D&D 5E 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons: "There's a "Mod" for that!

[ForeverSlayer]

Will this be D&D Next's motto from now on?

If they don't deliver what you want right away, will you hear "but there will be a mod for that" to keep you waiting and playing the game until either it does come or it doesn't?

I think the notion sounds great and I know Next would like to be able to encompass everything into the game but is this even realistic and do we really want it that way?

I love options but I don't want options just for the sake of options because this creates system bloat which in turn puts a strain on the system as a whole.

I want a smooth system that allows me to use it according to my playstyle.

 

[dkyle]

I will not start playing D&D 5E unless there is a combination of modules available that does what I want. I will not start playing on the "promise" that the game I want will be released at some point in the future. Consider what happened to many of the "promises" made for DDI.

I do not think it is realistic that they will truly accommodate all fans of previous editions, simply by providing modules. It will be insanely difficult to maintain balance for all those possible combinations of modules. They just barely kept 4E balanced. How will they balance a game that provides not just 4E-style play, plus all those other styles?

If they throw out game balance, and focus only on the (admittedly sizable) population of D&D fans for whom "balance" is a dirty word, they might find an audience, but it won't include me.

Now if they do manage to provide a bunch of modules for everyone, all well balanced, I don't see why anyone wouldn't want that. Having a bunch of plug-and-play modules is a good way to have a wide variety of options available, while avoiding bloat. If you don't include a module, then it does nothing to bloat your game.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Will this be D&D Next's motto from now on?

If they don't deliver what you want right away, will you hear "but there will be a mod for that" to keep you waiting and playing the game until either it does come or it doesn't?

That's the impression I'm getting.

I want a smooth system that allows me to use it according to my playstyle.

I think the theory they're working on is that they can't create a core system that works smoothly for a wide variety of playstyles, so instead, they'll create one that works for some narrow range of styles (centering on whatever they've concluded is 'really D&D' - my guess, 2e, coincidentally Mr. Mearl's first and favorite ed), and provide a toolkit of modules for DMs to use to kitbash it into something that supports other styles, one at a time.

I think it is possible to have one system that accommodates - 'supports' may be too strong a word - a very broad range of play styles. But, what you or I think doesn't matter.

 

[Stormonu]

Likewise, I don't plan on playing 5E until the modules I expect for my fav version (basically able to replicate 2E or 3E) are available.

If the options aren't available at launch I'll look at the game when they are, but longer they wait the bigger chance they have of losing my interest altogether - and any who are in the same boat as me.

I do think "there's a mod for that" is a cool way to go - so long as they deliver on making it available.

 

[Shadeydm]

Its a great goal and if they can pull it off it's hard to imagine it not being a success. As a fan of Debian/Ubuntu being able to customize is a big draw for me. Sign me up for D&D the linux edition.
Lets hope WotC learned something last time around and will be more third party friendly this time.

 

[nomotog]

I say options for the sake of options is a wonderful thing. The reason i loved 3ed (and never really latched onto 4ed) was all the hundreds of mods and settings. You could type a random set of words followed by d20 and find a published or fan made mod on that topic. It whould be so good to be able to do that again.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

"There's an app mod for that" may become the war cry of D&D Next. And if it's true, it may even work.

It's too early to tell right now, but there is a chance it could even work for me. But I remain skeptical.

 

[delericho]

Will this be D&D Next's motto from now on?

Very likely. Maybe not from WotC, but from the fans.

If they don't deliver what you want right away, will you hear "but there will be a mod for that" to keep you waiting and playing the game until either it does come or it doesn't?

I will be extremely surprised if WotC actually deliver the majority of the modules that people want. I suspect they'll very quickly find that they just don't sell in the numbers WotC needs - certainly, far less than the more traditional splatbooks.

I think the notion sounds great and I know Next would like to be able to encompass everything into the game but is this even realistic and do we really want it that way?

It really depends how they do it. If they can keep the core really slim, such that modules can be purely additive, then there would be more scope for adding them than if the core attempts to provide a full game in itself.

Of course, if the core doesn't provide a full game in itself, they're on a loser, so...

(IMO, their best bet is to structure the Rulebooks to present that extremely slim core, and then present a handful of 'default' modules that expand it out to the full game we've now sort-of seen (in part, at least).)

I love options but I don't want options just for the sake of options because this creates system bloat which in turn puts a strain on the system as a whole.

There's a lot of truth in this. A modular system that can be tailored to do X will inevitably be more complex than essentially the same game custom-built to only do X.

Speaking for myself, unless 5e is pretty damn close to the game I want right at the outset, then I'll very quickly move away from it. It won't matter if they later produce modules that make it my perfect game, because I'll have stopped paying attention by then.

Further, while I may well add a handful of modules to the game in order to tweak it, my tolerance for house rules, official or otherwise, is very low.

 

[Jack99]

That's the impression I'm getting.

I think the theory they're working on is that they can't create a core system that works smoothly for a wide variety of playstyles, so instead, they'll create one that works for some narrow range of styles (centering on whatever they've concluded is 'really D&D' - my guess, 2e, coincidentally Mr. Mearl's first and favorite ed), and provide a toolkit of modules for DMs to use to kitbash it into something that supports other styles, one at a time.

I think it is possible to have one system that accommodates - 'supports' may be too strong a word - a very broad range of play styles. But, what you or I think doesn't matter.

Mearls' favorite edition is OD&D afaik. Lets not confuse things.

 

[trancejeremy]

Mearls' favorite edition is OD&D afaik. Lets not confuse things.

I don't know about his favorite, but in interviews he mentions he went back to Basic D&D, which is not OD&D.

Where Is D&D Headed Next? An Update with Mike Mearls ... And the Public Playtest Begins | GeekDad | Wired.com

But regardless of what 4e fans think, 5e (so far) bears little to no resemblance to old school D&D or AD&D. At least IMHO and most other old school fans I've read express an opinion.

 

[Scribble]

I don't know about his favorite, but in interviews he mentions he went back to Basic D&D, which is not OD&D.

Where Is D&D Headed Next? An Update with Mike Mearls ... And the Public Playtest Begins | GeekDad | Wired.com

But regardless of what 4e fans think, 5e (so far) bears little to no resemblance to old school D&D or AD&D. At least IMHO and most other old school fans I've read express an opinion.

Depends on the particular fan you ask though I think.

I would say I'm a fan of oldschool, but I've also been a fan of D&D in all of its forms.

There are some out there though who would say it doesn't bear any resemblance unless it literally was just a reprint of 1e.

 

[I'm A Banana]

But regardless of what 4e fans think, 5e (so far) bears little to no resemblance to old school D&D or AD&D. At least IMHO and most other old school fans I've read express an opinion.

That's weird to hear, since 5e so far is super-stripped-down and minimal, and the Caves of Chaos is very old-school.

What would it take to bear a resemblance to old-school D&D for you and those fans? THAC0? Errol Otus? CHAINMAIL rules? Removing feats and skills? What changes would need to be made?

Personally, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that the 5e PHB & DMG contain all the info you'll need to run a game a lot like OD&D and also a game a lot like 4e and also a lot like 2e and also a lot like 1e and also a lot like 3e and also something not like any of them. The playtest isn't the final release, so what we're seeing now is a selected assortment of what they want to put through the wringer.

 

[Viking Bastard]

I don't know about his favorite, but in interviews he mentions he went back to Basic D&D, which is not OD&D.

As far as I can tell, OD&D has two (most common, anyway) definitions: Meaning either the original '74 set or just anything older than AD&D*.

(* Which was how I commonly remember it being referred to as before my multi-year D&D/ENW hiatus.)

 

[Iosue]

In this post, Mearls talks about rolling up OSRIC characters for fun, and in this post he talks about not liking 2e.

In Legends & Lore he talked about starting a B/X campaign, but that seems to be more work related -- proof of concept and messing around with house rules rather than his personal preference. His mention of it in the Wired.com interview is along those lines: the simplest form of D&D -- complete game in only 64 pages -- and the conceptual basis for the simple core over which they want to layer other modules. So I think the best guess we have is that Mearls personally likes 1e best.

Personally, the playtest gives me a BD&D feel and a 4e feel. I don't so much see 1e in it, but that's probably because I associate 1e with many and varied subsystems and tables, which was obviously not going to be in the playtest.

 

[Lokiare]

I hear the whole "There's a Mod for that." thing touted around everywhere right along with "wait and be patient." What we have seen is only two Mods they have talked about which is the tactical combat module and the narrative combat module.

I think a lot of people are reading too deeply into what WotC is saying and making stuff up at this point.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

The issue I find with the current application of core + modules as 5E has presented itself so far is that it is being built on a fixed core, with modules only adding to the core and not changing the core. This limits the game to those who don't have fundamental issues with the core, as those issues won't be solved by optional modules since there are no options to change that core.