What will influence 5E during its development?

[Glade Riven]

And I'm sure they know that, and will try to take it into account. Probably with Player's Handbook 2. Or it may depend on how much pull Monte has with the design direction.

 

[Argyle King]

One thing to keep in mind is that DDI has given solid feedback on what people like to play as and what options are commonly used. I would expect the Player's Guide would have the top 5 races (and maybe a couple classics to cover the bases), with a remix of core classes. 4e's Power Management replaced Resource Management in 3e, so I would expect 5e would back off of it a little bit. With the apparent success of the boardgames, I would actually expect that the "starter edition" would be framed in those terms, with the "Full Edition" as a true RPG.

.

I'm curious how much quality/power level of classes and races tilt some of those results.

It also seems reasonable to assume that some of the results would need to be weighted to account for options which have been available for longer.

 

[Aldarc]

I would love for some of the design theory behind Guild Wars 2 to be adopted for 5e.

As would I. We can only hope that would be the case. I think that the design theory of GW2 can be seen as a shift away from many of the general assumptions of MMORPGs (i.e. "the Holy Trinity") that implicitly have their origins in D&D (i.e. "there must be a dedicated healer").

 

[Glade Riven]

Might as well add to the Wishlist:

Perk/Talent/Feat trees being the norm rather than 4e's powers. I like them in D20 Modern, Star Wars Saga, and 3rd party products (not used much in D&D beyond fighter feats).

 

[Greg K]

What I wish was influencing 5e
1. Savage Worlds
2. True20
3. Book of Iron Might (the combat maneuver system).

 

[Argyle King]

Now for a less serious answer

So with the development of 5E going on, what do you think will influence its direction?

Movies
Twilight


Books
Modern Warfare 3 Strategy Guide


Video Games
some Pong
some Oregon Trail

 

[cattoy]

You could say they all ready did. In 3.5 you could construct your character like a Magic deck and 4E powers take many ques from magic cards themselves...

Not in a meaningful way, though. I don't have to hope I draw the right balance of mana in order to use my magic items or spells. I can open with my most powerful spell if I want to. Not so much with M:tG.

One of the criticisms I often hear about D&D is the one-shot KO problem of save-or-lose spells. If they looked at M:tG, then they might work out some sort of momentum-measuring abstract resource. (like Mana from Magic) that built up over time, so you wouldn't have PCs or BBEGs popping off the most unbalanced spells they had on turn 1, so fights would build in intensity as opposed to the other way around.

This sort of mechanism would negate the problem of 4e fights that always seem to end with both sides spamming at-wills...