D&D 5E What I'm looking Forward to in D&D in 2022

[el-remmen]

The kickstarter for MCDM's monster book (though I hope they come up with a better name than the working title).

The fulfillment a minis kickstarter I backed which will send me 100+ new minis sometime in September 2022 (hopefully).

 

[Grendel_Khan]

I think it pretty much needs a solid reboot at this point, both rules and setting.

They need to get a streamlined ruleset (probably a simple dice-pool one for tradition), but one which allows some crunch (as you say Anarchy goes too far), reset the setting to 2050-ish, and tweak the setting a bit to modernise it slightly (not like, hugely but maybe a little less xenophobic/stereotype-y vibe towards the Asian corporations particularly). Pretty much every attempt to advance the setting beyond 2054 was just bad. And it's fine for it to be a retrofuture, technologically, at least to some extent.

Totally agree that, for Shadowrun to really work it has to reset to 2050 or so. As for streamlining the system, I think part of the problem is that SR wants to give you all the toys to play with. In fact, it sort of forces the whole toy chest on you, at least from a setting and rules perspective. That includes hacking and vehicle combat, two types of rules/subsystems that are notoriously hard to manage in any system. Now add on conjuring spirits, spells, cyberware, future tech in general, plus races, and a gloriously detailed setting.

The end result is, I think, just too much to handle elegantly with any crunchy/trad ruleset. And if you go full-on PbtA or FitD I'd argue it loses a ton of its appeal. SR lives and dies on its specificity.

I think one solution would be to shift the premise a bit, and

-Ditch decking entirely as a PC activity. It's always been a slog, and no amount of revisions or redesigns has helped. Enough already.

-Also make riggers NPCs by default, if they're even a thing at all.

-Rethink the heist-related aspects of the game, integrating that stuff by adding some Blades in the Dark-like mechanics to limit/eliminate endless planning and gear-shopping sessions.

-Present an array of play options beyond always having every PC group be a bunch of runners, including options that might simplify things. I think being runners leans all the way into the most complex and varied aspects of SR's rules and settings. You have the world at your fingertips, but that's a blessing and a curse. If, instead, you had clear frameworks where PCs might be a street gang (with much more limited resources, for example) or paid investigators or even resistance fighters or vigilantes, all of that provides guardrails that "you are shadowrunners" does not.

 

[TheSword]

I'm looking forward to the end of my two current campaigns - they've gone well, but they've also gone too long. So it will be good to bring them to a conclusion.

Unfortunately, they now look pretty definitively like my last two campaigns.

How long is too long?
And what happened to stop you DMing?

 

[Zardnaar]

I'm looking forward to the end of my two current campaigns - they've gone well, but they've also gone too long. So it will be good to bring them to a conclusion.

Unfortunately, they now look pretty definitively like my last two campaigns.

I'm not sure but for the first time I've had those thoughts and/or if selling up.

 

[schneeland]

With regard to D&D specifically, I hope Necrotic Gnome releases their Dolmenwood setting books. I don't think I'll buy D&D5 books - unless WotC release a Greyhawk setting book, then I would at least take a look.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Definitely not imo.

We saw how that worked out for people in the 2000s, with all the d20 conversions. You get a bunch of people buying the main book, then they totally fail to buy any supplements for it (after saying it was "incomplete" without them), then people just ignore your product in its "real" form because they didn't like the converted form.

On top of that, Shadowrun makes no sense as a class/level-based system, not in the actual setting (Kamigawa might). Would it be worse to play than Shadowrun 5/6? Probably not. Would it do more long-term damage to the IP? Definitely it would.

Especially given the increasing success of non-5E RPGs over the last few years (c.f. various Kickstarters, an explosion in both the number of and success of new RPGs and so on). I don't think we're approaching a 1990s situation where D&D gets overtaken or anything, but given D&D got like 40m more people into the hobby, even if only some of them look at your product.

And before you say "Well a 5E version will get even more people!!!". maybe but that doesn't seem to have been the case with stuff doing "5E versions" so far.

Honest the core D&D 5e Shadowrun book would out sell the Shadowrun's own system's books including supplements by itself.

And you make future supplements for 5e Shadowrun, not for their own system which you dump altogether. Lord of the Rings 5e version out sold its none 5e version 10 to 1, I think the gap between 5e Shadowrun and their current system would be far wider. Shadowrun is a great setting, it deserves to finally have great rules.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I guess Kamigawa: Neon Dinasty is "to break the ice". 5th Ed is not ready for the crunch a cyberpunk setting would need, and today some players want transhumanist technology (mind uploading and digintal inmortality).

Eldraine could be a D&D book, but not in 2022. Innistrad maybe, but not now because the time ended.

Dragonlance are possible as future crossover with Magic: the Gathering.

For possible D&D MtG sets after Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur's Gate, if they leave the Forgotten Realms I think a D&D setting that is heavily visually and flavour distinct from most MtG stuff is more likely, like Spelljammer, Darksun, or Planescape.

 

[Bitbrain]

Honest the core D&D 5e Shadowrun book would out sell the Shadowrun's own system's books including supplements by itself.

And you make future supplements for 5e Shadowrun, not for their own system which you dump altogether. Lord of the Rings 5e version out sold its none 5e version 10 to 1, I think the gap between 5e Shadowrun and their current system would be far wider. Shadowrun is a great setting, it deserves to finally have great rules.

This is almost word-for-word what the guy in my group who used to play Shadowrun said after my last session. After commenting on just how different Forgotten Realms, Eberron, and Dark Sun felt from each other, he announced his plan to DM a D&D 5e Shadowrun game.

 

[LordEntrails]

Might drop D&D in 2022 or RPGs in general. Can't play not a lot of point buying the material and running low on room to store it.

One reason I went all digital n 2015. I don't have to worry about storing thousands of maps, tens of thousands of tokens and every book I buy. All I need is my laptop.

 

[Zardnaar]

One reason I went all digital n 2015. I don't have to worry about storing thousands of maps, tens of thousands of tokens and every book I buy. All I need is my laptop.

There's other games I prefer playing online. Grand Strategy games for example.

Played Stellaris yesterday and have a game tonight.

Less effort required and if someone no shows it isn't a big deal.