D&D 5E I think 5E needs less innovation.

[delericho]

I kind-of agree. In developing 5e, WotC are in the process of renovating a grand old house, not building an entirely new dwelling. So, there really needs to be a sense of preserving those old traditions.

At the same time, there shouldn't be a slavish adherence to everything about the past. If a better way can be devised to do something, it should be adopted and used. I think it's valid to discuss how hit points, for example, should be implemented and used... though it's almost certainly a bridge too far to talk about whether they should be replaced entirely.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I wonder if 3E and Pathfinder by extension as well as 4E didn't just have one problem: They were too good, as systems. They fit people's preference better than previous editions, so there is no "compromise" edition that could make both happy? Just one t hat makes both equally unhappy?

And maybe it's not just 3E and 4E and Pathfinder. Maybe it's simply the fact that we now have 4+ "editions" of D&D that all appeal to different groups, and there is just not enough overlap to _really_ fit them all together. You always have to add one aspect that one of the groups won't like.

If the essential core is something like Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, Rogue, Halfing, Dwarf, Human, Elf, d20, hit points, but one group wants at-will spells and metagame resources like action points or healing surges, others absoultely don't want to see that, one group wants +x magic items, the other not, what can you really do?

 

[Jan van Leyden]

If the essential core is something like Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, Rogue, Halfing, Dwarf, Human, Elf, d20, hit points, but one group wants at-will spells and metagame resources like action points or healing surges, others absoultely don't want to see that, one group wants +x magic items, the other not, what can you really do?

Boil it down to a 16 page document doing nothing more than list these keywords. As soon as they start defining or explaining the meaning of these keywords, the complaining will start.

The term D&D alone has such widely disparate meanings to the gamers that we don't actually talk about the same thing when we say D&D.