readers will be moving so far towards the electronic, that WotC would be insane to not follow along, and remain with the dead tree model. Now sure, they can still print small runs of the cheap trade-paperback style books for those small groups of old-schoolers who haven't gone electronic in their lives (like they're doing now)... but most of their revenue from written product will come from the electronic format, I'm willing to bet. The electronic subscription model is cheaper to get written material out there for consumption, and is a steadier revenue stream.

The only things with "heft" that I think they'll continue to sell are Miniatures, Tokens, Dungeon Tiles, and modules which include Poster Maps. Because those physical products are what make D&D 4E the "tabletop game" that it is. And since they've gone out of their way to continue to keep the miniatures, tokens and tiles on the market... tells me that those are products whose sales-compared-to-production-cost must be generating substantial profits. Otherwise, they wouldn't have designed (or stuck with) the tactical-grid-based game model that 4E uses.

 

[Festivus]

My preference would be to sell products separate from the boxes. The boxes are spiffy looking but I sure wish I could have purchased the Essentials monster book without all those pogs I have no use for.

 

[Stormonu]

Put me down for a Rules Encyclopedia base product, with everything else added on top to flavor.

The core rules would be the only thing to put into paper format, everything else would be in a "rules store" with an option to do a Print On Demand (POD).

Want to play a human fighter? Go to the Rules Store and pick up the human and fighter pack (only $.99). If players log their DMs name, the DM gains access to review the class material for free (but can't print unless they own the class/race too)

Are you the DM and need monsters for the next game? Select say, 10 monsters for $.99 or pick up the Heroic Tier monster group for $9. Same for magic items. Likewise, premade modules could be purchased that come with the necessary monsters, items and whatnot to play. Loads right into the official D&D virtual table.

OR, just print a PHB, DMG, MM and drop a new support book every six months or so and forget the microtansactions. The community will certainly fill the gaps in.