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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7539587" data-attributes="member: 29398">Excluding what [MENTION=6685730]DMMike[/MENTION] wrote just above, there isn't anything here so far I'd have the least interest in even looking at, never mind playing.Were the next D&D up to me I'd strip it down to the very basics - six attributes, 10-15 classes, 4-6 races - and not put all that much back.  And what did get put back would be very modular - use the best system for the job at hand even if it's unique to that purpose, rather than trying to shoehorn everything into a unified mechanic - such that changes to one internal system don't affect much if anything else. (e.g. turn undead would probably work differently than anything else in the game...thus tweaking the turn-undead system would have limited if any effect elsewhere)Abilities would be entirely class-based.  Want an ability?  Play the class that has it.  Want two abilities that aren't shared by a class?  Tough - pick one.  Play the other one next time.  Feats?  Gone.  Multiclassing?  Gone or very close to gone.  Skills, other than some basics like swimming or riding or boating?  Gone.  All classes have strengths, all classes have weaknesses; no single character can do everything - you need a party, preferably well-rounded.And "next time" would come much sooner - I'd bring back a lot of the lethality lost over the previous editions.  To counter, char-gen would be quick and simple (and rolled!) such that you could be back up and running within 15 minutes (well, maybe 20 at high level).  Put another way, luck would return as a significant factor in both a character's generation and its career.Minute-to-minute or encounter-to-encounter or even session-to-session balance would be downplayed in favour of focusing on adventure-to-adventure or even cross-campaign balance.  Yes this'd mean there would be adventures where one particular class or another might not be much use, and advice on how to deal with this would be included in the DMG.  Suggestion to players would be to have more than one character on the go, and to cycle them in and out when desired and-or required.Casters and Monty Haulers reined in somewhat: magic - including enchanted items - would now have some risks attached if not used carefully.Overarching design philosophy: no benefit without a corresponding penalty.Overarching design philosophy: design for the long haul.  Make the system able to handle ten or twenty years of play in the same campaign.  level-up happens rarely as a side effect of play, rather than being the reason for play.  It's far easier for an individual DM to shorten all this up should she so desire (and the DMG could give advice on this) than it is to stretch out a system designed for short campaigns.Overarching play philosophy: the game and the overall campaign are bigger than any individual character or player.Overarching philosophy in general: metagaming is eliminated where it can be and minimized where it can't.It'd be a DM-centered system, and the DM would have charge of as many of the mechanics as she could handle.  The players would then be free to think like their characters and forget about the mechanics.  As most characters would be simple to play, the concept of playing more than one at a time for small groups becomes more viable.  Henches and hirelings become not just viable but necessary.And, above all, while called rules everything would in fact be guidelines, and stated as such; with each DM encouraged to tailor the system to suit herself and-or her table.As for what books to print:For DMs: DMG and probably a few MMs (all the monsters won't fit in one book any more), and adventure modulesFor players: PH, Deities and Faiths (for all playable races), Gear Guide (as per DMMike), Survival Guide, accessoriesFor both: a new-from-scratch setting, generic enough to handle as many modes of play as reasonably possible but still with some quirks and character of its ownBuying a book gives a one-use code to access an individually watermarked editable .pdf of the same book (and to prevent someone just reading the code in the store, the code is on some sort of included media e.g. a sealed-in-a-sleeve CD that can't easily be poached); before you get your .pdf you have to tell the publishers who you are, and you then become legally responsible for the particular .pdf that you get in terms of ensuring it doesn't get copied or uploaded.  Errata, amendments, and additions would be released as separate .pdfs once a year, with the code from any purchased book giving access; it would also include instructions on how-where to edit your original book .pdf(s) to put these new things in.Yes you have to buy the book to be able to access the .pdf, that's intentional.Lan-"I'll get off the soapbox now, it's seen enough of my feet for the moment"-efan</blockquote>

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