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Legends & Lore - A Retrospective
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<blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 6521758" data-attributes="member: 6680772"><p>A while back I floated the idea of looking at Mearls' L&L articles from before the announcement of 5e, and comparing them with how the final game turned out, once all of the core three were released.</p><p></p><p>Now all three books are out and we have had a bit of time to digest them, so I thought I would go ahead! I don't have the best of records with these kinds of things (still have three threads in Limbo!), so I'm going to try doing two at a time, and aim to get through all 45 articles in a month or so.</p><p></p><p>So off we go!</p><p></p><p>Legends & Lore #1 - <a href="http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20110208" target="_blank"><strong>An Introduction</strong></a></p><p>February 15, 2011</p><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?301348-Legends-amp-Lore-Mike-Mearls-new-column&highlight=Legends+Lore" target="_blank">Original EN World thread</a></p><p></p><p>As the title suggests, in this article Mearls lays out why he's doing the column and what he hopes to accomplish. Essentials had just come out the previous September, so at this point there wasn't much thought of L&L being insight into a new edition, as the EN World thread shows. More like explorations of where 4e design was going to go post-Essentials. We know now, however, that at this time they were at least exploring where they wanted to go with 5e, with R&D soon (if not already) playing through all the editions of D&D.</p><p></p><p>What we do see here is the beginnings of 5e as a "unifying" version of D&D. The article opens with a lament over edition-warring, and an appeal to realize whatever one's own preference of edition, we're all in this together as fans of D&D.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The thrust of the article is that in order overcome these differences in the future, we need to look at the past, to see the road that brought us to the (then) current situation.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Then comes what is, in retrospect, the mission statement of 5e:</p><p></p><p></p><p>We can see here the movement towards less emphasis on tight, focused design and mechanics in favor of looser design that appeals to a wide swath of playstyles. Mearls would continue hitting this point all through playtest.</p><p> </p><p><strong>How did things end up in 5e?</strong></p><p>Well, how unifying 5e ended up being is something of a debate. The movement towards looser design doesn’t really appeal to those who like tight, focused design. On the other hand, it does seem to appeal to a wide variety of groups and playstyles. At the least, we can say that 5e has been the least <em>divisive</em> of all WotC editions to-date.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iosue, post: 6521758, member: 6680772"] A while back I floated the idea of looking at Mearls' L&L articles from before the announcement of 5e, and comparing them with how the final game turned out, once all of the core three were released. Now all three books are out and we have had a bit of time to digest them, so I thought I would go ahead! I don't have the best of records with these kinds of things (still have three threads in Limbo!), so I'm going to try doing two at a time, and aim to get through all 45 articles in a month or so. So off we go! Legends & Lore #1 - [URL="http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20110208"][B]An Introduction[/B][/URL] February 15, 2011 [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?301348-Legends-amp-Lore-Mike-Mearls-new-column&highlight=Legends+Lore"]Original EN World thread[/URL] As the title suggests, in this article Mearls lays out why he's doing the column and what he hopes to accomplish. Essentials had just come out the previous September, so at this point there wasn't much thought of L&L being insight into a new edition, as the EN World thread shows. More like explorations of where 4e design was going to go post-Essentials. We know now, however, that at this time they were at least exploring where they wanted to go with 5e, with R&D soon (if not already) playing through all the editions of D&D. What we do see here is the beginnings of 5e as a "unifying" version of D&D. The article opens with a lament over edition-warring, and an appeal to realize whatever one's own preference of edition, we're all in this together as fans of D&D. The thrust of the article is that in order overcome these differences in the future, we need to look at the past, to see the road that brought us to the (then) current situation. Then comes what is, in retrospect, the mission statement of 5e: We can see here the movement towards less emphasis on tight, focused design and mechanics in favor of looser design that appeals to a wide swath of playstyles. Mearls would continue hitting this point all through playtest. [B]How did things end up in 5e?[/B] Well, how unifying 5e ended up being is something of a debate. The movement towards looser design doesn’t really appeal to those who like tight, focused design. On the other hand, it does seem to appeal to a wide variety of groups and playstyles. At the least, we can say that 5e has been the least [I]divisive[/I] of all WotC editions to-date. [/QUOTE]
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