D&D 5E Mike Mearls on D&D (New Interview with James Introcaso)

[MerricB]

G'day, folks!

James Introcaso, once the host of the Round Table on the Tome Show, has started a new podcast - Tabletop Babble. His first guest is Mike Mearls, who talks about the success of this edition of D&D and what's coming up. Not much actual product talk, but some very interesting insights into the support Wizards will be providing.

The full interview is here: https://dontsplitthepodcastnetwork.com/table-top-babble/2017/1/2/001-mike-mearls

For those who don't want to listen to a 50 minute podcast, I've written a summary of the interview here: https://merricb.com/2017/01/03/mike-mearls-a-summary-of-the-interview-on-tabletop-babble/

Cheers!

 

[GreyLord]

Thanks for the summary Merric.

 

[flametitan]

I've been on the fence about psionics for a while now, but I'm really curious to see the concept art they're using to try and visualize the Mystic. It'd probably go a long way into figuring out the direction we should put our feedback towards.

The concept of Three products a year sounds like something we can mark our Calendar roughly to, essentially being confirmed as their marketing strategy moving forward.

He mentions really liking the PHB+1 rule (not new, it's wotc mandated and I've seen him mention it before), so I am curious as to how that will reflect on future products (aside from the obvious fact that they will be relatively self contained).

 

[guachi]

I continue to be disappointed in the two story lines per year approach. Though I can see the benefit to brand new players having a new shiny thing to play that, because of the slow release schedule, has a higher chance of being focused on by other players. I have yet to buy a 5e hardback adventure and probably never will.

Mearls does mention something that hadn't occurred to me, though now that he mentions it I like it. He says the PHB+1 rule in AL play is a good rule because it means a player won't feel left behind by not having every book.

Though I never felt the need to buy every book so I was surprised by the feedback from people who said they didn't like feeling they needed to buy every book.

 

[MerricB]

Though I never felt the need to buy every book so I was primed by the feedback from people who said they didn't like feeling they needed to buy every book.

The optimisation problem was a real issue in 3E. And if you get into an arms race - where designers have to make the adventures tougher to deal with the ever-increasing power of characters - it makes it very hard for a new player to join in.

 

[guachi]

I never played 3e, which is probably why. Reading the books in the gaming store didn't make me want to play that edition.

In 2e, aside from the core books, I only ever bought 5 Complete books (first four and the Bard book). The flood of product actually turned me off from buying stuff. In retrospect, there was a lot of good 2e stuff I missed. But thanks to eBay and rpgnow I've rectified my lack of purchases.

 

[Wulffolk]

I too am disappointed with adventure paths. I can't see ever buying one. I much prefer home-brewed character-driven stories. I would be fine with a 2-3 book release schedule if those books had universally useful content. I preferred the 3e approach, which gave a ton of options to players and DM's. The DM always had the option to disallow or limit new content.

 

[Demetrios1453]

The concept of Three products a year sounds like something we can mark our Calendar roughly to, essentially being confirmed as their marketing strategy moving forward.

I was hoping a bit that they would decide to up it to four a year by adding a second rulebook/campaign setting type book each year, given the success of the edition. But I do see their points in keeping it limited to three, so I'm not overly annoyed by that. I do agree that the two hardcover adventures a year is about right, as I got SKT the day it was released and my group is getting close to completing it just as, no doubt, they are about to give us info on the first 2017 release.

Speaking of that, we should probably be hearing something about that soon, I assume? Wasn't CoS revealed in early January last year?

 

[Charles Rampant]

Thanks for sharing the interview. As expected, no real clues as to future products, but it is very interesting to hear his thoughts on the PHB+1, three products a year, how they prepare classes (story vs mechanics), and how they are planning to move forward with DM aids. Also amusing to hear him talk about Overwatch - one of the reasons that I picked it up was seeing him rave about it on Twitter

 

[Blue]

Thanks for the summary [MENTION=3586]MerricB[/MENTION], lots of good info.

I'm a bit torn how they are realizing story-first. It seems that they are coming out with an adventure path and then discarding the story. I'm happy for some APs because of all of the gaming in my FLGS, but I'm not their purchasing target. But I'd love for there to be more around it then a brief flare and then it's last year's news, even if that seems to be the intent because they don't want to break up the message by having consumers split their focus.