WotC James Wyatt is on the Dungeons & Dragons Team Again

[UngeheuerLich]

I would love to see 6e.

It is not something to fear if you do it at your peak. Other companies do it. Magic does it. Imagine mobile phone companies just said: ok, our customers are used to their phone. It has some flaws, but we should really not improve it, so everyone can use their old phone forever.

RPGs are constantly evolving. It is dangerous to not do some kind of overhaul as is doing it too fast.

5e has been very stable for years. Tasha is experimental in some ways. Such books often were test drives for concelts of the new edition. I would really ne surprised if 23 does not give us 6e.

 

[TwoSix]

Wyatt may have had good ideas for a "here's the basics" type campaign, but I hated his story ideas for 4e where a lot of things that made D&D it's unique complicated self story-wise, got thrown out in favour of points of light.

And yet for everyone who didn't like them, there's another (like myself) who thought those ideas were great.

I have a strong dislike of comic-book style continuity and canon, and would love to see D&D periodically reinvent itself into something not dependent on lore found in decades-old supplements and magazine articles.

 

[TwoSix]

Another to be fair about the 4e lore and cosmology... If it had just been presented as its own (even if the default) setting, like Eberron, rather than having it hamfistedly (in some cases) retrofitted into other settings and rewriting a bunch of default monster lore then I would have been much more amenable to it. If 4e had at least presented the Great Wheel cosmology as an option in the DMG and kept it for the Forgotten Realms (and implicitly to the other older settings that didn't get published) and did not blow up the settings just to cram in new lore, it probably would have rubbed some people the wrong way much less.

I'd agree with that. 4e's core presentation problem (and I'm saying this as a 4e fan) was that it took some of its core ideas and got a little too aggressive in pushing them everywhere, which was what caused the feelings of excessive homogenization.

I feel like that's probably not what James Wyatt is working on, though. More Magic-D&D synergy is much more likely, maybe even a full on card game/setting dual release.

 

[Scribe]

I've long said the 4e fluff books are some of the best D&D books. I feel like a lot of people focus on the mechanics of 4e, and that's fair. But, if that's all the every focus on, the miss out on some truly superb story elements.

I have very little love for 4e after what they did to Tieflings.

Any recommendations on which books I should check out?

 

[darjr]

I’ve got a grognards love for the wheel. I did also love 4es cosmology. Especially the Astral Sea.

 

[darjr]

Oh and how could I forget the Ethereal.

“The Ethereal Plane is a misty, fog-bound dimension”

huh? Sounds familiar.

 

[Sonny]

I’ve got a grognards love for the wheel. I did also love 4es cosmology. Especially the Astral Sea.

I'm glad some of the ideas in the 4e Cosmology made it to 5e. Sounds like it had some effect on 5e Ravenloft was well.

From what I can recall, the 4e Domains of Dread were all separate lands found in The Mists (as opposed to one large landmass), as the new 5e Ravenloft presents them. Though my memory is definitely off today...

 

[Parmandur]

Yea, they were made a top tier devision of WoTC. And are making more books or releases. Box sets too. And apparently licensed games. A position they only dreamed about pre-4e.

seems like a bad time to drop a new version.

Hold up a minute...box sets??

 

[darjr]

Hold up a minute...box sets??

It was in the call. Wasn’t it?

 

[Parmandur]

It was in the call. Wasn’t it?

I didn't listen to the whole thing, so I'll believe you.

That's exciting, love a good box set. Anecdotally, my local Target moves both the Starter Set and Essentials Kit like crazy.