Nellisir
Hero
Here's my quasi-official prediction, which I reserve the right to retroactively rescind and amend at any point in time, such as when I am wrong.
- 5e is going to have a much more modular ruleset than we've ever seen in the past. (based on what we know now)
- WotC is going to want to leverage 3pp publishers to support and extend the different levels of modularity. (well, duh)
- They will not want full-fledged, mature (independent) rulesets sprouting from 5e. (Elements in WotC hierarchy will argue that the modularity of the core ruleset already fractures the audience, whether or not different levels of complexity (basic, advanced, armor type modifier) actually are interplayable and whether or not they actually do fracture the core audience. These are the same class of people that killed all the beautiful campaign settings.)
- There will be a certain level of "revisability" to defined terms allowed, but the "easy road" will be ruleset extension, not ruleset revision. New classes OK, rewriting the fighter, not. (I know, I know, 90% of you are screaming right now.)
- Campaign settings will be OK. New monsters will be OK. Restrictions won't be as harsh as with the GSL for defined monsters.
- There will be online support for 3pp material, a la the DDI, but 3pp material will be clearly flagged as such, with a "buyer beware" sort of warning.
- Use of the D&D name will be rolled in with the 5eGL, as with the GSL.
- The 5eGL will not interact with the OGL.
Basically, WotC will provide the spine ("basic", "advanced", and "do you have a graphing calculator"), and some plug-in extensions. 3pp will be encouraged to create their own extensions, but not new spines.
It's late, I'm fried, that's all I've got for the moment.
- 5e is going to have a much more modular ruleset than we've ever seen in the past. (based on what we know now)
- WotC is going to want to leverage 3pp publishers to support and extend the different levels of modularity. (well, duh)
- They will not want full-fledged, mature (independent) rulesets sprouting from 5e. (Elements in WotC hierarchy will argue that the modularity of the core ruleset already fractures the audience, whether or not different levels of complexity (basic, advanced, armor type modifier) actually are interplayable and whether or not they actually do fracture the core audience. These are the same class of people that killed all the beautiful campaign settings.)
- There will be a certain level of "revisability" to defined terms allowed, but the "easy road" will be ruleset extension, not ruleset revision. New classes OK, rewriting the fighter, not. (I know, I know, 90% of you are screaming right now.)
- Campaign settings will be OK. New monsters will be OK. Restrictions won't be as harsh as with the GSL for defined monsters.
- There will be online support for 3pp material, a la the DDI, but 3pp material will be clearly flagged as such, with a "buyer beware" sort of warning.
- Use of the D&D name will be rolled in with the 5eGL, as with the GSL.
- The 5eGL will not interact with the OGL.
Basically, WotC will provide the spine ("basic", "advanced", and "do you have a graphing calculator"), and some plug-in extensions. 3pp will be encouraged to create their own extensions, but not new spines.
It's late, I'm fried, that's all I've got for the moment.
