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I liked 3.5 and 4th edition both, and I'm excited for 5th edition. Most of my problems with what Wizards has done with D&D actually have nothing to do with rules. So here's my short list of things I want changed with the move to 5th edition that have nothing to do with rules.

Now, I haven't been on the forums a whole lot in the past year, so I'm a bit out of it in terms of news and Wizards' latest efforts to support 4th. I genuinely welcome any corrections anyone has for me. 

1. A license for 3rd party products that avoids the excesses of the OGL and the GSL

This has got to be possible. There has got to be some license out there that prevents the production of an entire alternate fantasy RPG competing with D&D and the posting of the whole rules-set online, but is very generous and liberal and doesn't scare away many worthwhile 3rd party companies with its restrictions. If in doubt, Wizards, err on the side of being generous and reasonable and courting support for the new edition.

2. A real, generous fansite policy, right from the start

I cringe every time I remember the "fan site kit [license]" debacle, and as far as I know the problem was never really revisited or fixed (please, correct me if I'm wrong). Wizards: you need a real, generous fansite policy right from the start. Not a license that fansites can accept so that they can use a few copyrighted images, but a clear, simple, liberal policy outlining exactly what fansites can and cannot have on them. And as I've said several times, it should be generous: you should explicitly allow the inclusion of a small amount of your own content if it helps make for a better fansite.

3. Better customer relations

I used to play a little Diablo clone called Torchlight. Before the game was released, I hung out on the forums. The developers of that game were amazing. They posted in the forums constantly. You asked a question and there was, like, an 80% chance an actual developer would answer it that day. I watched with astonishment one time when a person with an eye problem posted on a Sunday afternoon, asking that a feature of the game be disable-able because it made it unplayable for him. A few hours later a developer posted, saying that he just went into the office and added the ability to disable the feature to the developer console. On a Sunday afternoon.

And you know what? That game sold terrifically well for a company of that size, and up until the release of the game the forums were a paradise.  I don't remember a single troll, or indeed, a single argument. Things went downhill just a bit after release, but it's still quite nice over there, with the developers constantly taking the time to communicate with their fans.

Now, I know a tabletop RPG developer couldn't exactly do what that developer did with that eye problem person. And I know that these forums with probably never be as pleasant as those were. But I genuinely believe that Wizards would be a thousand times better off in terms of customer satusfaction if they constantly posted on the forums. Their modus operandi right now seems to be silence: they virtually never post, they don't answer questions, and the few times you do hear from an actual developer it's often over on ENWorld instead of their own forum!

So come on, Wizards: you've tried the silent treatment approach to running a forum, and it's earned you a lot of ire. Try the opposite. Post regularly. Answer people's questions when they address you. Let the trolls troll. The legitimate customers will see your interest and your politeness and appreciate your new openness to their concerns.

4. Reasonable continued support for 4^th edition

I suspect this is already in the pipeline, since Wizards is adopting an "every edition of D&D was great" attitude now. But Wizards: you gotta avoid hanging out to dry people who want to continue playing 4th edition. Keep selling 4th edition PDFs, and keep providing 4th edition online tools, perhaps for a $2/month subscription (since, no doubt, the magazines are moving on). Don't require people who want to stick with 4th edition to pay for 5th edition material in their subscription to maintain use of their 4th edition tools. That would make baby kittens very sad.

5. Better adventures

Wizards, most people just don't like your adventures all too much. The writing and design are just not as well-regarded as those of your direct competition in Paizo. You need to change something, drastically, about how you produce them. As in, the people who are making them now, need to not be making them any more. Hire some new, really good writers. At least do something. Whatever other companies do that allows them to make adventures that everyone consistently regards as high-quality, stop doing what you're doing now and start doing that.

1.) Great modules. 32 page winners in soft cover are fine with me. Good location and a good challenge to overcome.

2.) Core book(s) only need to play. Minis and DDI are optional. If the game was cut down to Core Rulebook and Monster Manual so much the better.

3.) I'd like Dark Sun to come back. I never got to play 4E Dark Sun and 2E was a challenge to run.

4.) A big new D&D Next campaign setting. One that includes the many features of D&D Next and has decent support (one or two books a year).

5.) New books on cool things--steampunk fantasy, underwater adventures, Gothic horror, planar adventures, Underdark, wilderness exploration, sword/sorcery option etc.

Jan 10, 2012 -- 7:02AM, Kravell wrote:

4.) A big new D&D Next campaign setting. One that includes the many features of D&D Next and has decent support (one or two books a year).

5.) New books on cool things--steampunk fantasy, underwater adventures, Gothic horror, planar adventures, Underdark, wilderness exploration, sword/sorcery option etc.

I definitely like those two points. We need some more differentiation than "FR, FR, Eberron, FR, FR, FR, Dark Sun. Oh, and FR." It's what I felt was most lacking in 4E.

Also, as I'm a staunch defender of OGL, we definitely need an equivalent, and based on some quotes from old Legends & Lore, I believe we may get one. 

Good modules. I don't care all that much about buying splatbooks, what I want is stuff that I can use. Also, I use the word module, rather than adventure, because I don't want a prepackaged adventure. Instead I want something like the Keep on the Borderlands or Isle of Dread. No plot, just stuff I can use.