Dislike 4E? You can write off 5E

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I believe it was Monte Cook who admitted after the announcement of 4e that they had actually started planning it just after the release of 3e. I think what he was referring to is that in the back of everyone's minds they started thinking how they could make the game better. I would hope that anyone who designs a game would continue, after its release, trying to adjust it until they were completely satisfied. Even then they probably couldn't give it completely up. In a sense game design is like poetry in that "a poem is never finished, only abandoned." (Can't remember who said that, but it fits.)

I thought that refered to 3.5? Though both might be true. Firt a 3.5 after a some time of play experience in the actual field, with feedback from thousands of customers. And then, at some later point, a 4th Edition.

4E probably replaced the idea of a 0.5 with a more agressive errata schedule and its Core line of books.

 

[avin]

(a return to 2e style flavor, please please please).

A 5th edition, with 2E's tone of fluff, a system solid like 4E - free of 3E unbalance, but very tweaked to sound more natural and harmonic with fluff... the removal of some 4E metagamey ideas... heck, if they figure out that's a good idea to bring every good idea together we could dream about a fantastic 5th edition...

I could even deal with 4E's structure of Planes if they manage to bring all old planes back... like the real Elemental planes are deep regions of the Elemental Chaos... a few words about it, saying it exists and kills people and it's where the bad guys live, sheltered by hostile environment...

And Yugoloths back, for sure.

Yugoloths MUST be back.

 

[Sammael]

I personally think defenses are a big step back, because they didn't eliminate the save entirely, and, even though the save is now greatly simplified, it still has circumstantial modifiers depending on the type of effect. In other words, we now have TWO mechanics for the same thing.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

I´m still left to wonder:
If i like 4e, can i "write on" 5e?
Hmmm, does that mean... 5e is the iPad?
Mac-only DDI for 5e?

 

[Starfox]

If they make a 5E, I doubt many of the designers involved in 4E would be involved in it. Same as there were few 3E designers involved in 4E.

If they were to make 4.5E, things might be different and more along the lines Jacob's suggested.

 

[Jhaelen]

Hmm, dunno if there's anything particularly noteworthy in the interview regarding what 5e might be like.

If you asked me what the weather might be like tomorrow, I'd probably say "Well, much like today, I guess". Imho, the interview shows that 5e is _not_ something the current developers are already thinking about.

 

[bagger245]

5e won't be coming anytime soon imo. But I can expect it's even different than AD&D. Each edition is consider a "fix" to the current edition. Would you expect 5e to have an expanded skill list ala 3.5e or pure Vancian casting again? Will you expect the fighter to be back with a mundane basic attack again? I don't think so.

There is another thread that lists down problems with 4e and once those are fixed, thats 5e for you. We might not have 3-18 stats anymore and more sacred cows will be gone. 5e will be for the current kids who play PS4 or the next Xbox with occasional nostalgic essence shoehorned into the current ruleset just to please older gamers (Gamma World and TSR setting rehash is an example).

 

[UngainlyTitan]

There is really nothing of note in the interview regarding 5e but I question wether there will be a 5e.

4e is a living rules set via the compendium and the incremental rules releases and there will now be another strand of rules releases via the essentials line.

As it stands, the essentials like is supposed to introduce alternative class builds for existing classes and they seem to have settled on a pretty clean separation between crunch and fluff books. There are near infintie number of location books (like the underdark, plane below and so forth). If they want to they could reintroduce all the old planes in that way as locations in the Astral Sea, the Elemental Chaos and the Abyss and so forth.

They have only barely begun to look at alternate ways to do powers like the psionic classes and all this is before bringing in power creep.

In fact the only reason I could see for bringing in a new edition would be to fundamentally change the maths, in particular the power curve and I really do not see them doing this unless it is clear that the current edition is a spent force sales wise.

I think that with the essecials like they are making a fairly determined attempt to grow the market, probably initially to old lapsed gamers but I expect that those older gamers coming back in via the new red box will be DMing for their kids initially but I would also expect a new initiative may be next year to reach out to gamers that do not currently play TTRPGs.
Even if there is not, it will take a couple of years to tell if current efforts are bearing any fruit.

 

[pawsplay]

I thought this bit of the interview was inadvertedly funny



I can see how "failed my Will save" can quickly become a cultural reference.

I don't think that "the chex mix attacked my will. I am now dazed and immobilized (save ends both). With my will saves I’ll just be standing here eating forever" or its equivalent EVER will

For one thing, 4e components are unlikely to tell you why you are dazed and immobilized. Maybe the chex mix was horrifying? 4e will not tell you.

 

[Nifft]

I´m still left to wonder:
If i like 4e, can i "write on" 5e?
Hmmm, does that mean... 5e is the iPad?
Mac-only DDI for 5e?

DDiTunes.

Cheers, -- N