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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 4556152" data-attributes="member: 710">Things I'd do:1) Look at all editions of D&D. What did they do, how did they do it, why? What where the complaints? Who complained? What can I learn from that?2) Figure out where the market is heading to. 3) While still using the ideas of previous D&D editions, create a system that still differs enough from it so it doesn't just look like a knock off. A few goals I personally would have1) Ensure that the game stays manageable for beginners. 2) Present the rules in a way that benefits from minis, without requiring them as much. This is a tricky thing to do. I don't want to lose tactical depth in combats for the sake of mini-less combat, but I think that minis are a barrier to entry both for cost and the fact that some people just don't want to use them.3) Use the power structures established in 4E, but see how they can be modified, possibly loosened up, without breaking the game.4) Ensure that I "silo" stuff correctly. Don't make people do choices that they don't want to make. Don't force a player to choose between Craft (Basketweaving) and "Hit Enemies even Harder". Make him choose between Craft (Basketweaving) and Profession (Baker) and "Hit Enemies Harder" and "Enemies hit me less" instead.5) Add more "elitist role-player" things (I am thinking of people like those Vampire fans that don't play D&D because it's not a real role-playing game). Stuff like "conviction" should augment rules for quests and skill challenges.6) I like roles. I would keep them, but expand the concept for non-combat roles. I see (thanks to discussions on EN World) two general approaches: a) Transfer the combat roles to non-combat roles per "encounter type". This requires identifying the potential challenges and understanding what a "Striker" means in a wilderness travel challenge, in a social challenge and so on. One thing should be clear: Your combat role is not your non-combat role. A Rogue might be a Striker in combat, but he wouldn't have to be one during a wilderness travel (he might be a leader)b) Just identify "adventure" roles. Everyone might be able to contribute to combat, but not everyone has to be able to contribute in a social challenge or in a mystery challenge. You would have roles like "Face", "Sage" and "Guide", perhaps also "Techie" (if that isn't the same as a Sage _and_ we can find a good fantasy name for it <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> )I fear that a) might lead to creating a system for non-combat that looks to artificial and make non-combat scenarios too similar to combat. I am not sure this appeals to enough. b) Has the disadvantage of making certain activities not "party-"friendly, and this might make them less engaging and interesting as a whole, just again leading to the perceived focus on combat.7) Monsters. I still find the idea of monster/PC transparency compelling, but if it can't be done with making them to complicated, I wouldn't try that. I like Elites, Solos and Minions, and would try to get the problematic aspects out. Maybe ensure that Solos have more ways to stay interesting. Ensure that combat overall never gets "boring" thanks to reactive monster abilities. 8) "Lateral" advancement. Retraining can also be done without leveling, representing you focusing your training on something else. Maybe even allow learning more powers then you can use per encounter or day (similar to Wizards). Within a combat, you can still only use one level x power, even if you know three. This also makes it easier to implement something like "E6" - if you feel comfortable at level 10, don't add more XP and levels, just stop advancement and go sideways! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> 9) Definitely experiment with ways to remove to the pure "slot" concept of powers. Can we implement a "stunt"-like system without getting overcomplicated if trying to use this as a default way to activate powers? Can an approach like the Iron Heroes token system or generally a "power-up" method be made to work without breaking things? (I like the idea of casters spending actions to gather mana, for example, or martial types spending actions to maneuver themselves into a superior position. Can this work while still keeping the game simply _and_ still promoting teamplay?)</blockquote>

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