D&D 5E Live tweets from gencon 5e Seminar

[howandwhy99]

Greyhawk actually received a lot of product support during the second edition of AD&D. More actual support than during first edition believe it or not. Third edition had at-least four Greyhawk products. The only edition that no paper supplement or hardcover book was produced for Greyhawk was the fourth edition.

You're right, 2nd edition had quite a few early on in the Greyhawk Wars era, but so much of unattributed 1e material was from Gygax's Greyhawk it's hard to get a handle on what was and what wasn't.

With the few publications since the late 90s I don't believe most teenage or 20-something D&D players have had much contact less actual play in the Greyhawk setting. That's not to say I wouldn't love to have the setting back in publication, but I don't care for much of how settings are treated recently either.

 

[WizarDru]

You're right, 2nd edition had quite a few early on in the Greyhawk Wars era, but so much of unattributed 1e material was from Gygax's Greyhawk it's hard to get a handle on what was and what wasn't. n, but I don't care for much of how settings are treated recently either.

Yeah, especially when you consider most material in The Dragon and all the printed modules were Greyhawk by default. Until FR arrived, it was just assumed all AD&D material was in Greyhawk on some level (excluding basic d&d,natch).

3E had a great deal of support for Greyhawk, like all of Erik Mona's work for the Living Greyhawk Journal and Return to Temple of Elemental Evil. I'm rather hoping 5e features a return of the setting to a more visible location.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

The PLANES have been a big thing post Planescape, but the tone, feel, and such of Planescape isn't. Planescape wasn't about travelling to Hell to slay devils; it was about a group of berks who heard the chant that a rare flower which only grew in Baator was being sought for the first marriage of a Ultraloth and a Succubus, but removing that flower might revive a long forgotten power who will bring pain and misery to the planes and need to stop the loths, the mad proxy of the forgotten power, and a group of Sensates who wish to smell this rare flower's fragrance, from ever getting there.

THAT is Planescape; everything else is just Manual of the Planes.

I'm not disagreeing; everything you say is absolutely true. That said, the fact that they're taking care to make the "Manual of the Planes" cosmology mirror Planescape's (with the addition of the Feywild & Shadowfell) along with the referencing of "the five most popular settings" just makes me think Planescape is an extremely likely setting to make it into 5th edition.

Now, that doesn't mean it'll be any good; they might smack the Planescape logos on books about travelling to the Nine Hells to slay devils and neglect to provide a fleshed out world with which to tell amazing stories like the adventure seed you just gave us. That'd be really unfortunate. But it wouldn't really ruin 5E for me; I can just convert over the 2E material and ignore 5E's take on it, the same way most folks did with the Spellplague's effects on the Realms.

 

[frankthedm]

Am I the only person who feels mass combat deserves MUCH more than to be a downtime issue?

Q: Mass combat, castle construction and things like that - you working on those for D&D Next?

Mike: We are working on those, and we'd like to hang that all in what we're calling our downtime system. So when you're not out adventuring, you're using your downtime to do that. And we want to develop modular options for those things do you can build your keep or temple, raise your armies etc., if you want to plug those options into your campaign.

 

[iwarrior-poet]

Agree. Mass combat should be integrated at the foundation. Every other addition's ad hoc attempt has been clunky and cumbersome.

 

[Stalker0]

Agree. Mass combat should be integrated at the foundation.

I disagree. Mass Combat is a not the core environment that dnd caters too, its small team skirmish combat.

I have no issue with mass combat rules, but they should absolutely be a suppliment, not a core foundation.

 

[gyor]

Mike Mearls has new tweets on a whole host of subjects. The Warlord Subclass for the fighter will have healing, subclasses can use a different power source then the main class such as an Ardent subclass which would be Psionic vs. Bard which is Arcane, and Psionic subclasses will all draw from a pool of abilities

Warlocks will likely have a mix of Spells and incantations.

Scribe scroll and Brew Potion maybe rethought depending on how the other traditions turn out.

DMG might be a series of articles and include options for more universal changes to normal spellcasting.

Tactical Rules will be tested by tactical players.

And this is cool, the Warden Subclass will have Guardian forms and Abilities to protect others.

Next Packet will be the biggest yet.

Familiars are being revised which is why they are not in the August Packet.

 

[heptat]

I disagree. Mass Combat is a not the core environment that dnd caters too, its small team skirmish combat.

I sort of think that small team skirmish combat *is* mass combat. In other words, a small team is bigger than a group of adventurers.

I always wonder, if the local lord is having a problem with an incursion of orcs, and over there is the cave system they are coming from, why does he hire a small group of misfits that he knows nothing about to stop them, as opposed to sending in a small army (or at least a decent number of troops)?

I'd want to play the game where your characters are the leaders of these troops, battling against evil warlocks and their minions etc. But that game is just not D&D.

I have no issue with mass combat rules, but they should absolutely be a suppliment, not a core foundation.

I agree – despite what I described above, that's not what D&D is. Mass combat rules would be great, but definitely no need in the core rules.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Mike Mearls has new tweets on a whole host of subjects. The Warlord Subclass for the fighter will have healing, subclasses can use a different power source then the main class such as an Ardent subclass which would be Psionic vs. Bard which is Arcane, and Psionic subclasses will all draw from a pool of abilities

Warlocks will likely have a mix of Spells and incantations.

Scribe scroll and Brew Potion maybe rethought depending on how the other traditions turn out.

DMG might be a series of articles and include options for more universal changes to normal spellcasting.

Tactical Rules will be tested by tactical players.

And this is cool, the Warden Subclass will have Guardian forms and Abilities to protect others.

Next Packet will be the biggest yet.

Familiars are being revised which is why they are not in the August Packet.

Some of these are things I guessed already. And I'm glad I got the theory that sublcasses can have a different power source from the main class right. It means there could be something like an Arcane using Hexblade subclass of the otherwise Divine Paladin.

 

[gyor]

In 4e the Blackguard used a mix of Shadow and Divine Magic.