Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charles Dunwoody" data-source="post: 5830677" data-attributes="member: 17927">I kicked this idea around on rpg.net but wanted to discuss further here in its own thread. 5E could appeal to 1E, 2E, 3E, and 4e players, in my opinion if the the focus of the base game rules is broadened.Narrow focus started in 3.5. More complexity and more defining of the game took some of the work out of the DM's hands and put it into the game designers. If you liked the game designers work you were into the game but it you didn't it was much more difficult to pull the complex bits out.For example, many posters who don't like 3E say that the casters are broken. And that feature is hardwired into the system in their minds: 3E equals quadratic wizards and linear fighters.Many posters who don't like 4E say it plays like a boardgame. Measurement in squares (which started in 3.5), pushes, pulls, shifts, mini-teleports, marking, bloodied, and other rules that require tracking much of which is done visually with a map, minis, and extra bits (colored bases, skulls for bloodied, condition cards, power cards, magic item cards, etc.).If, however, the vast sea of spells open to wizards was optional and the base wizard had less spells to choose from and the fighter had more options the game might appeal to more players. 4E started out giving almost equal rules to fighters and wizards but over time even 4E started to give a lot of rule space to the wizard. Tone that back and give equal rule space to wizards and fighters. Broadened scope and for those DMs who want quadratic wizards bring them back as an option (high magic setting).For combat, simply include the basics. Initiative, movement, hitting, damage, and healing. Lots more options can be added later (high combat setting). Again, anyone can figure out how to pick up a d20 and roll over AC and do some dice of damage (either with sword, bow, or spell). Its all the extras that some DMs don't want that don't need to be baked right into the system.If Wizards includes high magic and high combat as the first supplements, I think they could capture the needs of most D&D players. Anyone who likes rules from 2E and earlier would just need the base books. Anyone who likes 3E could get high magic. Anyone who likes 4E could get high combat. If I go from my base book into a 5E high combat game I'd have to learn one more rulebook to play. Not too bad. Heck, Wizards might even be able to squeeze high magic and high combat into the basic rulebook (120 pages of basic rules, 100 pages of high magic, and 100 pages of high combat). Then if you had the PH you could play in any campaign whether inspired by 1E, 2E, 3E, or 4E. Have one book and you are good to go.</blockquote>

Verification