Legens&Lore: Monte Cook takes over

[RainOfSteel]

It might be that it is tough to do when so much of the business model relies on book after book of rules upon rules and newer and newer system unbalancing character options and additional classes.

Extra options are always nice, however it seems that so much splat turns out to be ill-considered and barely playtested that it is useless from a DM's perspective, while players sit and clamor to use it. Splat needs as much, or more, playtesting and pruning than the main rules.

Worse, splat rarely fits into homebrew settings, unless they're of the Kitchen Sink variety.

[...] into a blender, then refine what comes out.

What a smoothie that would make.

Sounds like every single group is playing by different rules then and you have to negotiate rules before starting even to build a character.

It is a feature! Like any used car negotiation, with people pulling out their hair, lying, yelling, screaming, intimidating, and stalking off only to return later, Rules Negotiations will be the new highlight of any pre-game sessions.

With multiclassing, it looked similar, but with the restrictions gutted, and so many classes having great stuff in the first few levels, a system that was originally about a character changing careers once or maybe twice in his lifetime was changed to something where you could have a new class each level.

That was a class design flaw. When loading all the primary abilities into the first (or maybe second) level, you get players who skip through one or two levels in many classes. By putting all the best abilities in higher levels, anyone who did this should wind up with multi-talented weaklings. Also, picking up the second class should have had no penalty, the third a small penalty (5%), and then an ever-increasing curve of penalties (four, five, and six classes... that is just absurd; 10%, 25%, 50%). People who think you can be a Warrior, Wizard, Cleric, Druid, Rogue, and Ranger all at once without having to sacrifice something, somewhere, always make me scratch my head.

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For 5E, going back to 3.x, 2.x, or 1.x would be a mistake at this point. They need to go forward, whatever the risk.

4E was designed to take MMO gamer's needs into account in order to expand the market.

5E will need to keep them, and somehow attract the 3.x crowd. I don't know exactly what that will look like. Maybe Monte Cook is the one who could do it.

If we find out that Ryan Dancey has also been brought back, then we can expect the floor to drop out from under everything. (30' spiked pit trap! Look out!)

 

[SSquirrel]

I've seen several people not only here but on many other forums claim that Monte Cook said "Yuck" or in some other way showed that he disliked the 4e rules.

Maybe this could be the first place to actually link or provide proof to what otherwise seems little more then a nasty rumor?

The only thing I could find on Monte's blog in all of 2008 was this post:


The Chapel Perilous - June 22nd, 2008

"I'm certainly not trying to be pro-4E or anti-4E here (I don't even have the books, although I have played one game)."


That's the relevant bit anyway. There is one thread in the 4E forum about Monte and publishing 4E related material, but he only showed up for a single post saying that it just wasn't feasible w/the GSL for him to do so. I can't find anything approaching even the usually attributed "Yuck"

 

[czak]

The Chapel Perilous - Back to the Laboratory

• Sep. 25th, 2011 at 5:51 PM

Back to the Laboratory

A short while ago, I started working for Wizards of the Coast again, on D&D. I am currently working with talented members of the R&D staff, exploring various options and experimenting with the game. Which is to say, doing what I really love. At this point, you can think of me as a mad scientist in a rpg design laboratory, concocting crazy creations to see if any of them have any value.

I'm really not at all concerned with edition wars or arguments of that nature. Please don't try to drag me into those discussions. D&D is bigger than any of that, and my job is a lot more open ended and broad minded than such things. While I'm at it, let me also add, please don't make assumptions about what I'm doing based on things I've done in the past. The future is not yet written.

Speaking of writing (and the future), I'll be writing the Legends & Lore column at the Wizards' web site starting this week and going forward. I'll be using that as a venue to give you updates on my thoughts on these topics, new (and old) ideas, and experiments.

 

[nedjer]

The only thing I could find on Monte's blog in all of 2008 was this post:


The Chapel Perilous - June 22nd, 2008

"I'm certainly not trying to be pro-4E or anti-4E here (I don't even have the books, although I have played one game)."


That's the relevant bit anyway. There is one thread in the 4E forum about Monte and publishing 4E related material, but he only showed up for a single post saying that it just wasn't feasible w/the GSL for him to do so. I can't find anything approaching even the usually attributed "Yuck"

. . . a vague, unsubstantiated rumour about a supposed initial reaction to something just out of a box is suddenly transformed into bleeding edge news fresh from Reuters . . .

. . . and let's imagine it were true - the basis for an inflammatory headline would be something along the lines of 'dude has a bit of a re-think'.

 

[Mistwell]

From Monte Cook's FB page:

Monte Cook:
Since a lot of people seem to be enjoying speculating on my current job, I'll throw this out there. I was very comfortable before the WotC offer came along (you'll see the fruits of some of those labors soon enough). WotC's very attractive, generous, and downright fun offer was enough to get my attention, but if someone there wanted me to do something I didn't want to do, or that I feel is wrong for the game (or for gamers), I walk away. It's that easy.

Obviously, I don't think that's going to happen, or I wouldn't have bothered in the first place. I'm working with good people who love the game.

 

[SSquirrel]

Yeah I'd mentioned in one of his comment threads that he was the subject of a few threads over here and that someone had blamed him for 4E heh. Yeah hopefully Monte's post today will calm things a bit, but I doubt it

 

[TheClone]

From yesterday's Rule of Three (Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Rule-of-Three: 09/26/2011)):

Besides writing the L&L column, what endeavors will Monte Cook be involved in? Is he full time staff or a consultant?

Monte occupies a role very similar to Rob Schwalb, in that he is a staff designer who works remotely. The commute from Milwaukee to Seattle is a bit tough to handle on a daily basis. We’re conferencing with him several times a week via phone and Google Plus, and he’s visiting the Wizards offices frequently. I’m afraid I can’t go into much detail about the specific projects Monte is working on for us, simply because the products are still a ways out. That said: Monte is working on D&D, he’s doing design work as well as consulting, and we’re delighted to have him on board.

With Monte Cook back is there any chance we could see a Dungeon adventure or Dragon article set in Sigil?

Monte isn’t working on Dragon or Dungeon online Planescape content at the moment. We don’t have any immediate plans for any articles focused on Sigil. However, there’s no reason we wouldn’t entertain a Sigil adventure or backdrop that came to us through our submission process. We’re Planescape fans too!

 

[TheClone]

And here's his first Legens & Lore column.