D&D General D&D tries to be a little of everything, and that's its secret strength (and weakness)

[Oofta]

Where is your quote or reference that they intended to lay the game to rest? Am I misreading what you're saying? Because I've not read that claim from anyone actually behind the game.

The devs have talked about this multiple times. That they expected 5E to be the last edition ever published, it was basically time to close up shop. There's a thread on it here https://www.enworld.org/threads/rob...-at-wotc-during-the-5e-dev-and-launch.699643/

 

[ersatzphil]

I think his point is that everyone knows Monopoly, for better or worse. I have never heard of Dominion, which questions it being the king of anything, however fun or well-designed it might be.

It’s quite a good game - worth checking out, honestly.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

These are just some basic thoughts, but what do you think? Has D&D always tried to be lots of things to lots of people? Would it benefit from a clearer, narrower vision? Or is its messiness a benefit?

This assumes that it isn't possible to have a broad vision while still performing the necessary testing to ensure that those elements achieve the design for which they were intended. I consider this a false dichotomy. You can still do that testing. It just becomes more involved because you have multiple design goals. That makes the project ambitious, but ambition in this context is no sin.

 

[Minigiant]

D&D is a little bit of everything.

That's why when I hear people say a meh version X or Y from popular media doesn't belong in D&D or shouldn't be provided/supported by the IP holder, I ask "why?" or roll my eyes.

D&D lives on clumping meh versions of stuff from popular media together.... to fight.

Official D&D Superman/Shazam/OmniMan/Homelander/FlyingLaserTankman when?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Lots of players would rather to use only a limited number of systems.

D&D is the master of the market and the brand who created the hobby. But they aren't ready to be an universal system for all the genres. Of course a d20 sci-fi game is possible, but I talk about being totally compatible. The martial artists from Street Fighters can't face the heroes of Overwatch, the champions of Mortal Kombat can't fight against the infernal monsters from "Doom".

The settings are an important part of the brand, but D&D is not only the settings. Lots of players would rather to create their own worlds, some times mixing from different sources. For example somebody could use the Ravenloft setting to play a version of Innistrad to play with the factions from World of Darkness+Chronicle of Darkness.

WotC is selling the bricks, but you are free to build the same building than in the cover of the box or a different thing.

 

[payn]

D&D is a little bit of everything.

That's why when I hear people say a meh version X or Y from popular media doesn't belong in D&D or shouldn't be provided/supported by the IP holder, I ask "why?" or roll my eyes.

D&D lives on clumping meh versions of stuff from popular media together.... to fight.

Official D&D Superman/Shazam/OmniMan/Homelander/FlyingLaserTankman when?

Im sure there is a 5E reskin for it.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Im sure there is a 5E reskin for it.

If there is a 5e reskin of Doctor Who there's got to be a version of everything else.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Im sure there is a 5E reskin for it.

There's a whole YouTube channel devoted to it.

 

[Clint_L]

The devs have talked about this multiple times. That they expected 5E to be the last edition ever published, it was basically time to close up shop. There's a thread on it here https://www.enworld.org/threads/rob...-at-wotc-during-the-5e-dev-and-launch.699643/

And now they are still claiming that it will be the last edition ever published...because they are getting rid of the editions monicker and just calling the game D&D (based on 5e). Thanks to 5e being such a runaway success.

 

[Amrûnril]

Technically you can play chess in a D&D game, doesn't mean it's the best option. There are some people on this forum do nothing but complain about the game and how it's badly designed. I think many of them would be better off playing a different game.

If you have to have more than a page or so of house rules to make the game what you want or if all you do is complain about how you don't like how the game works I think you would be better off with other games.

One can like vast portions of a game while also feeling strongly that specific elements should be changed. If someone wants to change 10-20% of the rules, that means they're happy keeping 80-90% of them. This isn't something that should be taken for granted.

D&D is a game with a 320 page player's handbook. As someone who likes playing in homebrew worlds and likes thinking about game design, I don't think anyone could write a 320 page RPG book where I wouldn't want to change more than a page of rules. But I wouldn't take the time to think through and discuss those changes if I didn't like the underlying game.