Mearls announces end of Legends & Lore & New D&D Columns in 2015!

WotC's Mike Mearls has announced the end of the long-running Legends & Lore column, which was used during D&D Next playtesting to showcase ideas and concepts, and the start of the previously announced series of articles called Unearthed Arcana, "a monthly look at the art of tabletop RPG game design featuring insights into our philosophy, and examples of new and variant material to use at your table."

Additionally, series called Campaign Notebooks and Sage Advice will be launched. Sage Advice follows the old format of years past, and will be manned by Jeremy Crawford as he answers your rules questions. Campaign Notebooks will feature Chris Perkins and others -- "insights into D&D and tips for your games taken directly from the campaigns of Dungeon Masters here at Wizards."

 

[painted_klown]

Hey all, a bit of a stupid question here...

As this column will be titled Unearthed Arcana, do you think WOTC has any plans to take all of these articles and compile them into a 4th rulebook of the same name, similar to 1E Unearthed Arcana?

While I like the idea of new content coming out on a monthly basis, it may be difficult to have a way to keep all of this content "at the ready", especially when going to a friends house to play or whatever. A hardcover book with all of these articles would be a nice addition IMO.

 

[aramis erak]

Hey all, a bit of a stupid question here...

As this column will be titled Unearthed Arcana, do you think WOTC has any plans to take all of these articles and compile them into a 4th rulebook of the same name, similar to 1E Unearthed Arcana?

While I like the idea of new content coming out on a monthly basis, it may be difficult to have a way to keep all of this content "at the ready", especially when going to a friends house to play or whatever. A hardcover book with all of these articles would be a nice addition IMO.

I suspect so, but would not count on it for at least a year, maybe 2.

 

[Joe Liker]

The books aren't even out yet. The DMG releases officially tomorrow (Tuesday 9th). I don't think they're in the habit of announcing errata before they release the book!

The Player's Handbook has been out for months, and there are numerous errors that have been widely known for months.

The production schedule for HotDQ caused numerous errors in that adventure, due to the incomplete system the writers were working with. These errors can have severe consequences for a campaign, including unavoidable TPKs if played as written.

The time to announce an errata page was when people found a significant number of errors, which was August for the PH. In the case of HotDQ, they were aware of some of the problems before the official release, so an errata document should have been included with the online supplement.

 

[Morrus]

These errors can have severe consequences for a campaign, including unavoidable TPKs if played as written.

Severe? Unavoidable? We're just talking about a D&D game, dude!

 

[Scorpio616]

We've been waiting for 5e for two and a half years.

I'd say about 6 years.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Sad to see Legends & Lore go as i liked this column, but i'm happy to see Unarthed Arcana, Sage Advice and the Campaign Notebooks columns to discuss rules or concepts and introduce new ones. Looking forward to it...

 

[JamesonCourage]

Severe? Unavoidable? We're just talking about a D&D game, dude!

Heaven forbid people use strong language (but not even offensive language) about hobbies they're passionate about! What terrible people they must be!

We get it, Morrus. You don't have a problem with it, and are fairly dismissive of people who do. I have no horse in this race; I don't run or play 5e, and have never done so in any playtest / after release, and have no plans to do so. But you've been sort of needlessly dismissive of people voicing their negative reactions on a discussion forum. They're not cursing, they're not yelling, they're not insulting people. They're expressing disappointment or skepticism.

Tone it down a notch, maybe. We're just on a forum board for D&D, dude.

 

[TheSwartz]

Hmm.. where are these legends and lore articles posted? And where will these new articles be? I haven't seen them....

 

[SigmaOne]

Heaven forbid people use strong language (but not even offensive language) about hobbies they're passionate about! What terrible people they must be!

We get it, Morrus. You don't have a problem with it, and are fairly dismissive of people who do. I have no horse in this race; I don't run or play 5e, and have never done so in any playtest / after release, and have no plans to do so. But you've been sort of needlessly dismissive of people voicing their negative reactions on a discussion forum. They're not cursing, they're not yelling, they're not insulting people. They're expressing disappointment or skepticism.

Tone it down a notch, maybe. We're just on a forum board for D&D, dude.

LOL, he was just being as argumentative as everyone else in these damned forums. Why should he tone it down when nobody else does? It's not like he was threatening to use his mod/admin/owner powers.

 

[JamesonCourage]

LOL, he was just being as argumentative as everyone else in these damned forums.

If that's the case (which I actually don't think it is), then his statement would be a tad hypocritical.

Why should he tone it down when nobody else does?

The people he's responding to are expressing their opinion. He seems to be saying "change your opinion" or "you're overreacting since it's just a game."

It's not "well, I disagree, and here's my opinion." That would actually be productive to conversation. Saying "change your opinion" isn't really productive. Potentially purposefully misinterpreting people's views by taking them literally, or telling them "you're overreacting" isn't really productive.

So that's why I replied to him.

It's not like he was threatening to use his mod/admin/owner powers.

Which is good, because he really shouldn't here, in my opinion. The people he was replying to weren't insulting or breaking board rules (that I know of). I'm not accusing Morrus of abuse of power. If I felt that he was abusive, I wouldn't have felt like I could reply to his post.