Dungeons and Dragons needs your help.
The popular role playing game is currently working on a new fifth edition and is seeking input of players and fans.
According to the New York Times, Wizards of the Coast is crowdsourcing the upcoming 5th edition of D&D because, as Greg Tito, games editor for The Escapist, said, “if handled correctly, [this] could be exactly what’s needed to make players feel invested in D&D again.”
The rule changes are part of several efforts to keep the brand relevant. Wizards of the Coast already publishes a steady stream of products set in the D&D universe: fantasy novels (by authors like R. A. Salvatore), comic books and board games. To combat the perception that the game requires hours of planning, the company organizes weekly drop-in sessions called D&D Encounters, run in game shops nationwide; they’re billed as an easy way “to fit your game in after school or work.
If you have the time and the dice, you can sign up to help Wizard here.
not me says
Stop adding so many stupid little rules! The first edition was the best IMHO. It is supposed to be a game, not a case of spending my entire weekend planning a campaign – especially when I am just a player. Do we REALLY need all of the secondary, tertiary, and quadrary, etc. skills? Jeeze, just let me roll the friggin dice!
Alverant says
I hear ya, every class and sub-class had their own separate book with their own unique rules and powers.
Problem is that whoever is making it is still a company and companies need continuous revenue to stay afloat. That’s why they keep releasing new books and rules and editions, so people will buy them and keep the company viable.
Skiznot says
3rd edition was the best then 4th just went all wrong. Pathfinder seems the best current incarnation. They should have stopped at 3.5. Not that I can find anybody to play anymore.
Morgothik says
How about keeping the core books to under $25 each!
Attila the Nerd says
Seems the idea of optional levels of complexity is being discussed. This is an interesting but dangerous idea. There was a similar impetus in the days of yore when second edition materials contained optional rules for weapon proficiencies and non weapon proficiencies. That was cool. Do you want to keep track of what your character is good at statistically and specifically or not?
Eventually this got way the hell out of hand with the players skills and powers series, a system that offered up to twelve ability scores, combat rounds that included multiple phases of action per turn, weapon speeds, dueling rules, critical tables based on number of limbs and type of weapon and huge collections of advantages and disadvantages as well as dozens of factors that would effect the relative combat effectiveness of characters in different relative positions.
Still, it was OPTIONAL. The game could be pretty simple if you wanted it to be. Still no one wants to play a game involving negative intagers if they can help it. Thaco can burn in hell!
With the advent of 3.0 we got a streamlined version of these later second edition abilities, now mandatory, called feats and skills. Feats being roughly equivocal to the advantages, skills as scaling non weapon proficiencies and weapon proficiencies as, well, weapon proficiencies. Now the complexity was mandatory, not all good especially at higher levels, but it allowed for some truly weird characters.
Then we got 4th edition, where nothing is complex and there is almost no setting or descriptive back ground of any kind. Flavor text boxes let us know that we can freely disregard what ever is supposed to be going on in favor of a small standardized statistical entry that always works the same way in every case. Now magic items are mandatory and there are feats that are conveniently pre picked for you. There is no geometry, no verisimilitude and nothing to get confused about. But hurray! There are hundreds of feats, races, paragon paths, epic destinies, class options and hybrid variants so it is still possible to create a character that is stupidly and unreasonably powerful and it still takes hours to create a competitive character even if your concept is simple. Still, the game IS relatively streamlined and IS relatively balanced.
I feel like path finder is the best option available but the skill system is still ridiculous. You ever try to figure out if a sixteenth level character who has been gaining intelligence with its ability bumps and levels in multiple classes has the right skills? You need a spread sheet to figure it out.
Designers of these games have a tough row to ho and they know it. They need to make “out of combat” a potentially important place, abandon complexity and simplicity as goals and accept that not everyone can be pleased. This is why their press statement for the new edition sounds like its being sold by Mitt Romney. “We know what to do and we’ll do it!” Seems funny that not two months ago I read WOC promises about the longevity of 4th edition. We will see. We will see…
Alverant says
1) Buy Hero System 6th Edition
2) Put a new cover on it.
Alverant says
I think what we forget is that WotC and TSR are companies and companies need continuous income. For companies that publish creative works, the only way to get income on a regular basis is to publish on a regular basis. That means more books people will buy. But once you buy the core rule book, you’re done pretty much. Everything else is optional. So how do the publishers entice you to buy more books? By offering new rules and new settings. How often do modules come out these days? They don’t because they weren’t selling well enough.
And no game is perfect. People want to keep adding to it. RPGs are the rare form of medium that can revise itself after being published. New editions are attempts to fix the rules and increase their audience. They don’t always work, but that’s why it happens. For example one of the big changes between first and second edition D&D were adding skills. They did that to improve the game. They also eliminated sex-based stat maximums because the players protested.
I think the only way a game company to survive is for it to be a part time job, done for the love of the game. If you keep cranking out new stuff all the time, you’ll wind up like Magic the Gathering with so many editions and expansions new players can’t join in. Maybe if a company made different games, it could go full time, but you’re depending on the continuous creativity from the employees and everyone burns out eventually.
As for the cost of books, I don’t like them going up either, but publishing is expensive. What are you willing to give up to lower the price? Original illustrations? Paper quality? Illuminated text? Now ask yourself if more people would pass on the book if it didn’t have those things.