Advanced Dungeons & DragoNEWTS 5th Basic Iteration

(I've already ranted and argued on forums and g+ about certain aspects of what a new edition will mean. This post isn't about that. Let's skip that please.)


I mostly ignored the WotC site for years until I ran into the Legends & Lore column almost exactly six months ago. At the time it was still being written by Mike Mearls (soon to be replaced by Monte Cook as the columnist). Mike was bashing concepts around, thinking about which elements of the game were "essential" to D&D and how to simplify the game down to those core features. I enjoyed reading those. I wrote a blog post about it, and concluded it with:


"If Mike's columns imply that WotC is actually working on this mythical "core D&D" behind the scenes (and that's a big if), I think I'll happily throw my own work away and endorse it."


At that time I had no idea in which direction the columns were going, or what shape the "archaeological" endeavor of digging for D&D's bones would eventually take. 


Now, I still don't know what 5E will look like, but I have a few inklings. And I'm very optimistic for now. If it will be what I think it will be, then I'll be personally happy to switch to "D&DNext" as it's being codenamed. But maybe my expectations are wrong. Right now I think there's an about 80% chance that when the playtest comes out I'll switch my campaign to it.


Does that mean I'm giving up my houseruling/hacking efforts? Not quite yet. In a way I'm relieved that someone with the time and means is picking up the slack and I won't have to do the heavy lifting. But the new iteration might as well suck. Too early to say. That quote above still holds true however: if WotC will manage to do what I hope they do, then I'll have a version of the game that scratches my D&D itch in a right way and someone else will have done my work for me. Which is the how they will get my money anyway.



Comments

  1. I'm optimistic about it too. It looks like they are taking the Design/Development model and the "base almost everything on fan feedback" model from Magic: The Gathering and applying it in a serious way to D&D. I hope so. It's been hugely successful for Magic, and I'm glad they're being serious about turning D&D into a well known and profitable brand.

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