D&D 5th Edition!!! (WITH POLL!!!)

[Aeolius]

I agree with though who want modularity in the next edition of D&D. Combat could have Basic, Expert, and Advanced options; the simplest requiring no minis and minimal die rolls and the most complex adding new options that would appease the more stringent war-gamers. The same tiers could apply to races, classes, skills, feats, and so on.

Granted, that would inevitably lead to more fracturing of the fan-base. Imagine recruiting for a game with Basic Combat rules, Advanced character creation, Expert magic options, and so on.

WotC needs not to begin with rules, however. They need to ask themselves "How can we win back fans of 3e, 2e, 1e and older, while still appealing to fans of 4e? How can we grow the market? How can we prepare for the future?"

 

[Zhaleskra]

The following contains a statement that is likely to be extremely unpopular.

Except for one particular setting, I've pretty much given up on D&D.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Right now Pathfinder, with the archetypes introduced in the APG, is hitting my 'happy zone'. So I would like to see a 5e built along similar lines, with the OGL back in place.

The Auld Grump, who really likes the archetypes, even though he had to go back and apply them to about fifty NPCs....

 

[Ulrick]

D&D 5th EDITION!!!

Now that I've got your attention, I probably won't buy 5th Edition if its made by WotC. Obviously, with 4th Edition I'm not in their target demographic.

I really wish the game would embrace simpler rules and say "these rules are optional," instead of "here's the official how you play, and here's a ton of options for your character to choose from, and here's some more classes, and here's some more rules addendums, and every encounter should take an hour, and magic items are in the Player's Handbook for your convenience."

I'm not saying go back to OD&D or AD&D...

but...

in retrospect maybe that's what I'm saying after all.

 

[Mercurius]

I'd make one rule to rule them all, one rule to find them, one rule to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

 

[amerigoV]

5e needs revolutionary changes. Maybe not so much in the system, but the access, presentation, and how it is played. Sorry folks, I am not shelling out a ton of cash to still kill an orc with a fighter by rolling a d20 and looking up a couple of numbers in a book. I've got plenty of old books that accomplish the same thing. OD&D through 4e do that just fine (actually Savage Worlds does it Best ), and with the d20 OGL I can play basically any version of the old game either by the original rules or with some clean up.

Now, I do not want to imply I that I view a new version is money grab or whatnot. I still spend money on gaming - I spend it on Savage Worlds stuff because there are cool new ideas there. I am too lazy to find the thread, but I had started a thread about 2 months ago about what new, cool books does 4e offer someone who does not play 4e but has a ton of 3e stuff (ie, what gems should I get regardless of if I play the system). The thread was about 20 posts with about 5 ideas of merit. All those 4e books and it mostly is just "here is a new way to kill an orc". If 5e is just another reguritation of the same material with some tweeks (be it tweeks from any edition), its going to utterly fail. The 4e people will just thumb their nose at it like the 3.5/Patherfinder people have 4e.

I really do not know what 5e has to be. Perhaps its the final merger of table top and Neverwinter Nights - something that gives me as the player awesome visuals that brings the game to life but does not require the GM to spend months "programming" the adventure. Maybe 5e is just an App for my Ipad/Tablet. Whatever "it" is, it has to be (1) fun (2) new material (3) concise (do you REALLY need 30-40 pages of player crunch in the Dark Sun Campaign Setting?!?! That space should have been used for more Dark Sun awesomeness) and (3) accessable to some of us old farts that do not have all that much time*


* I fully acknowledge that I might not be the target demographic anymore. And that is fine. Savage Worlds caters to my demographic, thus they are getting my dinero these days. If 5e continues the treadmill I'll cherry pick the few gems and be fine. The above comments are to get me back into the fold, and it may not jive with what others want or care about.

 

[dmccoy1693]

The more and more I think about it, the more I am not interested in what Wizards does. I was ready for an improvement to the 3E rules in the 2008-ish time frame, but WotC delivered a game I was not interested in (and I did give it a fair chance). Now I have my game: Pathfinder. What's more, I like the pace at which Paizo produces major core book: 2-3/year instead of monthly. As a publisher I also like the fact that I can use every core book in my own publications instead of being limited to the first few and that's it. Lastly, I also like the fact that I can create my own material for HeroLab instead of being shut out of DDI.

So the short answer is, I will give 5E a fair chance, but I don't have a problem of ignoring it totally if I am less than totally satisfied with it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would start by coming up with what it's supposed to emulate. And then I'd take the paths not chosen -- more kid-friendly, fairytale based; gritty pulp-inspired; heroic high fantasy; gothic horror; modern anime-flavored action fantasy -- and support each with their own setting that included new spells, classes, races, monsters and rules which would work like a toolset to let everyone create their own versions of D&D more easily.

So, in other words, there wouldn't be a need for Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk and Dragonlance and Mystara, since they all occupy the heroic high fantasy niche (more or less). But I would also license them, under the theory that 3rd party publications promote the purchase of core books.

 

[Diamond Cross]

If I had my way there wouldn't even had been a 4th Edition, period.

And you guys do know that Beholders can't hold their liquor, right?

 

[nedjer]

If RPGs were cars, I'd take an Aston Martin every time