D&D 5E Anyone using Next for an extended campaign?

[Mercurius]

I've been out of the loop for a few months, both in terms of playing D&D and following the development of Next. I just downloaded and browsed through the most recent playtest package and I'm wondering how "complete" it is as far as running a game? The first playtest packet - which is the only one I looked at before this one - was so focused on the playtest adventure itself, with no rules for character generation etc, but this one seems almost like a basic set of the game.

Which brings me to my question: Is anyone playing next as an extended campaign, whether sticking to the ten levels (I think) and races and classes WotC has provided, or whether you're extrapolating further levels and creating more classes, races, etc? As a secondary question, for those more versed in the playtest materials, to what degree is this possible using the packet?

Thanks!

 

[Kabluey]

We talked about it. My group likes the playtest, and we were at a point to start a new campaign anyway. But it finally came down to the fact that people didn't want to have to rebuild their characters as we went, and I wouldn't want to keep playing an outdated packet when a newer (and hopefully better) one came out. So we went with Pathfinder instead, mostly because we had two guys who didn't want to play 4E.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I'd probably recommend it only if you're comfortable playing with the four "core" classes and races, and stopping by level 10. They've already put in and taken out warlocks and sorcerers, so I wouldn't make, say, a monk and expect it to even exist by the next packet.

But if you play a rogue, say, you can probably keep your character updated with the rule changes.

 

[howandwhy99]

We have 4 sessions written up in a storyhour (see my .sig). We've had another couple of sessions since the last update, but the difficulty has been the quick increase in level play. That makes play difficult and we've had to adjust. Another major impediment is we only play once / month and are leveling every time. It also seems like we need to reevaluate the rule changes almost every time too with the quickness of the packet updates.

One thing I can say is, "Don't wed yourself to your character". Next session your class maybe gone from the game.

 

[Shieldhaven]

Tonight is the fourth session of what I expect will be a long-running campaign. It's going well so far. The players are being relaxed and groovy about rules changing from session to session, and we're using classes that WotC has temporarily dropped from the packet, while also adding in new classes as they're introduced. The campaign wiki and a lot of blog posts on this topic are linked in my sig. =)

Haven

 

[MortalPlague]

Yep, I've got a thread going, documenting things as they unfold.

I've had all my players say they're really enjoying the game, and as the DM, I'm finding it really refreshing. 5th Edition is light on its feet; the combat is fast, and you can get a lot done in a session, particularly compared to older editions of D&D. So far, the PCs are level 3, and we're 4 sessions in. I expect by the time they hit 10th level, we'll have just about wrapped up the campaign's story anyway.

We have not yet had to switch packets. The loose plan right now is to do so if a new one comes along, but we'll have to evaluate it when it happens. My players might not want to change up their characters.

 

[Wepwawet]

In my group we decided to start a new campaign with D&D Next, and we found it was a bad idea...
The different playtest iterations change the classes a lot and it's difficult to mantain the same characters with the same powers and abilities. The last iteration (november) changed the character creation rules so much that we decided to stop the playtest campaign and change to pathfinder or something.

Probably the problem was deciding to have an entire campaign in a playtest version... because the rules are great and dynamic, but all thoses changes make a campaign impractical (imho)

 

[Sunseeker]

I don't like switching editions. Period. Nothing against DDN.

I don't really have any plans to run a new campaign after this one, and if I do it will most likely be 4th.

 

[MortalPlague]

The different playtest iterations change the classes a lot and it's difficult to mantain the same characters with the same powers and abilities

With the new packet tomorrow, I'm about to put that to the test. I'll post here and let you guys know how it affected my game.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Yep. We are running the Rise of the Runelords as a playtest campaign. http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?328907-campaign-playtest-rise-runelords

We only get to play 1/month though, so it has been hard keeping up with the changes. Not so bad for the players (though some PCs have had major changes). It is me (DM) trying to keep up with the lot whilst trying to plan ahead. It is not knowing all the tiny changes every packet that makes it hard.

However, the rules are great so far and combats fast but still fun.