Community

The argument of making the game worst because of gognards like it that way it's stupid... WotC should compete with the rpg on the market...not trying to attract gognards...as much as gognards want to say they do...they are not the majority of who bought D&D on the bast or play RPGs currently(and because hating 4e is being "hip" on the rpg comunity)... there are alot of rpg out there, not just pathfinder and D&D, with diferent mechanics, flavor, settings and design, some of them really good and other completly terrible (aces and eights a big example of terrible), not only that, but the market is now shared with other hobbies similar to tabletop RPGs (computer & console games, online rpgs, social network RPing)

The problem is that seems like WotC is trying to ignore how alot of people play RPGs, 80% of people i know that play RPGs is not on stores, or reunite on a house, they do it online. Some by forum/post, others with virtual tabletop software (maptools) and skype, myself included on the use of virtual tabletop software, people are alot busier with alot of things to reunit on a schedule every week to play...so i got into a online D&D group, i play from people on other countries, and it's easier to get into a group, because all rules on 4e are standarized, unlike what 5e/next is going to be with the mess that is going to be modulation of the system (yet they forbid people to playtest the current draft this way),  having a game based on grid/square make it alot easier to play than using feets when using those softwares. 4e works perfectly with those softwares

May 29, 2012 -- 2:57PM, richardscarrypotter wrote:

Outside of the echo chamber that is this particular forum, I think you'll find a lot of disagreement on what the 'worst' parts of D&D through the years have been.

I disagree.  I thought that was the best part of DnD!

The Vancian magic system made a game feel like DnD for me.
As for rolling for HP beig important, yes it is but it doesn't mean that you should alway get max because of it. Having two fighters the same level and con score have exactly the same HP as well just makes them even more clone-like. At least 5E give you the safety net of having your con score be the minimum amount you can gain per level.

But seriously now:

May 29, 2012 -- 12:31PM, Soulliard wrote:

3e and 4e, as imperfect as they are, at least have clear design goals. The only design goal of Next seems to be to make it like the older editions. This is the only explanation for a number of baffling design decisions. The result is that the design is unfocused. Game elements appear to be introduced without any thought to the effect they will have on the player experience, simply because of tradition. This is not how you design a good game.

I hope my impressions are wrong, but everything I've seen points in that direction.

My impression of the design goals for DnD Next was to make the game of DnD customisable (or modular) so that you could play the game that you wanted to play.  Which I imagine involves making it like all the older editions.

Here are just a few game elements that should not be reintroduced:

Vancian Spellcasting
I can understand wanting to make spells a daily resource once again. But why return to Vancian, one of the most unnecesarilly complex spellcasting systems? You could accomplish the same thing with Spell Points or Spellcasting Checks, without having to spend 20 minutes after each rest for the spellcasters to select their spells for the day. Vancian spellcasting is slow and restrictive, and it bogs down the game for everyone.

The polls that Wizards have done show that sentiment is pretty evenly split between Vancian casting and AEDU casting, so I would expect both systems to be represented.

If you dont like it then you do not need to use it.

HP = GP
Every edition of D&D except 4e has suffered from out-of-combat healing becoming meaningless after the first few levels. There's nothing stopping players from buying a barrel full of healing potions, and healing to full after each and every combat. Once healing potions become cheap enough, hp is no longer a daily resource.

I think that trying to artifically limit an adventure day by hit points was bad game design - not being able to keep pushing on because your healing somehow was not working anymore?

Tracking Spell Durations
Tracking the duration of each spell in effect is just one more thing that slows down combat. 1 minute is usually long enough to last for an entire encounter, so why not just make it explicitly last for the whole encounter and do away with some bookkeeping?

I dont know if any edition has done power durations well.  If you are going to have buffs and debuffs etc then you are going to have to track it somehow.

Personally I prefer duration to be linked to how powerful your character is, rather then some blanket duration.
 

Complex Areas of Effect
Next is supposedly a miniatures-optional game. I like my toys, but I can respect this decision. But if that's the case, why are some of the areas of effect so complicated? Without minis, it's difficult enough to determine what is targetted by a square blast or burst. It's even harder to determine what would be targetted by a cone or cylinder.

Yeah, I can see that being a problem for grid combat but not so much if you dont use the grid.

Spell Effects Based on HP Remaining
Some spells, such as sleep, are stronger if the target has few hp remaining. Determining if the targets fall under that hp threshold is only possible through heavy metagaming. There's no internal logic behind this mechanic (lost hp doesn't weaken a character in any other way), so all it does is break immersion when the player asks which enemies have low enough hp and need to make a save. If a spell effect is too powerful, there are other ways to balance it. Make it higher level, or easier to save against, for example.

I think it maybe too earlier for me to comment on this new mechanic.  It could be better or worse.

HP Rolls
Rolling for hp is the most important roll you will ever make for a character, unless they reintroduce save-or-die spells (which would be another item for this list). The results of that roll will stay with the character forever, punishing or rewarding a player for the results of a single random die roll. The die roll doesn't even represent anything in particular, and there's no way to influence it. There's no reason for this important stat to be randomly-generated.

This is the easiest module to implement in your game.  Module A roll hit points or module B take the average score, or module C some other thing entirely.