D&D 5E How are people currently feeling about 5e?

[The Shadow]

More optimistic than I really ought to be. I liked almost everything I heard about 4e, until it came out and I realized it just wasn't for me.

Right now I'm just relieved that we will *finally* get some actual rules in our hands next week. I was super-excited for 5e - in January. Why they made the announcement when they weren't prepared to actually tell us anything is a minor mystery to me.

 

[triqui]

[...]the current team is made up of the people that bored or irritated me all the way to other publishers and game systems just a couple years ago, [...]
And if it turns out to be wholly unsatisfying? RuneQuest/Legend & Pathfinder and Song of Ice and Fire and Mutants and Masterminds!

Isn't it a bit weird that you are bored of the people making 5e, but love a game made by Robert J. Schwalb?

 

[triqui]

Funny. I see influences of all editions. Which is actually what they promised. And IMHO they are doing great so far. And as long as 4e won´t be thrown out of the window, they can´t do wrong. (And with throwing out of the window, i mean not continuing DDI...)

I think you are right, and that's the problem. For a lot of guys, they don't want a game that includes X part of their favourite edition. They want a game that *does not* include X part of their hated edition. For example:

If 5e has vancian magic, and healing surges, a lot of 3e fans will hate it, because it has healing surges, and a lot of 4e fans will hate it, because it has vancian magic.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Maybe it is better to look at it as a sperate game. And look, how it plays out as a whole. Maybe the most minimalistic consensus will result in the most widely accepted game.

And I hope, seriously I hope, that we are a mnority. 5th edition will be shiny and new. I hope new and old people will at least give it a try. Maybe it will be a blast to play.

@Healing surges: from the live chat, i am seriously convinced, that beeing able to describe effects with normal language will have priority.

The relevant part was the explanation of paralysis:

You can´t move your limbs. Spellcastig requires somatic components. So casting spells with somatic components will be impossible. Simple, efficient, no gaming language needed. Haling surges in its current state would miss the design goal (no matter how well they work in 4e).

This goal alone makes me very optimistic, as this is one of the few things really bugging me in 4e.

 

[merelycompetent]

Cautiously optimistic. I see some warnings signs, and some good stuff. The designers have set themselves very high goals, with equivalent potential for catastrophe.

I really wish Real Life (tm) left me with time to participate in early playtesting.

The real determining factors are in the details - what is DM prep time like at all levels - especially high level, how does magic work in the mechanics, what is the flavor and tone, how easy is it to use my homebrew campaign world with the new system, will there be PDFs or equivalent, how much do I have to houserule to play the way *I* want to play, how easy is it to bring in new (to the hobby) players, and so forth.

I don't think we'll really start seeing determinative answers until at least midway through playtesting to release. Between now and then, there is a lot of potential for change.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Isn't it a bit weird that you are bored of the people making 5e, but love a game made by Robert J. Schwalb?

4e had a designer I really was no fan of in 3rd edition. I knew that and still liked the game. I however were more impressed, when 4e was taken over by the people currently designing D&Dnext. From this point, 4e became really interesting, as the straightjacked, the designers have put on was partially loosened.

Mearls taking over was the best what could happen to 4e. (My opinion)

 

[Herschel]

I'm waiting to see what is there. My concern is that they fix the broken to make a better game instead of breaking the fixed to appease a vocal minority. I've seen instances of both mentioned so far.

 

[Systole]

Cook walking off the project moves me from "pessimistic but open-minded" to "waiting for the implosion, popcorn in hand." To be fair, I haven't played 5e yet, because I'm too paranoid to sign the NDA, but having followed the 5e news, I no longer have much in the way of warm fuzzies. On the other hand, I'm pretty happy with all the things that PF got right, so I don't mind so much if 5e is garbage or not. I mean, I hope 5e is better than PF, but if it isn't, then I still have PF.

 

[M.L. Martin]

Guardedly optimistic--I like the 'race/class/background/theme' structure and the de-emphasis of the combat grid, but I'm not thrilled with the return of Vancian casting, think the 'letting a character own an encounter' approach needs to be approached carefully, and still wish WotC had some counterweights to their underlying opinion that early 1st Edition was the peak of the game in terms of style and flavor.

 

[Badapple]

I've played D&D for a long time and I've thought every edition has improved the game. But I'm genuinely worried about D&D Next.

From what I've read so far it seems like the overriding goal is not to make a new version of D&D, but to make a unifying version, something that appeals to fans of all the previous editions. I don't see how they are going to make everyone happy.

Each edition has had innovations in it that have completely changed the game. That's one of the reasons I've felt that each edition has been better and why each edition revitalized an interest in playing for me. So far I don't see anything mentioned by the design team that has anything NEW. Love or hate 3.x or 4e, both games were radical revisions that introduced multiple core concepts to the original game that were game changers. 3.x introduced attacks of opportunity, feats and skills as core to the game design. 4e introduced healing surges, a large pool of encounter powers for all classes, healing as a minor action while still getting to perform an attack action in the same round. Playing the new edition was an exciting, new experience for me because it was a completely differerent experience than ever before, but still D&D.

If the upcoming D&D Next was a musical release it would be a "best of" album with remixes from various old albums, but where are the original song tracks? My fear is that I see D&D next being a clunky hybrid system pooling from all the editions, but with only limited truly unique innovations. This runs a risk of peeling a fragment of players from each edition camp, but ultimately a large amount of gamers sticking with their favorite game, and further fracturing the D&D community even more.