D&D 5E A lesson I hope WotC learns from Paizo (with regards to 5E)

[Zardnaar]

I find my ACKS game to be much more flexible and customizable than any 3e game I ran, as there are fewer rules to follow in it's smaller book. Your mileage may vary, of course.

ACKs is great. Nice and simple with some basic proficiency slots added.

 

[Sunseeker]

No, but the last time I introduced the game to a bunch of kids, they saw the (3.0e) core rulebooks, asked "do we need to read all of that?", and I watched the interest die in their eyes.

Whether you need to read it or not, the mere existence of those 300+ page rulebooks is a barrier.

I can't say I'm really for the idea of D&D being "child-accessible". I think it puts too much weight on making other aspects of the game child-friendly. D&D can be quite dark and violent, and I'd hate to think of D&D as getting "Elmo-ed". Because no matter what anyone says, if an 8-year-old can read it, the contents will inevitably be tailored to what uptight parents think their delicate special snowflake should read.

Keep D&D PG-13. If someone wants to show more difficult and more serious reading material to younger audiences, that's on them, but children (teens are not children, if teens are children, then so are adults, because everyone is someone's child) should not be a significant target audience.

Honestly, though, I think it would be a mistake for WotC to base their strategy on selling hardback books at all. We're still in the transition period, but electronic publishing is in the process of killing print and taking its stuff. And, as soon as you're unbound from using physical media, then when adding 'bits' to the game (that is, new feats, monsters, spells, etc), an electronic book is probably the worst way to present that information.

As much as I agree that WOTC needs to make a bigger digital push, there are two problems.
1: They will nickle and dime you for every new feat, power or race, ala: Neverwinter Online
2: It will naturally trend towards less table-malliability. That is to say, because WOTC will be faster and have an easier time amending the rules, what is popular will subsume what is not, even though what is not may be quite fun for some tables.

 

[delericho]

I can't say I'm really for the idea of D&D being "child-accessible". I think it puts too much weight on making other aspects of the game child-friendly. D&D can be quite dark and violent, and I'd hate to think of D&D as getting "Elmo-ed". Because no matter what anyone says, if an 8-year-old can read it, the contents will inevitably be tailored to what uptight parents think their delicate special snowflake should read.

Keep D&D PG-13. If someone wants to show more difficult and more serious reading material to younger audiences, that's on them, but children (teens are not children, if teens are children, then so are adults, because everyone is someone's child) should not be a significant target audience.

The 'kids' I was referring to were about 14. So, yes, they were the target audience.

As much as I agree that WOTC needs to make a bigger digital push, there are two problems.
1: They will nickle and dime you for every new feat, power or race, ala: Neverwinter Online

The DDI has shown that this is not inevitable.

2: It will naturally trend towards less table-malliability. That is to say, because WOTC will be faster and have an easier time amending the rules, what is popular will subsume what is not, even though what is not may be quite fun for some tables.

This, however, is a much more significant issue. And one I don't have an answer for.

 

[Sunseeker]

The 'kids' I was referring to were about 14. So, yes, they were the target audience.

To be honest, I don't think I've ever read the whole of the PHB1 and I've certainly only skimmed the interesting bits of anything with a 2 or 3 in its name. A rule-book is like a dictionary, you don't read it. You just look stuff up when you're curious.

 

[DM Howard]

I agree with having quality hardcovers rather than rushing out more hardcovers that are less than stellar. However, for love of all that is (un)holy please don't make the main player's handbook the size of Pathfinders or at least provide the option for a more condensed version. I don't know about everyone else, but the size of it always turned me off for some reason.