D&D 5E Will there be a 5e Modern?

[Ahnehnois]

d20 Modern. CoC d20. Star Wars d20. M&M. Spycraft d20. And a whole lot else. D&D 3.0 spawned not only a plethora of variant fantasy rpgs, but a variety of rpgs inother genres, with variable but overall modest success. With 4e I know modern and/or scifi has been tried but not with anywhere near the profile (I'm sure someone will educate me on the details). I'm surprised I haven't seen this addressed yet. So, speaking hypothetically for the moment...

Will 5e be designed like the original d20 system to be portable outside the fantasy genre?

Will WotC produce a 5e Modern?

Can a D&D skeleton applicable to all genres be done well?

Should it be tried?

 

[keterys]

4E spawned a Gamma World game. I believe it did fairly well, though I have no ability to compare its success to that of any other game.

I imagine that 5E will spawn its own spinoffs. The number will depend on the way they do licensing, and whether they continue to seek other brands to adapt - ie, Star Wars, Wheel of Time, and Call of Cthulhu were all obtained as options by WotC to adapt.

If it's OGL, then we'll be awash in 5E variants, like there was 7th sea, L5R, spycraft, M&M etc.

 

[irontyrant]

I think its probable that there will be; Gygax intended for AD&D to eventually be a multi-genre rules set. I also remember that in the 5E announcement that the designers mentioned a universal set of rules that could be used for any play style. If the rules can handle the various D&D play styles it wouldn't be that difficult to tweak them for sci-fi or modern play.

 

[SKyOdin]

I hope so. Fantasy itself covers a much broader range of settings and material than just medieval western. In order to have a Final Fantasy-styled campaign with gun-wielding mages and 10,000 year old giant robots, it would help to have rules for modern and science fiction game elements.

 

[Sammael]

I hope so, one of the best campaigns I played in during the d20 era was a d20 Modern game. We never got to finish the campaign, though, so perhaps a new version of the rules would entice the GM to run the game again.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Personally my group has run and greatly enjoyed CoC d20, and we've done a little Modern (as well as brief runs with a couple on non-d20 games).

I don't think the hobby is limited to fantasy by anything other than tradition.

That said, the d20 system in a modern or future or historical or otherwise non-fantasy setting was not great. I don't think d20 Modern was a very good game; CoC was I think the best WotC effort because it was so minimalistic and the flavor and advice were so great. I know it's been done but I can't imagine anything close to 4e working for anything modern or futuristic, etc.

So to me they'll really need to strengthen the basic core of the rules to make them feasible for running non-D&D games.

 

[TwinBahamut]

I hope 5E supports modern settings a lot better than older editions have. D20 Modern had some good ideas, but it really was not as good as it should have been, and some of its later books were quite terrible. The fact that it was splintered off as an incompatible ruleset wasn't any good, either.

I don't expect 5E to include modern setting rules in the core rulebook (though a nod to medieval firearms might be nice), but it would be nice to detailed and high-quality support for such a setting as an early supplement. Taking the possibility into account before the core rules are published would help.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I first want my 4E Modern. Or should I count Gamma World for that?

 

[Ahnehnois]

I hope 5E supports modern settings a lot better than older editions have. ... Taking the possibility into account before the core rules are published would help.

I guess that's the question that interests me: How does one approach design to facilitate that kind of variety?

 

[TwinBahamut]

I guess that's the question that interests me: How does one approach design to facilitate that kind of variety?

That is certainly an interesting question. To be honest, I'm not quite sure. There are a few things I can think of, but I'm not sure if they strike to the core of the issue...

For one thing, they can integrate support for wealth mechanics other than counting coins directly into the 4E PHB. I didn't like the D20 Modern Wealth Level system, but the idea it had of an abstract wealth system that allows for ideas of reliable income and lines of credit is an important one. You can't talk about modern money using traditional D&D rules. It would even be valuable in various medieval D&D games, particularly ones that involve players who own businesses and land or can borrow money from wealthy lords.

Another idea is that the core damage and health rules need to be compatible with the heightened grittiness that a large group of people expect from modern gunfighting. I'm not really in this camp myself, but I know they're out there. Having a "grittiness dial" in the core D&D rules to allow for this kind of thing would help those fans.

Of course, modern play also involves a lot more focus on ranged combat. Having a place for high-powered non-magical ranged combat of varying types, and the ability to fit it comfortably into whatever class and/or role system the game will use, will be essential for a modern game to be compatible with D&D.

Finally, it would help if the skill system in 5E (regardless of the form it takes) is compatible with the skills needed in a more modern setting. If you need to completely rebuild the skill system or skill list to make it work in a modern setting, it would be a huge issue for potential compatibility.