Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Quixote" data-source="post: 5603096" data-attributes="member: 694">I'll repeat here what I've argued on the WotC forums:As it stands right now, D&D (even Essentials) is too bloated and complex.  It won't draw in the new gamers.  It certainly won't snag the grognards.  By not having a simple, casual, play-out-of-the box core to the D&D game, WotC isn't getting my money.  I'm standing here with a pile of money that I'd love to give to WotC, if only they produced a product that catered to my needs; but they don't.5th edition needs to be simple.  Ditch the powers, ditch the grid.  System mastery?  The character-building mini-game?  There's no reason at all to put any of that stuff in the core rules of the game.  Sell a simple "essence of D&D" as core, and put the complex tactical combat, the piles of powers for character building, and all that other nonsense in hardcover supplements.  That way,1) WotC gets everybody's money for the core game.  People who would normally abandon D&D in favor of Savage Worlds or a retro-clone would be inclined, I think, to play a reasonably "basic" flavored 5th edition.2) WotC would further get money from the roughly half of the player base that seems to enjoy drawn-out combat encounters being the centerpiece of the game session; and from the roughly half (not the same half but probably lots of overlap) of players who want to build powerful characters out of legos.That's the way to please the broadest possible number of players.  The best way to go?  Ditch the PHB, DMG, and MM model.  Swap for a new hardcover trilogy:(1) Core Rules.  Everything you need to play a Heroic Tier game.  Character generation (not creation, generation), the basic four classes, the basic four races, lists of spells and monsters and magic items, the basic Dungeon Mastering procedures.(2) Advanced Player's Handbook.  Rules for character creation.  All the character build stuff that doesn't really need to be in the core game.  All of the extra races and sub-classes; feats; a more complex variation on the core skill system; Book of Nine Swords style "spells for fighters."(3) Advanced Combat & Tactics.  For players who like a little wargame in their RPGs.  Optional rules like using grids, push-me pull-you square shifting stuff, tweaking HP totals to make combat longer, and the fine mechanical distinction between wielding a glaive vs. a guisarme vs. a bardiche.</blockquote>

Verification