Why the thought of D&D 5e makes me sad...

[Hussar]

WotC stopped selling PDFs. It did provoke an uprecedented level of nerd rage. WotC shrugged and mumbled something about pirates.

An unprecedented level of nerd rage from how many people? They certainly were very vocal. But numerous? I highly doubt it. The pdf's never sold in numbers to actually matter all that much.

 

[DEFCON 1]

My prediction is that when 5e does eventually come out, there will be a tab in the DDI for switching between rules sets. Since the work for 4e will already be done, there's no reason to drop it.

And on top of that... my guess is that 5E will actually INCLUDE 4E within it.

The Legends & Lore columns have talked in length about making D&D sectional. Having different blocks of rules you can choose or not choose to add to the base game to make things as easy or as in-depth as you want. With the amount of work that has gone into getting 4E up and running... all the efforts for producing miniatures and dungeon tiles / poster maps... as well as getting the DDI tools up and running... you'd have to be crazy to think they would just dump all that work to create a 5E that doesn't use any of it.

Rather... I suspect that 5E will designed such that it has within it the specific mods and apps available to select to basically MATCH current 4E (for those who want it). So those playing 4E can basically migrate to 5E with no real change to their game except for some probably basic changes to powers/feats that you'd see with any errata update... and perhaps some math corrections to the base game that would just allow the 4E DMs to remove the Expertise and NAD feats if desired and allow their players to choose some new ones.

The new game would just though also include the mods and apps that allow you to broaden or tighten your game and campaign as desired. So you can remove miniatures if you like, remove skills and skill challenges, remove feats, go back to Vancian use, high amounts of magic items, low amounts of magic items, change healing formats etc. etc. etc.

 

[Echohawk]

And on top of that... my guess is that 5E will actually INCLUDE 4E within it.

I agree 100% with this assessment DEFCON 1. It seems clear to me that WotC is working towards a goal of supporting more editions of the game as part of their future strategy.

The Legends & Lore columns seem to have been hinting at this approach. The VTT beta explicitly provides for games to be flagged as for editions other than 4e. And the product description for the upcoming Haunted Temples map pack says: "Map Pack products are compatible with all editions of the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game".

I think that a modular approach which supports D&D played in the style of OD&D, BECMI, 1st Edition, 2nd Edition, 3.X Edition or 4th Edition is what we will be seeing whenever the next major rules release takes place. And I'm not at all convinced that this will even be called "5th edition". I think the marketing strategy for the new "edition" will probably be numberless.

 

[prosfilaes]

No thanks. If they make the rules OGL, then A) 5e can't use any rules from 4e

The OGL is an offer to others to let them use your copyrighted material. It's not at all restrictive on you; as long as you own all the copyrights on your material, you can use it however you want.

 

[Dausuul]

Of course if you stick with 4e, I hope you don't suffer the sneers and derision of the future 5e crowd; we simply don't need another edition war.

Hope springs eternal, but in this case it's an exceptionally forlorn one. The first skirmishes of the 4E/5E and Pathfinder/5E edition wars are already being fought on these very boards, despite the fact that 5E hasn't even been announced yet--let alone released--and we have no clue what it will look like when it is.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go paint a shiny new "5" on my shield...

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

An unprecedented level of nerd rage from how many people? They certainly were very vocal. But numerous? I highly doubt it. The pdf's never sold in numbers to actually matter all that much.

The outrage here was enough to spawn a subforum dealing only with that topic here on Enworld. How many times has that happened here (serious question)?

If you have numbers detailing how many pdfs were sold, I'm sure the community at large would be interested in seeing them. At the very least, I'd be interested in those numbers. Personally, I was unaware they were available until WotC announced they were no longer going to sell them. So I question the marketing of PDFs.

Judging only from WotC's numerous public relations gaffs since the announcement of 4th Edition, I suspect they'll do something with the existing 4E DDI that simply alienates another portion of their customer base.

 

[jaerdaph]

Some much needed perspective before the next edition war

Four Five editions of D&D, and not one of them ever got anyone laid.

 

[Umbran]

No thanks. If they make the rules OGL, then A) 5e can't use any rules from 4e

That is incorrect. Remember, WotC holds the copyrights. The OGL is a license for folks who *don't* hold the copyright, to allow them to use content they don't own in some limited fashion. WotC still can do whatever they like with 3e and 4e content, both, regardless of the OGL status of the content.

B)4e will be immedietely stripped from the DDI.

Again, as the copyright holders, they would not be required to do so.

 

[DEFCON 1]

That is incorrect. Remember, WotC holds the copyrights. The OGL is a license for folks who *don't* hold the copyright, to allow them to use content they don't own in some limited fashion. WotC still can do whatever they like with 3e and 4e content, both, regardless of the OGL status of the content.

Again, as the copyright holders, they would not be required to do so.

I think what he means is not that they couldn't use 4E rules in 5E, but that they wouldn't.

Because doing so would open up a lot of 4E rules to the OGL, and if they didn't want 4E to fall under it, they couldn't use any of it.

 

[Dark Mistress]

Four Five editions of D&D, and not one of them ever got anyone laid.

Actually that's not true.... and that's all the details I will say about that.