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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 5986818" data-attributes="member: 151">In a possibly Quixotic attempt to return to the original topic:D&D Next primarily has to deliver on the promise of the beta test, for me.  What that means to me, personally, is to deliver a game that plays quickly, offers meaningful choices, evokes the elements of prior editions that I enjoy(ed) but reflects a modern sensibility on the material.  Nice fine terms, obviously, but I'll strive for some specifics.  cs, to some degree.  Every edition of D&D has had it's strengths and weaknesses.  I would hope that D&D Next tries to merge them into a stronger whole.  I started with the Red Box; Basic D&D's simplicity made it instantly appealing.  I 'graduated' to AD&D for its features...but like everyone who played that I knew, we customized it, ignoring what we disliked and adding what we wanted.  I skipped 2E...it didn't offer me what I wanted right then.  I wanted GURPS and 2E felt like just AD&D...but different.  That's not really fair to 2E, but that was my thinking at the time.  When 3E came out, I liked that it learned from GURPS (which, by that point had stagnated for me) but retained it's flavor and feel as D&D, maintaining core elements that worked.  3.5 was an incremental improvement, adding minor fixes (though so many minor fixes that system mastery was, unfortunately, impaired).  4E seemed like it would address many of the d20 systems shortfalls...and in many ways it did.  But after a couple years of playing, it still doesn't feel like D&D to me or my playes in many ways.  It's not that it isn't a good system...but it doesn't feel like the D&D I've played over the last 30 years.What do I want?  Well, I would be happy with Vancian magic or something better than 4E's system, which feels dull and mechanical to me.  Magic and magic items feel utilitarian and flavorless in 4E, with an emphasis on combat applications that feels designed to stifle innovative use of the stuff.I want the core character classes to feel different, play different and have meaningful mechanical differences.  A large subthread in this discussion has been over fighters having spells.  Some of my players have complained about this aspect of 4E: specifically that the fighters basic attack doesn't generally behave, in practical terms, any differently than a magic missle or a sneak-attack or a warlock's curse or fire-breath.    Yes, they are different, but they don't feel all that different in play.  And that matters to my players and I.I also want the removal of 'ROLES' in the 4E sense.  I feel like they were a good idea at the outset, but that their actual use has resulted in round pegs going into square holes.  When we had classes being defined as 'Leader/Striker hybrids' and such...the concept doesn't quite work.  Especially since it changed some core classes to not match their behavior in all previous editions of the game.  My wife almost quit D&D because her fighter was not good at her job....she had become a defender, the MMO 'tank'.  Yes, she could change to a Slayer or some other class...but I had no good answer for why she no longer was the best fighter in a group (or the best tank, either, as the paladin soon showed).  I applaud the idea of roles and many other ideas in 4E...but in D&D, they seemed to diverge away from what we wanted.I want a system that will recreate the first session of the Sunless Citadel or the first time we visited the Caves of Chaos....with the characters feeling different, with different powers and abilities.  If D&D Next can make me excited about dungeon-crawling again, I'll be a happy customer.Oh, but what I really want?  A new OGL and much better electronic/online support.  4E's compendium is probably the best thing about 4E, but the GSL stifling all the tools that 3E had due to the SRD is a bummer.  I don't need WotC to make online tools (though if they create them, I'll buy them if they work), but to allow fans to make and share their own.  There is simply no reason that WotC hasn't written an iOS/Android app for D&D Insider, for example.  I want D&D Next to be fun.  Hopefully for as many people as possible.</blockquote>

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