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

[jodyjohnson]

I'd like to see 5e be the culmination of the current 4e patch and scrub extended beta test.

Finish polishing the classes.
Finish the online tools.
Scrub the database of the redundent chaff.

Release the Core PHBs (1,2 and 3) with the key selection of classes and items with a "finished" Compendium, Character Builder, Monster Builder, and Module Builder/Online Campaign builder - with feature lock.

Leave the DM Kit, Monsters Vaults, and Rules Compendium as feature locked.

Add yearly monster vaults to expand and update opponents.

Then slow option bloat.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Whatever the powers that be at that point in time might come up with.

My taste has changed considerably over time and I expect it to change again. I welcomed the simulationist, toolbox-like approach of 3e on 2000 and I welcomed the change to tactical, gameist vibe of 4e.

When 5e comes along and offers a different approach again, I'll happily try it out for a year or so. And if doesn't keep my interest I can easily go back to any old edition or another game as well.

So bring on change, it breathes fresh air into the game and adds to our options!

 

[Lanefan]

In short: instead of starting with 4e and building on or revising that, go all the way back to 0e or 1e and build on that, incorporating ideas from later editions that have worked and tossing those that have not. Keep it simple, and keep it recognizable. Added complexity can come as optional tack-ons.

Design for long campaigns as well as short.

Put risk back in the game, highlight that what your PC is doing is dangerous and it could die at any moment. Putting risk (back) into magic also serves as a balancer...

I voted also for "Go more White Wolf..." but I'd add a caveat: it doesn't need to be any more serious. The game as presented now is already too serious, it's lost a lot of the whimsy that made 1e fun - and I suspect that might be part of what is turning away new players.

Someone posted above an idea for having different settings to appeal to different gaming genres: good one. I'd go one further and have a section (or a whole book?) on homebrew world design.

And now to dream:

No bloat, or extremely limited bloat over the very long term. Design the game to last. Get it right, then release it all over a clearly-scheduled and short time frame. No errata, ever. Subsequent releases consist of adventures, settings, and other non-rule-affecting stuff; with maybe one rules-update book every 5 years or so. Design as though this is it, there will be no 6e.

Get all the core stuff in the core releases so the fully-fleshed-out game is playable out of the box. Don't do what 4e did and make people wait for iconic monsters (Frost Giant) and classes (several) until a later release.

Put it all on paper. A player or DM with no computer access whatsoever should be fully able to access the whole game through their FLGS.

Lan-"number 5 is alive!"-efan

 

[TheAuldGrump]

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

You do know that's in the eye of the beer holder, don't you?

The Auld Grump, beauty is often in the eye of the beer holder, and a beholder's beer goggles help cover most of its face....

 

[Havrik Stoneskimmer]

I think I would prefer there not to be an actual 5th edition (mostly because I don't want to have to buy all the books again, but also because I am really enjoying 4e), or if there is, it should have continuity with 4e, in the same way that the classes in Heroes of the... represent a change in style and feel but still use the underlying 4e framework. I think 4e is modular enough that a lot of tweaks can be made (look at how they changed the skill challenge rules, the stealth rules, the monster math, the overall philosophy of good monster design, etc.) without breaking continuity with the overall game rules.

I am having a lot of fun playing in 4e. There are a few aspects of it that I feel could be improved (e.g., I would like a way to play an older style that emphasizes exploration and strategy over combat), but I think those improvements could be made without throwing everything out and starting again.

I view the Essentials line and the books that have come out after it as a possible indication that WotC has realized it is possible to evolve the game over time without needing a full reboot.

 

[Stormonu]

I'm torn for a direction I'd take 5th. Overall, I'd probably use Pathfinder as the base (with bits of "what works" from all editions), but I long for the simplicity of Basic/Expert D&D.

I really think a 5th editon should come in two flavors - a lite, "introductory" version geared at casual play and an advanced version for the tinker/hardcore crowd. Preferably with the advanced version being additions that snap onto the base game, so you can delve into the complexity level that suits you and your group.

 

[FireLance]

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.

Frankly, if I saw a rule like that, I'd want to assemble a party of heroes to cast it back into the ink-stained printing press from whence it came.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

For me I would like to see the pendulum swing back from the direction 4e took the game having learned and benefited from the journey. A while ago, I wrote the following about a potential 5e and I guess I still hold to these ideas:

• Magic is mysterious and dark once more; rather than the safe hum-drum technology of the fantasy world.

• The days of characters being defined by their suite of magical items instead of their skills and heroics are gone.

• Rules and flavour should be in symbiosis with one another, rather than in competition or strained accord.

• Streamline for elegance, not to bash complexity into vague simplicity.

• Adventuring is inherently not safe; combat encounters should present danger to the characters – the safety net must go.

• The assumption of miniatures and a battlemap should not be implicit in the ruleset; the rules must also be able to reasonably support those groups who prefer the landscape of the mind.

• While no specific world is given or assumed, the rules should allow for one that sits between Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Vance’s Lyonesse series, Howard’s Conan Stories, Martin’s Game of Thrones series, Williams’ Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, Erikson’s Malazan series and Fritz Leiber’s Stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser; and be able to stretch to any of these fabulous fantasy pillars.

• Verisimilitude is not a dirty word; a logic to the fantasy world should be upheld.

• Character creations must be flexible; the ability to meld different but viable character ideas should be equally encouraged, rather than feeling pressured to focus on a couple of optimised builds.

• Players should feel that they can develop a character that is both effective in combat and interesting out of combat – rather than either/or.

• The game economy must make sense and feel real; rather than being a calculated spoon-fed wealth lacking in true achievement.

• The game cannot afford for some classes to dominate at the expense of others at more powerful levels; and nor should the answer be compressing the classes into homogenized lumps of roughly equal measure.

• The game also cannot afford for rules to unmanageably bloat at higher levels with the time taken to resolve this vast array exponentially bloating as well.

• And obviously, most of all, and above all else: the game must be fun! 

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[JamesonCourage]

I wish I could give you some experience, Herremann the Wise, because I really agree with what you're saying. Very nice post.

 

[Eric Tolle]

While my actual plans for D&D are secret, I think we all can agree on the following:

1. The core rules should be distributed for free: in the Brave New World of Net 2.0 there's no excuse for charging money for a product, no m
atter howe much time or parolee have been involved. In fact, WOTC should be a pioneer in making micropayments to players.

2. It should hearken back to the simplicity of basic D&D: it should embrace the complex modularity of Pathfinder. Out should be oriented toward long campaigns by increasing the lethality and death toll of characters. It should make magic fun again by returning to the classic D&D idea of mysterious magic that's more hazardous to the user than the target.

3. Above all we can all agree that magic users should be far more powerful and versatile than warriors, completely shutting fighters out of the game by fifth level; because that's where fun lies.

5. Optimization, optimization, optimization. Because that's what D&D is all about.