Herremann the Wise
First Post
I posted the following "Ethos for a New Edition", almost four years ago on these boards in a towards 5E thread. Looking at it again and what is being talked about by Monte, his team, and the smatterings of playtester posts, I cannot help but smile with hope that D&D Next is going to be the edition for me. I honestly think they are setting themselves up to nail it!
Ethos for a New Edition
o Magic is mysterious and dark once more; rather than the safe hum-drum technology of the fantasy world.
o The days of character’s being defined by their suite of magical items instead of their skills and heroics are gone.
o Rules and flavour should be in symbiosis with one another, rather than in competition or strained accord.
o Streamline for elegance, not to bash complexity into vague simplicity.
o Adventuring is inherently not safe; combat encounters should present danger to the characters – the safety net must go.
o The assumption of miniatures and a battlemap should not be implicit in the ruleset; the rules must also be able to support those groups who prefer the landscape of the mind.
o Whilst no specific world is given, the rules should allow for one that sits between Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Vance’s Lyonesse and Dying Earth series, Howard’s Conan Stories, Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, Williams’ Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, Erikson’s Malazan series and Fritz Leiber’s Stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser; and be able to stretch to any of these fabulous fantasy pillars.
o Verisimilitude is not a dirty word; a certain logic to the fantasy world should be upheld.
o Character creation must be flexible; the ability to meld many different but viable character ideas should be encouraged, rather than feeling pressured to focus on a couple of "optimised builds".
o Players should feel that they can develop a character that is both effective in combat and interesting out of combat – rather than either/or.
o The game economy must make sense and feel real; rather than being a calculated spoon-fed wealth lacking in true achievement.
o The game cannot afford for some classes to dominate at the expense of others at more powerful levels; and nor should the answer be compressing the classes into homogenized lumps of roughly equal measure.
o The game also cannot afford for rules to unmanageably bloat at higher levels with the time taken to resolve this vast array bloating as well.
o And most of all and above all else, the game must be fun!
Your thoughts?
Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
Ethos for a New Edition
o Magic is mysterious and dark once more; rather than the safe hum-drum technology of the fantasy world.
o The days of character’s being defined by their suite of magical items instead of their skills and heroics are gone.
o Rules and flavour should be in symbiosis with one another, rather than in competition or strained accord.
o Streamline for elegance, not to bash complexity into vague simplicity.
o Adventuring is inherently not safe; combat encounters should present danger to the characters – the safety net must go.
o The assumption of miniatures and a battlemap should not be implicit in the ruleset; the rules must also be able to support those groups who prefer the landscape of the mind.
o Whilst no specific world is given, the rules should allow for one that sits between Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Vance’s Lyonesse and Dying Earth series, Howard’s Conan Stories, Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, Williams’ Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, Erikson’s Malazan series and Fritz Leiber’s Stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser; and be able to stretch to any of these fabulous fantasy pillars.
o Verisimilitude is not a dirty word; a certain logic to the fantasy world should be upheld.
o Character creation must be flexible; the ability to meld many different but viable character ideas should be encouraged, rather than feeling pressured to focus on a couple of "optimised builds".
o Players should feel that they can develop a character that is both effective in combat and interesting out of combat – rather than either/or.
o The game economy must make sense and feel real; rather than being a calculated spoon-fed wealth lacking in true achievement.
o The game cannot afford for some classes to dominate at the expense of others at more powerful levels; and nor should the answer be compressing the classes into homogenized lumps of roughly equal measure.
o The game also cannot afford for rules to unmanageably bloat at higher levels with the time taken to resolve this vast array bloating as well.
o And most of all and above all else, the game must be fun!
Your thoughts?
Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
