D&D 5E 5e launches with two adventures - designed by Kobold Press

[TarionzCousin]

...they have already said they weren't going to go the splat-book route....

What exactly did they say about not making splatbooks?

Lan-"option c with detached cardstock maps a la classic TSR would be even better"-efan

This might be the longest Lanefan mid-signature comment ever.

 

[Blackbrrd]

What exactly did they say about not making splatbooks?

A bit embarrasing, but I don't have the quote. It didn't say that they weren't going to make splatbooks though, it said something along the lines of not flooding the market with them.

 

[Morrus]

My interview with Kobold Press' Wolfgang Baur and Steve Winter is now live!

 

[TarionzCousin]

My interview with Kobold Press' Wolfgang Baur and Steve Winter is now live!

Groovy. I'm glad to see the independents getting access like this.

 

[Thaumaturge]

My interview with Kobold Press' Wolfgang Baur and Steve Winter is now live!

The new edition of D&D seems to be shifting the balance in the opposite direction. It's stepping back toward a philosophy of saying, "You DMs and players are smart people—the rulebook doesn't need to tell you how to do every little thing. Here's a framework for modelling fantasy. Do what you want with it." There's a lot more specificity than there was in, say, OD&D or D&D Basic/Expert, but there's considerably more freedom than there was in 3rd and 4th edition.

For me, that's the quote of the article. It's what I was seeing in the playtest, and it's what is making me excited about the new edition.

Thaumaturge.

 

[jrowland]

For me, that's the quote of the article. It's what I was seeing in the playtest, and it's what is making me excited about the new edition.

Thaumaturge.

I agree. I also agree with Wolfgang about the Rules becoming a bit too ridiculous. As a DM I felt more and more trapped. 4E was a breath of fresh air, but I can understand its non-universal appeal. I like to say 3E is a Hard-Core Players best friend and 4E is a DMs best friend. Granted, that is an over-simplification, but 5E is shaping up to be crunchy enough to for hard-core players, yet simple enough for a DM to wing it.

 

[SteveC]

So I just wanted to say "yay!" and "bravo!" to this decision.

I have been more than a little negative about this edition, but this seems to me to be the absolute right thing to do. If I could go back in time and only do trivial things, I'd convince WotC to do this with Paizo for Fourth Edition. Would have made a huge change.

So bravo to the Kobolds!

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I'm surprised but excited by the fact that Kobold Press are developing the adventures. The first adventure has gone from probably won't buy to very likely to buy, just on that alone. If I like the first adventure I'll get the second one too.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

So I just wanted to say "yay!" and "bravo!" to this decision.

I have been more than a little negative about this edition, but this seems to me to be the absolute right thing to do. If I could go back in time and only do trivial things, I'd convince WotC to do this with Paizo for Fourth Edition. Would have made a huge change.

So bravo to the Kobolds!

I wonder how that would have turned out. On the face of it, it sounds pretty good. Get the guys with the experience in writing adventure paths to write all the adventures for 4E. I don't know if Paizo would have wanted to head down that path, but I think it definitely would have improved the quality of 4E adventures.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I wonder how that would have turned out. On the face of it, it sounds pretty good. Get the guys with the experience in writing adventure paths to write all the adventures for 4E. I don't know if Paizo would have wanted to head down that path, but I think it definitely would have improved the quality of 4E adventures.

I can't imagine anyone, even deliberately, designing anything worse than Keep on the Shadowfell or Pyramid of Shadows (the latter being the greater abomination of the two and vying for the worst official D&D adventure of all time) for 4E. And the Epic adventures in that same series were just as bad but I have erased them from memory.

Anecdotally, I've often seen people agree that they went to Pathfinder because these two adventures were such motherless-dogs-with-fleas which convinced them that 4E was not the game they wanted to play. Now that's based only on anecdotal evidence nevertheless I do wonder if 4E would have lasted longer if these adventures had been written by some people who actually grokked and liked 4E.

Oh well, that's ancient history now and at least WotC has learned some vital lessons (for a change) and has contracted out the work they do not do well internally.