D&D 5E What do you want out of 5E/Next?

[Stormonu]

As the title says, what are you looking to get out of 5E?

Do you want a game that lets everyone from different editioms play at the same table?

Are you looking for something that evokes an older system, but has current support?

Are you wanting something that supports a certain style of play?

Are you looking for a modernized, streamlined system?

Are you hoping for more of the "great, same old stuff" you've come to expect from D&D?


My desire
[sblock]

I'm looking for something that will let me use the 1E/2E/3E/4E and BECMI adventures I have wtih minimal conversion.

Likewise, I would like to be able to have my old players use their 1E/2E characters (or my 3.5/Pathfinder characters) in 5E without totally reworking their characters from scratch (fighter levels should map to fighter levels, wizard levels should map to wizard levels, etc.).

Furthermore, I want story/backgrounds to have mechanical advantages in the game. If I have a character who is a pirate, I want him to be able to do those things I'd associate with a pirate better than some landlubber character who comes from a background of being a former turnip farmer.

Dinally, but perhaps most important to me, I want something that's light and agile on its feet. I don't want a game bogged in sematics. Yes, I want options to make the stories, characters and foes who are unique and diverse, but I don't want the gameplay to sound like a courtroom drama of rule-swapping. I want to be rolling along with the story, the rules quietly sitting in the back room keeping things orderly, but not showing their face or bringing things to an utter, crashing stop.

[/sblock]

 

[Steely_Dan]

As the title says, what are you looking to get out of 5E?

Do you want a game that lets everyone from different editioms play at the same table?

Are you looking for a modernized, streamlined system?

Likewise, I would like to be able to have my old players use their 1E/2E characters (or my 3.5/Pathfinder characters) in 5E without totally reworking their characters from scratch (fighter levels should map to fighter levels, wizard levels should map to wizard levels, etc.).

Something like all of that; a basic chassis, which they already have, with which you can slap things onto; I already find 5th Ed the easiest Ed to date for conversions, from all editions (I have already converted some 4th Ed monsters, 1st and 3rd Ed classes, spells, etc).

 

[Derren]

A toolbox which allows you to create your adventurers no matter what they may be instead of a system optimized for balanced dungeon crawling.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

+1 for derren.

However I want to add, that each adventurer should be fun to play. And the math of the system should be so well, that challenging players in and out of combat should be fast and fun.

Bounded accuracy for skills as well as attack bonus looks good so far.

I hope the level 1 damage will be reduced heavily by taking away stat bonus to damage and reducing the frontloadedness of adventurers. (So that playing fresh adventurers is possible)

 

[steenan]

I want rules that are few, simple and clear, but strict.

I want the fiction (whatever is happening in-game) to be what the game is about - not a "fluff" or "flavor text" that may be changed or discarded at whim.

I want interesting fights with important decisions to make, but without a ton of numbers, modifiers, miniatures and maps.

I want character building choices that all have fictional significance.

I want dungeons, wilderness areas, cultures and social situations that are fun to explore.

 

[Kinak]

I want a game that's simple to run as a GM, but has enough complexity to allow for crazy set-piece bossfights.

I want a game where it's dead simple to create characters, but options and complexity are progressively added during advancement.

I want a game where the flavor and rules are tightly bound, embracing the fact that mechanics express the world.

Honestly, I don't think these are very hard, but they aren't what everyone wants. If they can't hit them, I can do it on my own or just keep running Pathfinder.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Li Shenron]

Are you wanting something that supports a certain style of play?

I want a system that supports as many styles of play as possible, because I am myself never stuck on one favourite style, I want to change sometimes. Some styles (or rather elements of a style) that are must-have for me are "combat as war", old-school dungeon crawl, narrative grid-less combat, sandbox, downtime management, low-magic (items), and long-time travels and lingering effects.

I want a character creation system where per-encounter spells or magic abilities are completely optional for every class. If that could be true also for at-wills, then better.

I want a system that can be played "light" with a truly minimum amount of preparation. I want to be able to setup an adventure while the players make up their characters in 10-20 minutes, and run it in 1-2 hours.

Then I want the same system to provide a lot of dials and add-ons, DM's modules and player character's variants, all of them strictly optional for complicating the game on our own initiative.

I want the game to strongly feel like D&D... with all its traditions and sacred cows (they don't have to be mandatory, but they have to be there).

I want stunningly beautiful illustrations and artwork in the printed books

 

[El Mahdi]

I want a simple system with tried and tested modular options, that works as a template and tool to envision any RPG concept I and my players want.

I want to be able to make a swashbuckling Rogue or a thieving Rogue or a thug Rogue (and any other possible concept).

I want to be able to make a mounted Knight Fighter or a mercenary Fighter or a duelist Fighter (and any other possible concept).

I want to be able to make a Divine Warrior Paladin or a Historical Templar Paladin or an Arthurian/Charlemagne's Peers type Paladin (and any other possible concept).

Etc., Etc., Etc.

I want a rules/mechanics system that's not devoted to only modelling the self-developed D&D World trope, but can also work for any other assumed world...whether high fantasy, low fantasy, historically accurate, or anything else...without massive shoehorning.



I've seen many things in D&D Next that are making it more adaptable for the above goals, but there are still too many default world assumptions present.

I also see too many fans fighting to maintain their own default world assumptions and character concepts to the detriment of other fans preferences.


Both of these things need to change.

 

[Pour]

I want it over with as quickly as possible so we can get back to trying new things, actual innovation. I don't want a grab bag edition borrowing from the past so heavily, and I don't want this modular nightmare or the 'opportunity' to recreate game experiences I can already have elsewhere. Wasn't it already stated that the original message of having 1e play beside 2e - 4e was pretty much out, and that the goal was to modularize an edition that all could play their styled games under the same brand umbrella? Well what's the value in that? It's not even doing unity anymore. And what are the real odds of success with such strong competitors and the loss of IP?

I want a new edition, with new settings, new adventures, new, new, new! Give me something different, exciting, offensive, satisfying, strange, risky, bold, the advent of the new classics. Give me new sacred cows. Develop new IP. Push design, push expectations, push the old guys out of the way. Actually harness today's technology, and plan for tomorrow's. I mean advantage and expertise dice? Forgotten Realms?

If each edition is a violent reaction to the one proceeding it, then 6e should be forging entirely new ground, emerging from the shadows of the old and doing whatever it wants, hopefully sleek and powerful without the pressures of massive success. Is it 2018 yet?

 

[TerraDave]

I want something that allows classic D&D characters to do classic D&D things...more easily then classic D&D.