Ranes
Adventurer
Welcome to the boards, DrAlexander and Omegastrike.
I like this poll, because it wasn't easy to choose an option. In the end, I chose electronic tool suite, because (a) my laptop has been my primary DM's aid for years now and (b) a good suite of tools can save me precious time, and help me learn new rules more quickly. Having said that, several other options vied for my vote.
An OGL was my runner-up choice. I like the idea of an OGL because it is, by its nature, inclusive of other people's ideas. Yes, lots of dodgy stuff was published for 3e under the OGL but caveat emptor and all that. There was a lot of good stuff, too: Magical Medieval Society, Everyone Else and many, many more. I think the OGL was one of the most inspired ideas ever for D&D. While a repeat of 3d's OGL is probably unlikely, I do think 5e deserves something better than 4e's GSL train wreck.
After that, the thing I'd most like to see is a brand new setting book. Old timers like me have all the setting books they ever need and more but we also have the experience and confidence to convert what we like from them to 5e. Newcomers may not. A well-written brand new setting would give us all something exciting to explore (and we love campaign settings as ideas, even if we don't care for this or that particular setting so much), and a new setting puts all players, old and new, on the same footing. At least, it would keep our (sometines inner) lore bores in check.
The downsides of a new setting are (a) you put all your old material in storage or convert it yourself, while feeling somewhat abandoned and apprehensive about being able to find new players, and (b) you start to worry about the extent of yet another investment in a setting required to get the most out of a new campaign world, especially what would be the default one for 5e. To this extent, I think WotC missed a trick. While 5e was in development (or even before then), they should have started developing 5e's brand new campaign world and released - along with the new core books - a single, enormous setting guide. Think MotP, D&DG and FRCS all on one, complete with extra backgrounds, setting specific classes and spells and so on. But that's just me and it's academic now.
Ideas about books of new rules, monsters, spells or gear I'm not so bothered about. I've just bought three books' worth of that. Even more stuff can wait. A book about how to convert all those things from any previous edition, on the other hand, would be more likely to find room on my bookshelves.
New books on existing settings don't excite me at all.
Nor do adventure paths, actually. I don't mind reading them to mine for (their often very good) ideas but I don't want to run them as par-boiled campaigns that just need me to finish them off. Nor are my players inclined to be more into any plot than one they themselves end up having had some part in creating. Short stand-alone modules are an entirely different matter both sides of the screen, at my table.
Finally, much as I love Dragon and Dungeon and have read both since the beginning of the eighties, I just don't do print any more. I would subscribe to good online editions but no more print for me.
Tough choices. Good poll.
I like this poll, because it wasn't easy to choose an option. In the end, I chose electronic tool suite, because (a) my laptop has been my primary DM's aid for years now and (b) a good suite of tools can save me precious time, and help me learn new rules more quickly. Having said that, several other options vied for my vote.
An OGL was my runner-up choice. I like the idea of an OGL because it is, by its nature, inclusive of other people's ideas. Yes, lots of dodgy stuff was published for 3e under the OGL but caveat emptor and all that. There was a lot of good stuff, too: Magical Medieval Society, Everyone Else and many, many more. I think the OGL was one of the most inspired ideas ever for D&D. While a repeat of 3d's OGL is probably unlikely, I do think 5e deserves something better than 4e's GSL train wreck.
After that, the thing I'd most like to see is a brand new setting book. Old timers like me have all the setting books they ever need and more but we also have the experience and confidence to convert what we like from them to 5e. Newcomers may not. A well-written brand new setting would give us all something exciting to explore (and we love campaign settings as ideas, even if we don't care for this or that particular setting so much), and a new setting puts all players, old and new, on the same footing. At least, it would keep our (sometines inner) lore bores in check.
The downsides of a new setting are (a) you put all your old material in storage or convert it yourself, while feeling somewhat abandoned and apprehensive about being able to find new players, and (b) you start to worry about the extent of yet another investment in a setting required to get the most out of a new campaign world, especially what would be the default one for 5e. To this extent, I think WotC missed a trick. While 5e was in development (or even before then), they should have started developing 5e's brand new campaign world and released - along with the new core books - a single, enormous setting guide. Think MotP, D&DG and FRCS all on one, complete with extra backgrounds, setting specific classes and spells and so on. But that's just me and it's academic now.
Ideas about books of new rules, monsters, spells or gear I'm not so bothered about. I've just bought three books' worth of that. Even more stuff can wait. A book about how to convert all those things from any previous edition, on the other hand, would be more likely to find room on my bookshelves.
New books on existing settings don't excite me at all.
Nor do adventure paths, actually. I don't mind reading them to mine for (their often very good) ideas but I don't want to run them as par-boiled campaigns that just need me to finish them off. Nor are my players inclined to be more into any plot than one they themselves end up having had some part in creating. Short stand-alone modules are an entirely different matter both sides of the screen, at my table.
Finally, much as I love Dragon and Dungeon and have read both since the beginning of the eighties, I just don't do print any more. I would subscribe to good online editions but no more print for me.
Tough choices. Good poll.
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