An Open letter to the D&D R&D team.

[BluWolf]

While I have been away from active gaming over the last few years, I have been a passionate participant of our hobby for almost 30 years. It is with this frame of reference I implore you, PLEASE GET THIS RIGHT!

As I reviewed the Youtube clips on the announcement of 4E I found my self curious as to what does this really mean? In the days since the announcement it has become pretty clear to me that there is an important shift (potentially) taking place.

For too long our hobby has been mired in the minutia of game mechanics and settings. Most of the conversations I see about our hobby are about how we improve this rule or that mechanic. I equate is to discussing the virtues of artificial or natural horse hair on your buggy whip.

The real thing we should be discussing is how do we improve the over all experience of game and make it easier for people to enjoy the past time. So while the teeth gnashing has already ensued regarding alignment, feat chains and vancian magic, I say this is all completely irrelevant. The number of rule changes, errata, versions and updates has proven that there WILL be partakers of this hobby regardless.

The real question is HOW will we play moving forward?

For too long this hobby has leveraged the changes that technology has introduced in how we socially interact in an administrative fashion. If it addressed these changes at all it was either in an e-paper form of distribution, speeding up (or over complicating at times) the administrivia or at its best, providing a means for communication and planning via discussion groups or meet up sessions. These have been evolutionary adoptions.

What is needed is REVOLUTIONARY change. The killer app. I don’t need to get in an overly description of a killer app because everyone knows it when they see it. The car, Visi-calc, the web, iPods. These are things that transformed how people do things.

The iPod is a perfect example. Portable MP3 based music was not revolutionary. All of the pieces have been around for years. Yet the convergence of excellent design, ease of use and over all convenience turned it into a passionate success. If there is one thing Steve Jobs has proven is that harnessing people’s passion is a very sustainable business model.

The aspects of the next version of D&D that you have mentioned are not new. Obviously role-playing has been around for along time and the online collaboration tools have been there as well in various guises. What hasn’t been there is the convergence of these tools in this realm that constituted a revolutionary application that draws people in and allows them to experience the total in a better way. The Killer App.

You have the opportunity to create this killer app if you do not take your eye off the ball.

A killer app requires 3 things, in my feeble mind:

Active passionate users
Active vibrant developers
Content

Obviously there are many active players of various rpgs around the world. You have done the studies. Your studies also have told you how many people DO NOT play RPGS. I am not privy but my guess is the latter vastly outweighs the former. That is the definition of a market opportunity. Your market studies have also brought into stark relief that catering to us old grognards is not a sustainable business model. So how do you get these other people to play rpgs? Make it available and stimulating in away that is convenient and compelling for them. Online. Make it easy to use. Make it feature rich and intuitive. Apply the elements of good design. DO NOT simply cram the way we used to play into a different medium and call it a day. A pig in lipstick is still a pig wearing lipstick.

If it is easy and compelling for people to interact in this medium they will. Teeth gnashing and food dragging aside.

With out opening a theological debate of heinous proportions most people will tell you the Windows is an absolutely horrible operating system. No kidding right? Well they own everything. One of the ways they do this is they make things available on their stuff. There are developers that are invited in and told how to write for their world. Unless you want to hire 100s of people to write and develop content, code and graphics for your environment (which I imagine Hasbro would never do) provide a mechanism for 3rd party people to develop for the application. Professional and hobbyist.

The previous point sort of feeds into this next point. If there is content available that people can avail themselves of they will use this application more. Let’s face it, with out music there is no iPod. With out constant updates, the best MMO would shrivel and die after a short period of time. Your focus moving forward should not be about selling books. It should be about being the generators or distributors of content to those people that use your application. To reiterate the earlier point. Unless you want a huge staff sitting around doing this, outsource it.

Let me be frank, your success as a software development house has not been stellar. There is an opportunity here to transform this craft and harness the changes that technology has made in how we interact as a community.

Please take a step back from the old ways of doing things. Breathe. And take a fresh approach to this opportunity.

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MECHANICS.


Please get it right.

We are counting on you.

 

[Scribble]

I'm not so sure I agree about the ipod..

I'd say if anything Apple's killer ap was Itunes... Without Itunes the Ipod would just have been another mp3 player sitting on the same shelf with the others...

I'm not sure I want to see WOTC go the route of Apple's itunes either... forcing me to use the ipod in order to listen to music I've purchased irritated me; to be civil about it.

 

[crazy_cat]

I agree 100% with the sentiment that they must get this right - but I don't think anybody knows yet what right actually is; or what the killer app might be, or actually do, or allow players to do.

Ask 100 people you'll get 101 different answers.

 

[Doug McCrae]

There is massive unrealised potential for combining the internet and traditional rpgs*. I don't think 4e will be the 'killer ap', it's too new and untested, but 5e might be.

*Some might say the killer ap in this field already exists - World Of Warcraft.

 

[BluWolf]

*Some might say the killer ap in this field already exists - World Of Warcraft.

See this is where I vehemently disagree and I hope they will not go. In my opinion, all the MMORPG out there are not RPGs. Small groups of RPG'rs aside, they are more or less button mashing games in some shape or form. Its about building, buffing up and resource managment. Roleplaying, real roleplaying is really and after thought. IMHO.

THe virtual table top, if done correctly, should provide a much better opportunity for role-playing. IT will be much less about uberloot and resource managment because there is an ultimate arbitor other than an AI.

 

[psionotic]

THe virtual table top, if done correctly, should provide a much better opportunity for role-playing. IT will be much less about uberloot and resource managment because there is an ultimate arbitor other than an AI.

Agreed, of course. The chat function, the easiest thing to code, is probably the most important element, we want people talking to eachother in character. Though I prefer to play at a table and in person, the *nice* thing about chat is that one can form their thoughts out onto the screen in a more thoughtful way, which could be an aid to in-character dialogue: If people don't talk over eachother too much, which will be difficult to avoid.

If The DDI wants to become the killer app, though, they need to find a nice way to work in a table like ours: One in which one of our players is constantly travelling. If there was some way to seamlessly work in a single mobile player into a group in a living room, now that would be sweet.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

You say it should not be about selling books, but about developing the killer app. I think that is exactly what they are trying to do. The killer app is D&D 4e. The content they will then generate and distribute are supplement, adventures, options etc. The method for that distribution will be via books and online content.

 

[HugeOgre]

In my mind one of the ways the DDI could AMAZE me was if it could take my voice chat (which theyve already indicated will be included) and synthesize it to make me sound like a dwarf, an elf, a woman, a man, old, young, accented, etc).

Ive got precious few accents and voice ranges, and getting a computer to allow me to consistently be in character for a given PC (or better yet, NPC) would be AWESOME.

 

[Treebore]

In my mind one of the ways the DDI could AMAZE me was if it could take my voice chat (which theyve already indicated will be included) and synthesize it to make me sound like a dwarf, an elf, a woman, a man, old, young, accented, etc).

Ive got precious few accents and voice ranges, and getting a computer to allow me to consistently be in character for a given PC (or better yet, NPC) would be AWESOME.

A "sound library" would be seriously cool, especially if it helps you alter your voice and "remember" how it was altered for the next time they run into that NPC.

 

[Jackelope King]

I pretty much only get to game online these days, and that's mostly via Instant Messenger. Our group is scattered across the East Coast, and for someone to really wow me with a virtual tabletop, here's what it'd need.

1. Make dice rolling as easy as can be. I want to be able to roll quickly, not type in a command-string like "//roll-dice5-sides6". I want to resolve my action. Animation on the dice would be nice, but not needed. I just want to roll the bones and make it feel like it does when I'm playing at the table.

2. Computers are visual media. For the love of all that's holy, don't forget this! If you could do something as simple as allow for players to upload character portraits, or even select them from a gallery already online, you'd be doing wonders. I'd absolutely love to see an avatar creation system like City of Heroes, but that's more of an ideal than anything else. And on that note, make sure the DM can take advantage of the visuals! Let him grab pictures out of the Monster Manual and slap them on the virtual table when he says, "Roll for initiative!" (Again, ideally, I'd like to see these critters fully rendered and modeled ala so many other video games out there, but I'll be happy with protraits).

3. Give us the ability to seperate the out-of-character chatter from the game. Maybe put a chat-box beneath the table where we can quote the Princess Bride or ask if anyone saw Heroes last week, but also let us click our characters so that we can keep the game running. If the voice chat becomes a reality, that's very awesome, because it would help to alieviate some problems that I know slower typists in our group have. And ditto many times over on the voice synthesizer. If you could add accents to voices on-the-fly, you just solved a dozen problems at once. And of course, having sound effects would be awesome too (battle-cries, ambient dungeon sounds, city market noises, etc.)

4. Make the character sheet seamless with the tabletop. I mean "seamless" in the way that modern console games are seamless in their displays. Make it a part of the tabletop, so that I can tell at a glance what my hitpoints are, how much gold I have, and how many uses I have left on an ability. And integrate the rules that drive our character sheets with the table! Make declaring and resolving a power attack with my longsword while charging as easy as clicking the mouse four times. And keep track of my bonuses, for that matter. I don't want to forget that the cleric blessed us last round and miss my target for that. The better you can integrate the rules with this tabletop, the more you can make it more than a glorified chat program. I want this to be my gaming table in cyberspace, not just another chat program I can use for gaming. At the very least, I want the tabletop to facilitate these things, maybe by letting me drag-and-drop modifiers onto the top before I make the roll. You have the opportunity to make gameplay even more accessible to more people: don't pass it up!

5. Make sure that the tabletop supports all the mapping that 4e supports. If I'm running a game, I want to be able to drag-and-drop a few terrain pieces, or draw out the dungeon hall quickly and easily. I want to use the tabletop like I would at home. It doesn't have to be the most eye-popping art ever, but it has to be functional. And if there are modifiers assocaited with the terrain, I want those to be floating right there where I can see it. Is that hill steep enough to count as High Ground? Is the undergrowth thick enough to be Difficult Terrain? What's the DC to jump acoss the river?

6. The table has to be integrated 100% with the rest of D&D Insider/Gleemax. If at the end of the session, my DM gives me 100 XP, I want that to show up on my character sheet that I saved online. I want my inventory to be saved too, and to have my character's expendibles tracked in general from game to game. Give it to me in a form that I can easily save in a common format (like .pdf) to my computer, so that I can print it out later, or so I can have a version of my character at level X for another game in real life. And if you really want to make this a screaming success, integrate a character creation program. Or even better, a character editing program. Let me bring my favorite character to a game, find out that we're starting 10 levels higher than I am now, and then help me slap 10 levels onto my character quickly and easily, without me losing my data for my usual game. Help me make it easier. Track what options are open to me, show me how many choices I have left, and advance my saves and attack bonus and whatever else automatically. You do the heavy lifting. I'll pick the fun stuff.

7. If you want to truly be "D&D anytime, anywhere" give me that option! Set up "constant tabletops" arranged like taverns or markets in the Dalelands or Sharn. Let me get some roleplaying in and interract with other players. Who knows! Maybe this is how I'll meet another group I want to game with. Let me enjoy my favorite part of D&D: roleplaying! Or, if I feel like making things go squish, let me go find a table that's just an arena where players can join together to fight some iconic monsters, or even break out some player-versus-player gladitorial action! Sometimes you just want to meet interesting PCs and kill them, afterall. And note what a draw this is in online games like WoW...

8. Let me advertise my game and my characters! Let my Gleemax account tell other members that I generally like to play fighters in mid-level games, and that I'm usually online between 7 PM and 11 PM. Let me note that I really like swashbuckling games, and I'm a sucker for anything with airships. And then make those keywords into something that other gamers can search to quickly meet up with me and possibly start a game! Or let me post about my game and whether I'm accepting new players. Help me get more players!

9. And to reitterate the most important point: The interface has to be fantastic. Not "good". Not "okay". Fantastic. I have to be able to game at this virtual table as easily as I do in real life, if not more easily. I don't want to have to learn a bunch of commands to do everything I want. Make it easy for me to do what I want when I want. Let me root through my inventory with my mouse wheel, or declare an attack by clicking on the monster. If I forget what a spell does, let me roll my mouse over it and get the text right there. This virtual tabletop could eliminate the old pain of flipping through the book looking for tables or spells. Eliminate it. Interface, interface, interface.

10. And as a little add-on, it'd be really nice if I could use some of that player-created content at the virtual tabletop. You know, try my buddy's stab at a prestige class, or playtest my own system for resolving chases on horseback. Make it possible for DMs to "program" the tabletop to use (or at least display) house rules and variant rules.

(And if you really want to revolutionize the hobby, I want you to know that I also want to be able to use other open gaming content with your tabletop. I realize that this might not be great business sense, but if I could bring my copy of Mutants and Masterminds to your virtual tabletop and have it work in a way that I described above, congrats: you'll have truly revolutionized the hobby, and insured its existance for years to come.)