D&D 5E My D&D Next Experience at DDXP

[soulcatcher78]

Groups formed specifically to play 5E will have to sit down and hash out the rules modules that they are comfortable with. Joining after the fact will mean accepting what is already set in stone at the table. The more things change, the more they stay the same (at least in that respect).

 

[Rhenny]

Soulcatcher, your comment had me laughing. I just realized, WoTC is doing what the music industry and the film industry have done since the proliferation online/downloadable content (and to some extent piracy). When those industries realized they could not beat online/downloads, they embraced them and built their own distribution networks, or used ITunes to sell their products to people who wanted them.

Since so many D&D games already use house rules, and so many other games are derivative of D&D or based on older forms of D&D (Pathfinder most notably), WoTC realizes they can't stop that so now with D&DNext they will embrace house rules and derivative systems so that they can offer the product and the distribution network for all fantasy roleplaying experiences.

If they can pull it off, it will be a revolution in the RPG market.

(I hope this makes sense. As I wrote it, I found it harder and harder to convey what I really thought...lol)

 

[SlyDoubt]

I play Pathfinder and no ship has sailed. The reason people like paizo and pathfinder is because of how the company handles things. They've developed a lot of respect in the community and being a much smaller company are able to do some stuff that wotc can't easily do.

I like D&D first and foremost. I was skeptical of pathfinder but I had heard good things and was looking for some way to rekindle some RPG interest in my players who really did not feel 4E was "D&D enough". Pathfinder does basically everything I want in that style system, but I am excited about 5E. I plan to buy it and support it, just like I did 4E because the next release that comes out could be something I really love.

I don't mean to just be blind and buy everything, but I believe in supporting D&D because I like D&D. I have faith that some clever designers, writers and artists will put together something that'll make me excited again. If people like me abandon D&D just because it isn't exactly what we're comfortable with, we don't leave much room for something even better to be created. At least not as D&D.

So I really don't like that perspective that us PFRPG players are somehow set on PF and don't care about 5E. I think most PF players want 5E to reignite their love of the D&D brand.

 

[Rechan]

Soulcatcher, your comment had me laughing. I just realized, WoTC is doing what the music industry and the film industry have done since the proliferation online/downloadable content (and to some extent piracy). When those industries realized they could not beat online/downloads, they embraced them and built their own distribution networks, or used ITunes to sell their products to people who wanted them.

Some did. Others are trying to destroy the internet.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Groups formed specifically to play 5E will have to sit down and hash out the rules modules that they are comfortable with. Joining after the fact will mean accepting what is already set in stone at the table. The more things change, the more they stay the same (at least in that respect).

Which is a good thing IMO. Hashing out and getting these things sorted BEFORE the game starts will both give it a more inclusive feel and iron out many (never all) misconceptions about rules/style/etc.

 

[ppaladin123]

Oh I figure the tactical combat module will cover a lot of the stuff 3e/4e gamers like: minis and battle-maps, opportunity attacks, Bo9S-style encounter abilities to swap out passive features for, etc. I can't imagine there will be 5-10 separate modules for this sort of stuff.

Healing guess: work day, huh? I am guessing you get access to healing reserves according to the number of battles you've been through...like action points in 4e.

 

[gyor]

Soulcatcher, your comment had me laughing. I just realized, WoTC is doing what the music industry and the film industry have done since the proliferation online/downloadable content (and to some extent piracy). When those industries realized they could not beat online/downloads, they embraced them and built their own distribution networks, or used ITunes to sell their products to people who wanted them.

Since so many D&D games already use house rules, and so many other games are derivative of D&D or based on older forms of D&D (Pathfinder most notably), WoTC realizes they can't stop that so now with D&DNext they will embrace house rules and derivative systems so that they can offer the product and the distribution network for all fantasy roleplaying experiences.

If they can pull it off, it will be a revolution in the RPG market.

(I hope this makes sense. As I wrote it, I found it harder and harder to convey what I really thought...lol)

Makes perfect sense, if fact some future modual books may be edition neutral, which I believe Menzbarrenzan will be, so you can add say Menzbarrenzans fluff and mechanics to DDN, 4e, the rerelease of 1e or even pathfinder.

They want to recapture as much of the market with 5e as they can, but they know that it will be a partial victory at best, so moduals that work between multiple editions will mean that those people that reject ddn will still have products they can buy.

 

[Herschel]

I'm not so sure they are. With the multiple rounds of layoffs, and quick turnaround on edition I am not all that convinced that 4E fans are all that much of the RPG base.

When we have our convention here almost no one is playing 4e. Most are playing White Wolf, Cyberpunk, Pathfinder, or 3e. The ads for more players at the local gaming stores, and the community events for D&D have a real high 3e percentage. 3E seems to be the most popular D&D edition over here, but that might be a regional thing.

And at Gen Con, the biggest gaming convention in the world, more people were playing 4E so the anecdotal evidence of your little, area con is even trumped.

That said, WotC wants it all, and they want those 1E/2E players the most. They bought the property what, almost 20 years ago and "half" the players of their game have never spent a dime for their product. They can hope to keep the 4E non-changers subscribed to DDI and make money from them as well as re-printing older edition books but there's a large "base" of D&D players they've never tapped in to.

 

[Charleois]

And at Gen Con, the biggest gaming convention in the world, more people were playing 4E.

Music to my ears!

 

[Oni]

Worse yet, I have a feeling that a modular game is going to cause MORE gaps in the community, rather than less. With the groups splitting into 50 groups based on their own personal group of modules they like instead of the 4 or 5 groups that exist now based around editions.

Yet if you go back to the earlier days of the hobby all the way up through AD&D it's my general impression that each table tended to be unique. They were each playing the base game but usually ignoring or altering huge swathes of the rules in the books. But D&D seemed to get on just fine then. The question then is, why is that?