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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hatmatter" data-source="post: 7992489" data-attributes="member: 75077">This is a nice summation and I would welcome a change away from "edition thinking." Whereas I was excited about the announcement of 2nd & 3rd edition as they permitted certain inconsistencies to be smoothed out, now that D&D is approaching turning 50 in a few years, I have been concerned for a while about a certain mentality that expects a new edition every few years, as if there is a need to change editions for change's sake. I understand this desire from designers and developers, who are professional iterators, but when an edition change takes place, it sucks up so much creative energy and community attention for years that many wonderful narrative opportunities and ways to grow the imaginary environments are either lost or sidelined. The announcement of a new edition not only means having to anticipate all of the hassle and community complaints about rule-changes, but then it consigns us to talking about "when will the 6th edition of [blank] come out" for years. I mean, "when will the 5th edition of Dark Sun or Spelljammer come out" still occupies a considerable amount of time and energy in these forums. Heck, for 5th edition, we are still at "when will the psionic options" be released. I would love to see Wizards of the Coasts devote its energy for years and years of more narratives, world creation, interesting supplements, and so forth (and, gasp, new rpgs). I do not see a need for there to be a new edition every few years, or even every decade. In my opinion, as someone who has been playing D&D since 1980, Wizard's totally nailed it with 5th edition. I read the forums here at ENworld often and read how people are occasionally disgruntled with this subclass or that class or this or that. I read the posts closely and I have yet to find any of the criticisms that resonate with me. The reality is that if one is committed to an iterators mindset (i.e. the perspective of a designer or developer) there will always be a way of looking at the game where it can be improved. The beauty of D&D is that built-into the game is the attitude for the DM to make whatever changes he or she desires. If a sixth edition becomes the focus, then it is guaranteed that there will be people finding faults with it and pining for 5th edition a few years after the 6th edition's release; in the meantime, the community would have lost a number of years worth of narratives and world-development from the brilliant writers at Wizards. This is my concern with "edition thinking." I would like to see the RPG community adopt a new paradigm when thinking about and discussing its flagship game, D&D. Also, importantly, as much as I am looking forward to psionic in 5th edition, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, and so forth, which I anticipate. I would love to see Wizard's create new role-playing games. Reiterate and support a d20 Modern compatible with D&D, make new crazy role-playing games that let the designers explore their imagination.</blockquote>

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