D&D 5E How Can D&D Next Win You Over?

[Falling Icicle]

So, what about you? What vain ambitions do you desire out of D&D Next? What promises does WotC have to deliver on? Can you be won over, and how?

I'd say that in order to win me over 5e has to be better than any of the editions that came before it. After all, if it's not, I see no reason to not just keep playing what I've been playing. That's stating the obvious, I know, but it really is as simple as that.

When I first heard about 5e, it sounded to me like they were aiming to make another retro-clone or 3.75 edition (or perhaps more accurately, a 2.75 edition with 3e mechanics and 2e feel and DM "empowerment"). I worried that the new edition was going to lack any real innovation or improvements over the older editions of the game. I've been pleasently surprised by how much they have innovated so far, with things like bounded accuracy, ability-score saving throws, skills being tied to background instead of class, and so forth.

While I could make a wish list pages long of things I'd love to see (or not see) in the new edition, the truth is, I'm never going to get everything I want. It's silly to expect as much (and I'll be honest, even if I did get everything I want, it may not turn out to be as much fun as I expect!).

Vancain casting, for example, is one sacred cow I'd like to see made into hamburger. But I know that isn't going to happen. I've come to accept that. Besides, I've had fun playing casters in the past despite it, and I'm sure I can have fun playing a vanican caster in the future, especially if they have at-will spells and rituals to make up for some of its biggest shortcomings. I think it's safe to say with 99.99% certainty that there will be a sorcerer in the new edition, so there's always that.

So as much as I might argue for or against certain things during the playtest, I'm trying not to draw too many lines in the sand. I could write entire essays about all of the rules I didn't like going back to 2e, and yet I had alot of fun playing the game then and since.

 

[TrippyHippy]

In order to win me over:

1) Release the entire D&D back catalogue on pdf, at Drivethru or wherever. Make them IPad compatible.
2) Release a single core D&D branded book, or box set, that is complete and playable 'out-of-the-box', requiring no supplements, but is recognizably D&D.
3) Create a basic ruleset that celebrates the key distinction of D&D being the first RPG ever made - and not reliant upon miniatures and wargaming tropes in order to be able to play.
4) A decent range of Classes and Races without bloating the number to include weak non-archetypal concepts that simply pander to power game tendencies.
5) Nice art - that feels reminiscent of classic fantasy literature and not Final Fantasy XXVII.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Well, I'd take it if it was a 4E cleaned up. But that's kinda boring for a new edition and certainly not the plan for this one.

Ease of DMing

• Easy monster creation rules
• Easy encounter building guidelines
• Frameworks for handling non-combat challenges
• Frameworks for handling creation of cities, organiziations and generally a campaign world
• Easy handling of NPCs during gameplay (easy to read stat-block, clearly formulated options)

Rich Gameplay Options

• Rich Character Build Options (Classes, feats, skills, themes, backgrounds whatever)
• Balanced Gameplay (all classes equally viable to play, mostly independent of DM's encounter design, with room for everyone to get some spotlight, simple and complex builds should both be viable)
• Rich In-Game Options - I don't want to have how and dventure or combat plays out decided on my character sheet alone, I want to have the in-game situation affect what of my options are good ones and allow me to use them for different results.

Combat Features

• Grid- and miniatures without losing tactical depth
• Ways to have a short, simple combat and long, complex combats that explore the tactical depth of the game and are challenging and exciting.

Flavor

• References to real world mythologies with an aim to make it work as a whole, not just "everything and the kitchen sink"
• Monsters with interesting flavor that also can be mechanically reflected (without losing the option to re-flavor things)

A lot of these things 4E already has for me (without claiming it's perfect), and some aspects I really would like to see for a 4E "+".



One area of special interest to me is the "non-combat" area. I want better mechanical frameworks and guidelines there. Next may actually deliver something there in form of modules, but I remain skeptical whether such elements will really work if they are not built into core.

 

[Balesir]

DDN would interest me if it presented a system coherent within itself. I don't have any specific requirements regarding style or such like; what I want is a system that supports its chosen style or styles without internal contradiction or tension. The stuff about the "15 minute adventuring day" is an example of what I mean by "tension" - what the system is saying is "good play" is at odds with how the system and style will work well. I don't want to have to keep manhandling the game to ameliorate or otherwise work around such glitches in the base system. Other than that I'm actually open to see whatever interesting stuff the designers can put together.

 

[Yora]

3rd Edition with a more flat power curve and I'm won over.

 

[Raith5]

I think they'd have to do a new total 180 on the direction they've taken 5E so far in order to really sell me on the game...

I want a game that takes the core of 4E, and works to improve its many flaws to create a better game from 4E's solid foundation. For example, the entire power system could be thoroughly revised and improved, various subsystems like Paragon Paths and such would need to be completely replaced, magic items could be improved by reducing magic item dependency to the limit, and so on. The total removal of "per day" abilities and mechanics would be a great thing, as well.

I don't want to see the continued use of the mechanical and mathematical foundation from pre-3E days, because it simply doesn't work. I can tolerate a lot of different things I dislike from older editions, but the game seriously needs to have the math right before I'll consider it. A large amount of transparency with the mechanics and a lack of reliance on DM fiat are important, too.

Most of all, I just want to see something new. Something never done before with D&D. Something that was never seen in 3E or 4E and something that can't be provided by the countless competing alternatives to D&D. I want a version of D&D that will let me play as a werewolf from level 1, as a knight who rides a dragon into battle (using the RAW!), or as a mighty warrior of myth who can defeat a thousand armed soldiers in a single battle. I want a game that brings more fun classes like the Warden, Shaman, or Warlord to the forefront or brings in mechanics as fun and flavorful as the styles of the Book of the Nine Swords. I want to see something exciting.

I agree 100% with this post, both in terms of wanting to see the mechanics of 4th revived but also being critical of how these mechanics were put into place with 4th ed. I like my mechanics front and centre but this could be done in other ways than the way 4th did it.

But I especially agree with wanting to see something new. I know the history of D&D is interesting and I like nostalgia like most folk, I just dont want to see DDN beholden to this past.

 

[Derren]

5E must completely ignore everything from 4E and improve the 3E design to allow more varied gamestyles.
Going classless would also be nice but thats not going to happen.

 

[Shadeydm]

I want flexibility and to play the game I want. I want to be able to make the game fit the adventure I want to run, not change the adventure I want to run to accommodate the quirks of the system.

For example, I changed how I wrote adventures for 4th Edition. I stopped doing investigative modules or overland travel adventures because of how potent the PCs were if they fought just one creature in a day.
I had to frequently stop and wonder "how am I going to add 3-5 treasure parcels to this adventure?" or "how can I add monsters to this fight for the appropriate amount of xp?"

As a second example, my forthcoming game (starting in two weeks) is a Pathfinder game. The PCs use NPC classes only and the basic stat array (13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8). Because the game is set in Ravenloft and I want them to be afraid: I don't want them to think like heroes or assume they have the advantage and charge into combat.
I'm further customizing the game with Armour as DR rules and wound/vitality from Ultimate Combat as well as a modification of the Defence system from Unearthed Arcana and d20 Modern.

While I expect 5e to come out of the gate with a very simple version of the rules, and expansions that let you tweak the game into something closer to 3e and 4e, I hope they'll have even more customization after.
Where I can play something like my Ravenloft game. Or just as easily play a 1e mod just updating the monster statblocks and DCs and not rebuilding every encounter. Or let me play Rise of the Runelords just doing the same.

That's how they can win me over.

That about sums it up for me. I don't want many of the default playstyle assumption of 4E (or even 3E for that matter) forced onto my game. I want to be able to pick and choose some of those elements when they suit the story I'm trying to tell or the campaign I want to run. So far I think things are heading in the right direction but its still too early to say for sure.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Much as I disagree with this:

4e had a solution to the power disparity between casters and non-casters
4e combat math worked all the way from level one up into epic.
4e had monsters that worked within the action economy, whether the party was fighting one creature or a horde.

I completely agree with this.

In order to win me over, Next would have to meaningfully address all of the problems with 3e and earlier that were addressed by 4e.

...

Now, just because 4e had solutions to 3e's problems, doesn't mean they had the best solutions. I'd be fine if DDN solved these problems in entirely different ways than 4e. I don't necessarily want to see AEDU return, for example.

But I have the sense that the DDN designers don't care about those issues at all. It seems like, because 4e wasn't a success, they decided that all of the problems that 4e was trying to fix aren't really problems after all. Unless the design of DDN can convince me otherwise, I'm skipping it.

Unless 5e fixes the problems of 3e and is meaningfully better, there's no reason to buy it when 3e is still free. Also, I find it refreshing to see a 4e voice that cares about the outcomes but isn't married to the mechanics.

 

[dd.stevenson]

Needs to have an open license agreement. Doesn't have to be the OGL, if that's not exactly the direction they want to go, but it has to be pretty darn open. Also it has to allow for the game to be supported and published even after a new edition comes out.

If they can't/won't offer this, then I'm fine playing other games instead.

Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with what I've seen so far.