D&D General 6E But A + Thread

[dave2008]

D&D has a complicated relationship with iterative editions, since they're always chasing what they think the most potential customers want, more than they're trying to make the best game they can.

Of course those are not mutually exclusive goals.

 

[dave2008]

Wishful thinking: I single 150-page hardcover with a light version of the game. I mean really simplified, not the usual 5e Basic reduced options PDF. About 50 pages for players, 50 pages for the DM, and 50 pages of adversaries and allies. This would be in addition to the regular 3 core books.

I too think this would be a good approach. Whatever changes I might want to the game, I think this approach would be wonderful

 

[dave2008]

Is everyone looking to make a new fantasy heartbreaker that attends to their specific preferences, or a new edition of D&D? Because I thought the OP was asking for the latter, but most folks are providing the former.

Watch out Micah, this sounds awfully close to gatekeeping! Who is to say your idea of what is D&D is any better than anyone else?

 

[Piperken]

Why did it take that long? I've helped people make A5e characters (a more complex process) in half that time, at worst.

A5E would've taken longer. In retrospect I could've short cut some steps in the process to make it more timely. Like for example, I could've gone through making the character with them? There were some additional factors influencing what I decided to do w/o going into too much detail. One was this was the first time they had come over to visit, so I preferred someone their age who'd be playing at the table with them to help.

I only offered an occasional comment once in a while.

They also were I would say, were hands on. They hadn't looked at a PHB at all. When picking whether to play an elf, dwarf, halfling, human etc, they had a preference of what they might want to play, but wanted to read through all the descriptions of the other races in the book, even after their friend gave a brief description of each. On certain steps in character creation where it says "roll the dice," they preferred to read all the options and pick what ones fit the idea in their head best. Which I let them do.

Mostly my thought in bringing this experience up was that a new edition would benefit from taking some of the editorial/layout choices other 5e adjacent games have used, to present game information in a way that's more accessible and easy to find.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Sure. but here, on EN World, a lot of people are talking about bringing back older stuff, from 3.x and 4E is TSR-isms.

5e was advertised as having options that are modular.
Maybe I'm over speaking but what you're witnessing, I believe, is much of that.

I think the modular design space for 5e is largely unexplored and there were plenty of ideas from earlier editions that could use a polish.

 

[kermit4karate]

Let's be honest, what you really want is for WotC to make the game exactly the way you want it:

• The mechanics you want
• The lore you want
• The writing you want
• The art you want

I bet that is what we all secretly want to some extent, even if we don't admit it to ourselves.

PS - For the purpose of this discussion WotC = any company that owns D&D. So if don't want to give WotC/Hasbro money anymore, that is irrelevant.

Well said!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Let's be honest, what you really want is for WotC to make the game exactly the way you want it:

• The mechanics you want
• The lore you want
• The writing you want
• The art you want

I bet that is what we all secretly want to some extent, even if we don't admit it to ourselves.

PS - For the purpose of this discussion WotC = any company that owns D&D. So if don't want to give WotC/Hasbro money anymore, that is irrelevant.

Maybe, but I'm over it. What I want now is for people not Hasbro to be able to make material for stuff Hasbro owns. Hence the Guild.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Of course those are not mutually exclusive goals.

Are you sure? Do you really think the design team's guiding creative light is, "whatever the most people will pay for"?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Watch out Micah, this sounds awfully close to gatekeeping! Who is to say your idea of what is D&D is any better than anyone else?

It isn't. I was trying to be what I consider to be realistic for a game actually being made by the owners of the brand D&D.

 

[Micah Sweet]

A5E would've taken longer. In retrospect I could've short cut some steps to make it more timely. Like for example, I could've gone through making the character with them? There were some additional factors influencing what I decided to do w/o going into too much detail. One was this was the first time they had come over to visit, so I preferred someone their age who'd be playing at the table with them to help.

I only offered an occasional comment once in a while.

They also were I would say, were hands on. They hadn't looked at a PHB at all. When picking whether to play an elf, dwarf, halfling, human etc, they had a preference of what they might want to play, but wanted to read through all the descriptions of the other races in the book, even after their friend gave a brief description of each. On certain steps in character creation where it says "roll the dice," they preferred to read all the options and pick what ones fit the idea in their head best. Which I let them do.

Mostly my thought in bringing this experience up was that a new edition would benefit from taking some of the editorial/layout choices other 5e adjacent games have used, to present game information in a way that's more accessible and easy to find.

Fair enough, but I'm not convinced that the game's fault.