Dislike 4E? You can write off 5E

[Dice4Hire]

Here's a thought: what if they went the other way? Instead of non-disclosure, an all-hands-in approach...

What if we woke up tomorrow (or next week, or next year, or whenever) to an announcement from WotC: "We have decided to design and release a 5th edition of the world's most popular RPG. The first phase of that design process starts today: for the next 6 months we are accepting ideas and submissions for this new edition. You may reasonably expect your submission to be read and reviewed, but nothing more; and [insert some legal bumph basically saying not to expect credit or reward if your ideas end up in the game]."

Talk about a way to get audience buy-in right from the start!

Lan-"hell, I'd buy it just to see if they used any of my ideas"-efan

You have seen posts here. When do people here (let alone at other boards) ever agree on anything?

There might be some good ideas in there, but mostly all you would get is your reaction, though most people would not bother buying the books to say "My stuff is in there!!!"

 

[Nikosandros]

Seriously, did anyone buy Wizards of the Coast Presents: Classes and Races of Dungeons and Dragons or some of those other "Wizards Presents" books?

I did...

 

[Aloïsius]

Here's a thought: what if they went the other way? Instead of non-disclosure, an all-hands-in approach...

What if we woke up tomorrow (or next week, or next year, or whenever) to an announcement from WotC: "We have decided to design and release a 5th edition of the world's most popular RPG. The first phase of that design process starts today: for the next 6 months we are accepting ideas and submissions for this new edition. You may reasonably expect your submission to be read and reviewed, but nothing more; and [insert some legal bumph basically saying not to expect credit or reward if your ideas end up in the game]."

Talk about a way to get audience buy-in right from the start!

Lan-"hell, I'd buy it just to see if they used any of my ideas"-efan

I think there is a less risky way to do that : just watch the "house rules" forum and the "what would you like for 5e" thread across the internet.

 

[Windjammer]

So much to learn from this thread. So, next time a D&D designer at WotC is asked about 5E and he laughs it off + says 'we got 4E stuff in the pipelines into next year', I'm to parse this as "into next year and no further, har har!!" ...and sell of my 4E stuff since 5E will be announced six months later.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Seriously, did anyone buy Wizards of the Coast Presents: Classes and Races of Dungeons and Dragons or some of those other "Wizards Presents" books?

I did and I still own them. They're full of very good and useful fluff. I thought and still think they were an excellent value for the price. Very little to no crunch. I use them from time to time in my one-shot Savage Worlds games.

Seriously, have you read them?

 

[Nebulous]

Eh, well, personally i'm somewhat torn on the issue of 4e vs. 5e. I'm positive that they're rolling ideas around for it now. The transition from 3e to 4e proved that to me; they had the gears going for 4th edition long, long before i expected them to. Now i have a better idea of how the company works behind the scenes. As for announcing 5e too soon, well, that would kill sales for 4e so they'll never do that. But there are some things in 4e that really don't work right, like the rituals for instance. Excellent idea, but piss poor implementation. My group has over 30 rituals at their disposal from core books and the Book of Rituals and unique magic items that cast rituals, and they've only used maybe 3 and the group is 10th level now. There is a major disconnect between their character powers and the rituals and i'm not sure what to do about it. Although i hate to think a whole new edition is needed to fix that instead of just a creative houserule.

For what it's worth though, if i KNEW there was 5th edition coming out in say 3 years, and i was aware of certain issues they were addressing, i probably would not buy another single 4e book.

 

[Kelanen]

I did and I still own them. They're full of very good and useful fluff. I thought and still think they were an excellent value for the price. Very little to no crunch. I use them from time to time in my one-shot Savage Worlds games.

Seriously, have you read them?

I bought and read them also. My players and I thought they were very good.

 

[Fifth Element]

That would be my "D&D - nightmare edition". It would be like asking soccer fans "how should we revise the soccer rules - send us your admissions." I.e. "beer hats for every player."

D&D influenced by the most hardcore fans (and let´s be honest, those would mail a majority of the submission) = bye bye, Keefe. I like D&D because it is NOT dominated by the hard-core crowd, exept perhaps on message boards.

I'll go with this. It might seem like a good idea to ask everyone what they think, but then what? You're sorting through thousands of ideas looking for the few that might be worth pursuing. The majority of submissions will be poorly-thought-out trash (like my house rules, for example).

 

[Riley]

I did and I still own them. They're full of very good and useful fluff. I thought and still think they were an excellent value for the price. Very little to no crunch. I use them from time to time in my one-shot Savage Worlds games.

Seriously, have you read them?

Ditto: bought, read, liked, kept.

 

[M.L. Martin]

I'll go with this. It might seem like a good idea to ask everyone what they think, but then what? You're sorting through thousands of ideas looking for the few that might be worth pursuing. The majority of submissions will be poorly-thought-out trash (like my house rules, for example).

It seemed to work out reasonably well for HERO 6th Edition--but Steve Long had a strong vision of where he wanted to go with the system and put forth his general ideas at the start, and there was no question of who had final authority. Also, HERO isn't nearly as divided as D&D.