Christopher Hawkins
First Post
We all know the score. Whatever your personal preference is, the core demographic of D&D fractured into separate user bases with the release of 4th edition.
WotC have realized that their sales are dropping. Over the last two quarters, Pathfinder has outsold D&D, taking the dominant share of the RPG market. WotC’s reaction is logical; Re-examine their strategy and their product, and do whatever they can to bring their former customers back into the fold.
They’ve stated that their core design goal is
Ok, sounds simple enough. A game that is quintessentially D&D (heroic fantasy adventure), and learns from the lessons of the previous editions.
But they want to go one step further…
Now this is interesting. A core set of rules, with a modular system that allows customization for different themes, games and play styles.
If you talked to me about this concept a few years ago, I would have told you that you where crazy to try. Now, however, given that I’ve played around a lot with the Savage Worlds engine, I think it’s a brilliant idea.
Games where you can alter the tone or the gameplay to suit he style of your story are fantastic. Politics? There’s a module for that. Managing a town or city? There’s a module for that. More options for GM’s means a wider variety of users will take up the game, and that the games that you can run with them will be more solid, flavorful, and thematically varied.
So, the next question will all these different possible options is ‘What can D&D learn from other game systems?’.
Different games do different things very well.
Savage Worlds
A pet favorite of mine. Savage worlds gives you a high degree of customization, along with a sturdy core rule set. The main lesson here is that the core book doesn’t have to do everything. People have created different plugins (gritty damage, sanity, cybernetics, superpowers, etc) as they where needed, attaching them to various products that they where selling.
Rogue Trader
Set in the 40k Universe, and staring crews of characters operating ships with populations of large cities, rogue trader did resource management very well. If Wizards wants to make a module to allow games that deal with towns, cities, kingdoms or nations (and/or enable play without counting gold pieces) this would be a great place to look.
What other game systems do you think the next edition of D&D could learn from?
What kinds of modules or plugins would you like to see?
- Some chose to stay with 3e/3.5
- Some made the easy migration to Pathfinder.
- Some found that they loved 4e, and dove into it with gusto.
- Some (like me) went on to explore different RPG’s, such as Savage Worlds, Rogue Trader, or various retroclones.
WotC have realized that their sales are dropping. Over the last two quarters, Pathfinder has outsold D&D, taking the dominant share of the RPG market. WotC’s reaction is logical; Re-examine their strategy and their product, and do whatever they can to bring their former customers back into the fold.
They’ve stated that their core design goal is
- Mike Mearls."...to create a rule set that enables players of all types and styles to play a D&D game together by taking the best of each edition and getting at the soul of what D&D is."
Ok, sounds simple enough. A game that is quintessentially D&D (heroic fantasy adventure), and learns from the lessons of the previous editions.
But they want to go one step further…
- Mike Mearls."The new edition is being conceived of as a modular, flexible system, easily customized to individual preferences. Just like a player makes his character, the Dungeon Master can make his ruleset. He might say ‘I’m going to run a military campaign, it’s going to be a lot of fighting’… so he’d use the combat chapter, drop in miniatures rules, and include the martial arts optional rules.”
Now this is interesting. A core set of rules, with a modular system that allows customization for different themes, games and play styles.
If you talked to me about this concept a few years ago, I would have told you that you where crazy to try. Now, however, given that I’ve played around a lot with the Savage Worlds engine, I think it’s a brilliant idea.
Games where you can alter the tone or the gameplay to suit he style of your story are fantastic. Politics? There’s a module for that. Managing a town or city? There’s a module for that. More options for GM’s means a wider variety of users will take up the game, and that the games that you can run with them will be more solid, flavorful, and thematically varied.
So, the next question will all these different possible options is ‘What can D&D learn from other game systems?’.
Different games do different things very well.
Savage Worlds
A pet favorite of mine. Savage worlds gives you a high degree of customization, along with a sturdy core rule set. The main lesson here is that the core book doesn’t have to do everything. People have created different plugins (gritty damage, sanity, cybernetics, superpowers, etc) as they where needed, attaching them to various products that they where selling.
Rogue Trader
Set in the 40k Universe, and staring crews of characters operating ships with populations of large cities, rogue trader did resource management very well. If Wizards wants to make a module to allow games that deal with towns, cities, kingdoms or nations (and/or enable play without counting gold pieces) this would be a great place to look.
What other game systems do you think the next edition of D&D could learn from?
What kinds of modules or plugins would you like to see?