D&D (2024) GenCon 2023 - D&D Rules Revision panel

[Charlaquin]

So this “Dee Emm Gee” will be some sort of guide for dungeon masters? What a novel concept!

 

[UngeheuerLich]

That was pretty much how it went in the D&D Next playtest, which worked out pretty well for them.

That was pure luck. Without the pandemic, D&D 5e would have flopped. No I mean critcal role. 5e has no inherent value... or so I heard...

 

[Velderan]

If I'm not mistaken they said the first UA articles are going to be experimental. They told us that from the start.

To be fair, they've said a lot of things people chose to ignore from the beginning so at least people are being consistent in choosing to ignore what they're saying.

 

[mamba]

Good marketing, though?

not sure, I mostly feel disappointed about the missed opportunity

 

[mamba]

And that they're using the public to do their brainstorming for them is just further evidence that they have no conviction or confidence in their own ideas, which is just sad.

the audience did no brainstorming, it provided feedback on WotC's brainstorming

 

[Emberashh]

You've never heard of AB testing, have you?

Ive made my point that this isn't a good way to design a game. Argue the point and skip this pointless side argument.

That was pretty much how it went in the D&D Next playtest, which worked out pretty well for them.

Ive read the Next playtest, and Im still flabbergasted that they actually caused a lot of the issues 5e has just by dropping half the fantastic ideas they had originally.

Ive said it before, but take the Druid templates. They already perfected it in Next #6. That they moved to what we got in 5e and now have whatever you want to call their abortive attempt in 1DND is just bewildering.

 

[Velderan]

not sure, I mostly feel disappointed about the missed opportunity

I'd think some of the material that barely missed their threshold to make it into the 2024 PHB will be revisited at some point in books like whatever is the equivalent of Xanathar's in 2025. I seem to recall Jeremy Crawford saying we'll likely see the ardling again at some point, for example. Maybe some of the class changes people liked but not quite enough for PHB use could be retooled into a subclass down the road.

 

[Charlaquin]

Ive read the Next playtest, and Im still flabbergasted that they actually caused a lot of the issues 5e has just by dropping half the fantastic ideas they had originally.

Ive said it before, but take the Druid templates. They already perfected it in Next #6. That they moved to what we got in 5e and now have whatever you want to call their abortive attempt in 1DND is just bewildering.

Not bewildering at all; it can be explained very simply. There wasn’t a significant majority of players who liked the templates in packet 6. There was a significant majority of players who liked the 2014 iteration. And in this revision, there was still not a significant majority (or even an insignificant majority for that matter) who liked the idea of templates. We don’t yet know how people will feel about this version with fewer available forms.

 

[Emberashh]

And in this revision, there was still not a significant majority (or even an insignificant majority for that matter) who liked the idea of templates.

And how much of that is down to the god awful execution of the idea as presented in 1DND #6?

That right there is why I say this is a terrible way to do the playtest, because even if they had just reprinted the Next version verbatim, not iterating doesn't actually explore the idea to see if its workable, and popularity doesn't cut it as a shortcut.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

"Hey, try these three variations on a recipe, tell me which you like."

"I like the middle one. And I hope never to taste the third one again."

"Okay, but so it's not a waste of time where they never see the light of day again, I'm going to feed you all three."

"We've changed this recipe to include a side of ice cream. How do you like it?"

"Not very much. It tastes like you used vinegar instead vanilla in the ice cream."

"I see that you don't like ice cream."