D&D 5E Discussion

[Scruffy]

guys, guys, i read about this stuff and i'll make a prediction:

it's going to be shit

 

[Shralla]

So as the kind of asshole who's still stubbornly attached to 3.5, what does 5e offer differently or fix from 4e?

 

[Excidium]

So as the kind of asshole who's still stubbornly attached to 3.5, what does 5e offer differently or fix from 4e?

It's another game

 

[Shralla]

Well that's not exactly what I'd call encouraging.

 

[Havoc]

Well that's not exactly what I'd call encouraging.

I think that's the point.

 

[Alchemist]

Some news on the 5th edition front - from the GAMA trade show:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?1535-D-D-Next-Notes-from-GAMA

From ENWorld:

The hour-long D&D Next presentation at the GAMA trade show in Las Vegas just finished. No pictures were allowed, unfortunately (and a bunch of gorgeous stuff was shown). [104 comments]

5E will be launched with the Tyranny of Dragons storyline; the Dragon Cult will attempt to resurrect Tiamat. To bring her back from the Nine Hells, they will need to partner up with evil chromatic dragons who will wreak havoc across the Forgotten Realms. The Red Wizards of Thay and the Harpers also feature heavily. The story will be supported by a range of products - from Organized Play adventures to video games.

The D&D miniatures, as we already know, will be produced by WizKids.

The D&D starter set (no dates are given, but remember that Barnes & Noble had it up on their site for $20, due in July recently before taking it down) is a gorgeous boxed set.

And as for the main rulebooks -- yes, there will be a Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and a Dungeon Master's Guide. The covers were shown (they didn't permit photos though). The PHB has a beholder on the front, the MM has a fire giant, and the DMG has drow and an underdark battle. There will NOT be multiple Player's Handbooks, and all the iconic monsters will be in the MM.

There's some interesting philosophy stuff -- WotC says they will continue to sell 4E until interest goes away. They want to sell D&D to people in any format they can, whether that be old editions, video games, or other branded products. They are very much against the "edition war" philosophy.

Indeed, they say their "guiding light" was "What would Gary [Gygax] and Dave [Arneson] do?"

In summary, the main focus is on story, not mechanics. It's all about the story, plus exploring characters outside their traditional tropes. An awful lot of pretty pictures which nobody was allowed to photograph, and lots of gorgeous fluff.

 

[Excidium]

Hmm I wonder if anything leaked.

 

[Night Goat]

5E will be launched with the Tyranny of Dragons storyline; the Dragon Cult will attempt to resurrect Tiamat. To bring her back from the Nine Hells, they will need to partner up with evil chromatic dragons who will wreak havoc across the Forgotten Realms. The Red Wizards of Thay and the Harpers also feature heavily. The story will be supported by a range of products - from Organized Play adventures to video games.

What the fuck is this? One of D&D's strengths is the lack of a metaplot.

There's some interesting philosophy stuff -- WotC says they will continue to sell 4E until interest goes away.

So, they'll continue to sell 4E until five years ago?

 

[Excidium]

5E will be launched with the Tyranny of Dragons storyline; the Dragon Cult will attempt to resurrect Tiamat. To bring her back from the Nine Hells, they will need to partner up with evil chromatic dragons who will wreak havoc across the Forgotten Realms. The Red Wizards of Thay and the Harpers also feature heavily. The story will be supported by a range of products - from Organized Play adventures to video games.

What the fuck is this? One of D&D's strengths is the lack of a metaplot.

Forgotten Realms is the default setting so tough luck

 

[Xor]

5E will be launched with the Tyranny of Dragons storyline; the Dragon Cult will attempt to resurrect Tiamat. To bring her back from the Nine Hells, they will need to partner up with evil chromatic dragons who will wreak havoc across the Forgotten Realms. The Red Wizards of Thay and the Harpers also feature heavily. The story will be supported by a range of products - from Organized Play adventures to video games.

God dammit, won't they fucking learn? Nobody liked this shit when they did it with 4E.

There's some interesting philosophy stuff -- WotC says they will continue to sell 4E until interest goes away.

So, they'll continue to sell 4E until five years ago?

 

[Caim]

5E will be launched with the Tyranny of Dragons storyline; the Dragon Cult will attempt to resurrect Tiamat. To bring her back from the Nine Hells, they will need to partner up with evil chromatic dragons who will wreak havoc across the Forgotten Realms. The Red Wizards of Thay and the Harpers also feature heavily. The story will be supported by a range of products - from Organized Play adventures to video games.

What the fuck is this? One of D&D's strengths is the lack of a metaplot.

Forgotten Realms is the default setting so tough luck

I thought that was Greyhawk.

And bringing Tiamat back from the Nine Hells? Didn't she LIVE there until 4e where she has to share a land of canons and jungles with the god of snakes, poisons and treachery? And how the fuck do you kill a god in such a way their soul goes to hell? And why doesn't Asmodeus just let her go because the two of them are more or less on the same page and Tiamat is more or less the guard dog of the first layer of hell?

 

[Excidium]

5E will be launched with the Tyranny of Dragons storyline; the Dragon Cult will attempt to resurrect Tiamat. To bring her back from the Nine Hells, they will need to partner up with evil chromatic dragons who will wreak havoc across the Forgotten Realms. The Red Wizards of Thay and the Harpers also feature heavily. The story will be supported by a range of products - from Organized Play adventures to video games.

What the fuck is this? One of D&D's strengths is the lack of a metaplot.

Forgotten Realms is the default setting so tough luck

I thought that was Greyhawk

Well neither to be honest. It doesn't have a defined "default setting" but as you can see they're pushing FR so much along with it, it might as well be.

 

[felipepepe]

And bringing Tiamat back from the Nine Hells? Didn't she LIVE there until 4e where she has to share a land of canons and jungles with the god of snakes, poisons and treachery? And how the fuck do you kill a god in such a way their soul goes to hell? And why doesn't Asmodeus just let her go because the two of them are more or less on the same page and Tiamat is more or less the guard dog of the first layer of hell?

All those answers, and much more in the new D&D 5th edition lineup! Pre-order now!

 

[Ulminati]

Can't be gayer than what they did to FR for 4E to bring Dragonborn and Spellplague and floating islands and whatnot into being.

I still like Eberron best of all the "official" campaign settings. It was delightfully pulpy, the books had tons of background information, there weren't 500 level 20 demigods running rampant all over the main continent and the setting allowed for interesting non-dungeoncrawly adventures.

 

[deuxhero]

5E will be launched with the Tyranny of Dragons storyline; the Dragon Cult will attempt to resurrect Tiamat. To bring her back from the Nine Hells, they will need to partner up with evil chromatic dragons who will wreak havoc across the Forgotten Realms. The Red Wizards of Thay and the Harpers also feature heavily. The story will be supported by a range of products - from Organized Play adventures to video games.

What the fuck is this? One of D&D's strengths is the lack of a metaplot.

Does the actual article make it clear this isn't just a single module/multipart module?

 

[Dorateen]

I don't think Gygax and Arneson would want anything to do with WotC. And What's with the idea of "the main focus not on mechanics" ?

 

[Azalin]

Can't be gayer than what they did to FR for 4E to bring Dragonborn and Spellplague and floating islands and whatnot into being.

Oh God I remember downloading and reading the pdf of the FR 4E setting some years ago

I still like Eberron best of all the "official" campaign settings. It was delightfully pulpy, the books had tons of background information, there weren't 500 level 20 demigods running rampant all over the main continent and the setting allowed for interesting non-dungeoncrawly adventures.

I never played an Eberron campaign and I regret it, I think it had some intersting potential

 

[Excidium]

I don't think Gygax and Arneson would want anything to do with WotC. And What's with the idea of "the main focus not on mechanics" ?

The panel was about art and lore

 

[Ulminati]

I never played an Eberron campaign and I regret it, I think it had some intersting potential

I've played and run several.
We had:
- A film noir detective campaign in Sharn, based on the adventure trilogy Tolls at Midnight, Quoth the Raven and From Hells Heart, with a few fillers in-between.
- A James Bond locationhopping across Khorvaire with lots of lightning rail and airships and high society gatherings.
- A pretty cool ravenlofty one where we were agents of Karrnath (they like reanimating their soldiers and their king is a vampire), where we investigated soldiers that had gone missing during the repatriation after the 100 year war.
- Indiana jones jungle expiditions to Xendrik, which eventually turned into high level doomsday-apocalypse on the island with death-worshipping elves and Argonessen.

We were going to do one based in Sarlona (filled with communist mind control beings that infest your dreams), but 4E came out and we lost all taste for D&D shortly after.

One of the best thing is that there are no high-level NPCs around (unless you go to Argonessen, the Demon Wastes etc). So there aren't funky divine intervention shit going on. Also, if you die, you die. In Sharn (the Waterdeep of Eberron) there are—if memory serves—3 NPCs capable of casting raise dead. 2 of them are hiding and not willing to perform the ritual, the last is an evil lich. I also like how Eberron broke with the race = alignment shit of D&D. You can have a good Green Dragon, a lawful kobold etc. Heck, the monstrous races even have their own kingdom which is somewhat civilized. Medusa stonemasons are the best 'expert' npc class ever.

 

[Don Peste]

I'll buy the Starter for the tokens and shit.

 

[Xor]

As a DM I could really care less about what they do the official campaign settings, since I'm the kind of nerd who spent a few years building his own homebrew universe.

The prospect of having to play in 4E's FR, however...Well, at least whatever they do to it this time can't be that bad.

 

[Dorateen]

I don't think Gygax and Arneson would want anything to do with WotC. And What's with the idea of "the main focus not on mechanics" ?

The panel was about art and lore

This is the part I was responding to:

There's some interesting philosophy stuff -- WotC says they will continue to sell 4E until interest goes away. They want to sell D&D to people in any format they can, whether that be old editions, video games, or other branded products. They are very much against the "edition war" philosophy.

Indeed, they say their "guiding light" was "What would Gary [Gygax] and Dave [Arneson] do?"

In summary, the main focus is on story, not mechanics. It's all about the story, plus exploring characters outside their traditional tropes. An awful lot of pretty pictures which nobody was allowed to photograph, and lots of gorgeous fluff.

I didn't see anything that qualifies this statement as relegated to Art and Lore. Taken out of context, these are words that certainly jump out as being contrary to the vision of Gygax and Arneson, thus contradicting the stance of WotC.

 

[Excidium]

In summary, the main focus is on story, not mechanics. It's all about the story, plus exploring characters outside their traditional tropes. An awful lot of pretty pictures which nobody was allowed to photograph, and lots of gorgeous fluff.
[/I]
I didn't see anything that qualifies this statement as relegated to Art and Lore. Taken out of context, these are words that certainly jump out as being contrary to the vision of Gygax and Arneson, thus contradicting the stance of WotC.

If you are relating that to the design of the game itself, I don't see the contradiction. Nothing D&D needs more to go back to its roots than a reduced focus on mechanical systems, and 5E seems to at least follow that, it's a lot simpler than third and fourth edition from what I've seen.

 

[Ulminati]

Hmm I wonder if anything leaked.

Art like this:

...won't be in 5E

 

[Excidium]

Please tell me they at least didn't contract Wayne Reynolds.