What if 5e is a board game?

[RangerWickett]

Oh, this is basically the same as a proposal someone else suggested a few months back. I thought it was quite clever. The D&D 'board game' is the gateway drug to the 'design your own' game.

Level 1. Basic D&D. Easy rules, simple classes, flat math. Provided in a box with creature and monster tokens, as well as map tiles and dice. Everything you need for a D&D game, including a starter adventure. Most character options are basically "pick one of these four to six premade builds, and get the powers we tell you at the level we tell you."

Level 1 supplements. Additional adventures, shrink-wrapped (or in boxes for big events), with a DM adventure book, a book with new player options, and tokens.​

Level 2. Advanced D&D. More complex rules. Sold in book and ereader forms. Does not require battle maps, but works with them. Compatible with Basic, so two characters made with the different rulebooks can work next to each other and be balanced.

Level 2 supplements. More advanced rules, adventures, and so on, mostly for sale electronically.​

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If 5E is a board game, role-playing-game players will play something else. Boardgamers might play it, though.

The new Warhammer RPG is popular, isn't it? That's pretty much the model the OP is talking about, I think.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

A boardgame is a competitive game for two or more players, deriving its replay value from the way it is constructed and played. The main point for and advantage of a boardgame is its replay value.

Or are you talking about boardgame paraphernalia used in the context of a roleplaying game like WFRP3 uses it?

The basic publishing model for a boardgame is the game itself, plus - if sales warrant it - one or more extensions. The idea of publishing extensions and options until your customer's wallet runs dry is part of rpg publishing not boardgame publishing.

So I really can't imagine 5e being published as a boardgame.

 

[Mark CMG]

One of my groups has been spending part of this year playing through Dragon Strike, HeroQuest, and Descent to basically watch the evolution of how boardgames that tried to emulate RPGs moved away and did not satisfy the needs of RPGing. However, in the past decade or more, one would have to recognize that the needs of RPGs have changed and the trappings used in RPGs have also moved further along the spectrum toward the trappings used in boardgames. I don't think that 5E will go this route though I think there will be more boardgames that leverage the D&D brand name.

 

[Morrus]

The new Warhammer RPG is popular, isn't it? That's pretty much the model the OP is talking about, I think.

Dunno. Not familiar with it!

 

[Mark CMG]

The new Warhammer RPG is popular, isn't it? That's pretty much the model the OP is talking about, I think.

This one?

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (3rd Edition) | RPG | RPGGeek

 

[Shemeska]

There will still be people online defending it as the "true" D&D, telling everyone else that they're not embracing progress or the future, that only a small vocal minority doesn't play boardgame D&D, and that no previous edition embraced D&D like the new boardgame D&D.

Heh.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There will still be people online defending it as the "true" D&D, telling everyone else that they're not embracing progress or the future, that only a small vocal minority doesn't play boardgame D&D, and that no previous edition embraced D&D like the new boardgame D&D.

Heh.

For whatever it's worth, the Dungeon! board game from 1979(?) in the top of my hall closet feels a lot more "D&D" to me than 3E ever did. The medium isn't the sole determinant of what makes something feel like D&D, in my experience.

 

[Agamon]

I'm a board gamer. I'm also a role player. And I haven't played a dungeon crawl board game that I can tolerate enough to play a second time, let alone like. The D&D games, along with Descent and their ilk, bore me. I'd much rather play either a good board game or a good RPG than a lame combo of both.

So I'd be watching the 5e hijinx from afar, in that case, I'm fairly sure.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Unless it is by far the best designed and most fun example of its kind, when compared to a more traditional RPG it will be judged a complete commerical flop. This will make the handful of snarky comments directed at it (pro/con/indifferent/sideways), and the ensuing flamewars comical* in their irrelevance.

* To onlookers who don't feel the need to vent their spleens. Oppressed moderators all over the world may put a severe dent in alcohol supplies. If you think this is likely, I recommend buying liquid stock.