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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mlund" data-source="post: 6239887" data-attributes="member: 50304">To be financially successful (as opposed to a short-term, brand-name cash-in), the game needs to do several things:1.) Be distinct mechanically from the OGL SRDThat content is free, been done to death, and it can be innovated on much more efficiently by smaller-press publishers. 5E can't just be an OGL retread.2.) Keep the core thematic assumptions light and traditionalDerive your core outward from the paradigm of Fighter, Rogue, Mage, Cleric. Keep your deities generic. Keep your races reigned in like 13th Age did with stuff like Drow, Warforged, Dragonborn, and Plane-touched in the DMG / DM's options.3.) Support the feel of OD&D, 3E, & 4E characters and encounters with appropriate character and DM's optionsYou don't need "simple" or weak classes. You just need a core build option for each class that gives you a no-hassles contributor. Don't need to cater to players who want their class to be the best or their class's spell-list to block out another player's preferences. The players for whom such control or simulated superiority is a deal-breaker can't be the target audience for a growing game.4.) Put in the effort to achieve balance without symmetry4E took the easiest path to solving very messy problem with prior editions by making classes symmetrical. These made it very hard to reproduce the feel of many characters from prior editions. (For example, I think 13th Age actually solved the balance problem of spell-slot trees by going with an even more Vancian model than OD&D.)5.) Balance your classes across 3 pillars with character optionsYou can't rely on any given adventure series or campaign putting the same ratio of Combat : Interaction : Exploration or even Dungeon : Wilderness : Urban. You shouldn't have any classes so type-cast that their hands are completely tied to one particular pillar or setting carrying much more water than the others. That means you need to be able to work an urban bloodhound, a battle skald, and an influential warrior without changing classes. There needs to be a baseline of good options in class talents and/or spells for more than combat encounters.If 5E can hit all of those points it would sell well and be able to support a long line of modules/adventure paths. Then it is just a matter of whether the business model follows producing adventure content and expansion, or falls back on burying itself in splat-book bloat.- Marty Lund</blockquote>

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