New Content or Better Content?

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

The most important consumer is still the guy who prefers books. So the transition still hasn't really happened.

But we're getting to a point where people play WoW before ever being introduced to D&D. And now Bioware is actually making an MMO, for god's sake. Story is moving into that space on a level that most DMs I've met can't match. People who "grow up" in that space expect games to work well and problems with the game to be fixed.

Sure, that mentality will never be universal, but it will account for a larger and larger percentage of the audience over time.

For better or for worse, an increased access to "expert game designers" will push people to rely on those experts and expect things from them. That has been the pattern of history as access to convenience becomes available. By the time Puritans colonized the New World, they had gotten so used to civilized life in Europe that most of them didn't know how to start a fire or build a house. A few decades ago, if you were the kind of guy to have a computer, you could build one. Now people call up fake experts like "the Geek Squad" to deal with the fact that they forgot to plug in their monitors.

 

[Vael]

What kind of GM content would you like to see?

Personally, more adventures, especially from upper Heroic tier and higher. A DMG3 with good advice for Epic campaigns. More high level monsters, and more variety of monsters in epic tier.

Also, I kind of like Paizo's approach to subsystems. The last Legends and Lore was talking about a simple core system with addons, like a system for political intrigue and kingdom management. This reminds me of Kingmaker, which I consider kinda flawed and uninteresting, but I do love the core concept of exploring and creating a kingdom as a basis for a campaign. And I do like the way Paizo packaged it, make an adventure that uses the new kingdom management rules, and introduce the rules as needed, first a ruleset on building and managing your kingdom, then as it grows and conflicts with others, a system for armies and mass combat.

I could see myself buying a 4e "Kingmaker" box set. In it, a small booklet for PCs on kingdom management, a similar resource for DMs, and then an adventure booklet or two to give a solid starting example. Throw in some extras, maybe a deck of cards with kingdom events or something, and you've got a campaign in a box.

 

[RangerWickett]

I think most fighter-mage mixes pre-essentials kinda sucked. I don't like how multiclassing works. So to me, releasing the bladesinger is a fix. It fixes how mediocre fighter mages were previously.

 

[D'karr]

Personally, I'd like to see a finished monster builder with some reasonable form of an encounter/campaign builder.

Okay, so you'd like to see more electronic tools. Any particular content besides that, you'd like to see?

 

[Vael]

What I'm liking about the Bladesinger is that it's a good example of adding a new class with some interesting mechanics, but it also recycles and reuses previous material. There's a plethora of feats, powers and items, and I'm also in favour of giving 4e a spring cleaning, removing some of the dross and waste. So adding a cool class that doesn't add a swarm of new powers to filter through is a bonus to me.

 

[caudor]

The content I want to see if more adventures. My fondest memories of D&D are specific adventures. They are the heart of D&D...where the rubber meets the road.

 

[D'karr]

Personally, more adventures, especially from upper Heroic tier and higher. A DMG3 with good advice for Epic campaigns. More high level monsters, and more variety of monsters in epic tier.

Also, I kind of like Paizo's approach to subsystems. The last Legends and Lore was talking about a simple core system with addons, like a system for political intrigue and kingdom management. This reminds me of Kingmaker, which I consider kinda flawed and uninteresting, but I do love the core concept of exploring and creating a kingdom as a basis for a campaign. And I do like the way Paizo packaged it, make an adventure that uses the new kingdom management rules, and introduce the rules as needed, first a ruleset on building and managing your kingdom, then as it grows and conflicts with others, a system for armies and mass combat.

I could see myself buying a 4e "Kingmaker" box set. In it, a small booklet for PCs on kingdom management, a similar resource for DMs, and then an adventure booklet or two to give a solid starting example. Throw in some extras, maybe a deck of cards with kingdom events or something, and you've got a campaign in a box.

Both of those ideas are pretty interesting. I know that WotC themselves have kind of acknowledged that they need to work more on the Epic Tier.

 

[D'karr]

The content I want to see if more adventures. My fondest memories of D&D are specific adventures. They are the heart of D&D...where the rubber meets the road.

Do these have to be hardcopy or is electronic (DDI) a fine format for you?

 

[malraux]

Okay, so you'd like to see more electronic tools. Any particular content besides that, you'd like to see?

At this point, more content is fairly irrelevant to me. Lacking good electronic tools means that even as more content gets added, it's just harder to sort through to find what I want.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I would rather see content that expands the game.

For example, the introduction of firearms.

Early editions of D&D were so open that you could use them to emulate a wide number of genres and games within your own sand box.

Later editions of the game focused on D&D being... well, D&D. The ability to make a few tweaks or modifications to get a certain feel went out the window and whole swatches of rules had to be switched out or blatantly ignored.

Imagine 4e trying to pick up some of the themes of 2e with Historical Resource books. With the current class structure, I can't see that happening.

Ed used to be a prolific Dragon magazine author. His spells and magic items were things that might not be for every campaign, but they were different and charming and unique. 4e, so constrainted by its own pathos that balance is the matra, cannot cope with those funky mechanics and so, ignores them.

I'd love for Dragon on the DDI side to start doing monthly spells or monsters again. But because spells are the new normal and everyone has them, and they're all in balance, any time a class gets support its a new spell. It's not quite the same thing.

In addition to opening up the guts of the game, I'd love to see them support the game that already exists with oh, say, adventure modules in print that cover all ranges of the game.

I've love to see them expand on Epic not only in terms of content, but in what it means. They so half baked Epic as being about saving the Multiverse and deities and what not, they've completely turned their back on some of the kingdom building and other enjoyable elements that came to the fore front of 'high' level D&D in earlier editions (name lever anyone.)

I don't think WoTC can easily get themselves out of the corner that they have painted themselves into and then fortitied.