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This is what I pitched today based on some of your EN world comments and my own desires for the game.
Hello, this is Ren1999 formerly of Seattle -- now in Tokyo.
This is what I'm pitching for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Next.
Overall Goals
1. Bring old D&D Video Game Gold Box goodness to the DND5 tabletop experience.
2. Weed out all duplicate martial powers, feats, spells, prayers and skills. Strengthen and scale each power as to be useful at higher levels.
3. Remove Fortitude, Reflex and Will Defenses and make all attacks and saves either a 1d20+ or 10+ the relevant ability modifier.
4. Use the 4 basic races of Dwarf, Halfling, Human and Elf to teach the core mechanics of the game but develope character themes so that a player is free to design any character of any monsterous or non-monsterous race as long as the party and Game Master agrees to allow it.
5. Use the 4 basic classes of Fighter, Rogue, Cleric and Wizard to teach the core mechanics of the game but develope class themes so that a player is free to mix and match likely skills and powers relevant to that themed class.
6. Keep healing surges but explain it as a store of potions that the cleric equips the party with or something similar to that.
7. Start each character with enough hit points so they don't die so quickly. Constitution score + 1HD or a static number like +10 will do just fine.
8. Really develope a monster building section so that DM's can easily design challenges for the party without killing them all. I'm thinking monsters of any race should have no more than 3 points higher or lower than the party in each stat.
9. Introduce the Cat-Folk as a playable race.
10. No race or class penalties. Players hate penalties.
11. Consider limiting total class levels to 30th level.
12. Consider limiting an ability to a score of 30 with a modifier of +25. That means magic and feats would only stack to about 6.
13. Have heavy notation next to each stat. For example, AC15 (natural+10, heavy shield+2, dex mod+3)
14. Have the skill noted to the right of each relevant ability. Dex 18(+4) (Disable Device+4)
15. Consider a world map containing all the previous campaigns of D&D together. I created one using the map of Earth 20,000 years ago.
16. Note each power, feat and spell with a concise summary within the stat block so everyone doesn't have to keep looking it up. For example, Weapon Proficiency (broadsword attack+1)
17. Consider standardizing the ranges of all powers so they might easily be remembered. Limit the damage of all powers. Continue to limit burst spells during an encounter.
18. Publish a book on tabletop gaming experiences. Give new players ideas about how to make a gaming session fun.
19. Try to keep encounter combat to about 5 rounds. Some like longer combat and shorter combat. The majority of players tire after 5 rounds.
20. Don't allow monsters or characters to have anything the other doesn't have. No recharge rolls for monsters if characters don't have it. No save or die rolls unless players are also willing to risk their character's lives on 1 roll. No automatic damage or half-damage unless players enjoy having to subtract hit points without having a chance. Sometimes they die from that automatic damage. So no.
This is what I pitched today based on some of your EN world comments and my own desires for the game.
Hello, this is Ren1999 formerly of Seattle -- now in Tokyo.
This is what I'm pitching for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Next.
Overall Goals
1. Bring old D&D Video Game Gold Box goodness to the DND5 tabletop experience.
2. Weed out all duplicate martial powers, feats, spells, prayers and skills. Strengthen and scale each power as to be useful at higher levels.
3. Remove Fortitude, Reflex and Will Defenses and make all attacks and saves either a 1d20+ or 10+ the relevant ability modifier.
4. Use the 4 basic races of Dwarf, Halfling, Human and Elf to teach the core mechanics of the game but develope character themes so that a player is free to design any character of any monsterous or non-monsterous race as long as the party and Game Master agrees to allow it.
5. Use the 4 basic classes of Fighter, Rogue, Cleric and Wizard to teach the core mechanics of the game but develope class themes so that a player is free to mix and match likely skills and powers relevant to that themed class.
6. Keep healing surges but explain it as a store of potions that the cleric equips the party with or something similar to that.
7. Start each character with enough hit points so they don't die so quickly. Constitution score + 1HD or a static number like +10 will do just fine.
8. Really develope a monster building section so that DM's can easily design challenges for the party without killing them all. I'm thinking monsters of any race should have no more than 3 points higher or lower than the party in each stat.
9. Introduce the Cat-Folk as a playable race.
10. No race or class penalties. Players hate penalties.
11. Consider limiting total class levels to 30th level.
12. Consider limiting an ability to a score of 30 with a modifier of +25. That means magic and feats would only stack to about 6.
13. Have heavy notation next to each stat. For example, AC15 (natural+10, heavy shield+2, dex mod+3)
14. Have the skill noted to the right of each relevant ability. Dex 18(+4) (Disable Device+4)
15. Consider a world map containing all the previous campaigns of D&D together. I created one using the map of Earth 20,000 years ago.
16. Note each power, feat and spell with a concise summary within the stat block so everyone doesn't have to keep looking it up. For example, Weapon Proficiency (broadsword attack+1)
17. Consider standardizing the ranges of all powers so they might easily be remembered. Limit the damage of all powers. Continue to limit burst spells during an encounter.
18. Publish a book on tabletop gaming experiences. Give new players ideas about how to make a gaming session fun.
19. Try to keep encounter combat to about 5 rounds. Some like longer combat and shorter combat. The majority of players tire after 5 rounds.
20. Don't allow monsters or characters to have anything the other doesn't have. No recharge rolls for monsters if characters don't have it. No save or die rolls unless players are also willing to risk their character's lives on 1 roll. No automatic damage or half-damage unless players enjoy having to subtract hit points without having a chance. Sometimes they die from that automatic damage. So no.
