D&D 5E Does this seem to be the edition that was made for splatbooks?

[Astrosicebear]

If WOTC learned anything from watching Paizo kick their sales butts these last few years they will know to keep splat down and adventures up.

 

[Derren]

If WOTC learned anything from watching Paizo kick their sales butts these last few years they will know to keep splat down and adventures up.

Oh great. WotC adventures...

 

[Umbran]

I don't know about you, but 5th edition seems to have been made for splatbooks...

Note that "splatbook" does not equal "supplement". A splatbook is specifically a supplement targetting a particular character type. If you have a fighter-book, a wizard-book, a rogue-book, a cleric-book, this generalizes to having *-books. Where the asterisk is a wild card, and another word for the * character is "splat". Thus "splatbook"

I don't think the system is well made for splatbooks. I think it is better geared toward campaign theme or style books (a city campaign book, a tactical combat heavy book, and so on), where each book touches on all the classes.

I don't like the splatbook model for one very simple reason: Say the fighter book comes out. The folks playing fighters in my game can get new interesting stuff. But the clerics? They are stuck until their book comes out. If it is a campaign-theme book then everyone gets the options at once.

 

[Eejit]

I expect we'll mostly have expanded character options linked to official modules or campaigns. Look at what we've been told about the upcoming Princes of the Apocalypse:

Not inherently evil, elemental power can be mastered by those with both malevolent and benign intentions. The Elemental Evil Adventurer’s Handbook provides everything that players need to build a character that is tied directly into the Elemental Evil story arc, with skills, abilities, and spells meant to augment their play experience throughout the campaign. Additionally, valuable background and story information provides greater depth and immersion.

An accessory that expands the number of options available for character creation for the Elemental Evil story arc, providing expanded backgrounds, class builds, and races meant specifically for this campaign.

Read more: http://www.enworld.org/forum/conten...or-D-D-5E-in-2015!#.U_Y76fldXuc#ixzz3EoJ6LHXc

 

[jodyjohnson]

IMO this edition is made for reusing and adapting your old supplements, campaign material, and adventures. Whether from D&D or other game systems like D&D.

I don't have much interest in rebuying all the stuff I already have especially repackaged fluff that players will be rebel against changing anyway.

A small number of supplements and rules additions which add value would be fine. With the PDF store back in business there is a lot of material accessible.

 

[Mistwell]

Oh great. WotC adventures...

The tail-end of 4e had some great adventures. However, these were almost all after 5e had already been announced...so few people actually bought them to see that. Adventure like Madness at Gardmore Abbey, Vor Rukoth, Gloomwrought, and Hammerfast. Which is a real shame, as there were some serious gems in there that rank up (in my opinion) with the best of what Paizo has produced.

I think 5e started off pretty well so far with adventures as well. They are not all great, but most of them are pretty good.

 

[Lalato]

On tapatalk the last word of the thread title was cut off... I clicked through in the hope that this was the edition made for lovin'.

 

[aramis erak]

I don't know about you, but 5th edition seems to have been made for splatbooks and yet I here we are supposed to get a low book rate.

What sold me in the beginning was all this talk of modularity. There is supposed to be all these supplements that support all sorts of various play options in order for people to tailor the game to their needs. I even look at the rules in the PHB and I see them as usuable to play but feeling incomplete. I see the potential for tons and tons of options. Why create a game that is supposed to be chock full of options, but keep the book count low?

They haven't said "no expansions" - they've said no rapid fire splatbooks.

Remember, "splatbook" is a derogative term for shoddy expansion work.

I would expect, probably about end of Q1 2015, an expansion book with new backgrounds, probably with some new subclasses, and probably some new races. It will likely be a setting expansion.

There are a few classes left untouched that are part of certain settings; we can expect those in the relevant setting books. That would include, for Dragonlance, which M. Weiss has leaked that they are revising for 5E, Tinkers, alternate wizards, the Knights. DL also would need some expanded backgrounds, plus the Kender and Minotaurs as PC races.

Dark Sun would benefit from new cleric domains and a variant druid class structure, and will need to have a rules module on spellcasting, covering preservers and defilers.

Ravenloft needs no new classes, but needs new backgrounds and weapons. It also should expand on fear effects, as well as the Powers Check system.

 

[Thaumaturge]

Dark Sun would benefit from new cleric domains

Here you go:

Dead God Domain
The gods on your planet are dead or never existed. You should probably just make a fighter.

That's a rough draft, but it should work until the official one comes out.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Dausuul]

It may be that Mearls will stick to his guns and 5E will be splat-lite, and we'll mainly be seeing stuff in the context of setting and adventure specific content (e.g. the "Adventurer's Handbook"). It may also be that we'll see more splats than Mearls originally intended, for the reason you mentioned - that 5E's modularity allows for it. I'd also like to see what the new game license looks like, because that may allow other publishers to "splat away" and do the dirty for WotC so that they can focus on story arcs. Let's see how this unfolds...

I don't think the decision to be "splat-lite" is driven by Mearls's preferences. I think it's driven by simple budget and headcount realities at WotC. The D&D team is far, far smaller today than at any time since the days of Gygax and Arneson. The game simply doesn't make enough money to justify a larger staff. And with such a small team, they can't crank out splatbooks like they used to. So they are making a virtue of necessity here.

On the plus side, this seems like a good omen for third-party publishers. WotC needs a stream of fresh content to keep the community engaged, they don't have the capacity to make it all themselves, so the obvious thing to do is put out a generous licensing scheme. While they problably won't go full OGL, I think we have a good chance of getting something far better than the GSL for 5E.