Core rules won't be released this summer, I'm afraid. Best estimates are spring 2014 earliest :P The FR model will be some sort of hybrid thing leading into the new rules. They might have something simple out by then, but nothing physical.
You sure about that? I remember reading a tweet from around a month ago from a WotC person that the upcoming FR adventure would use the core D&D Next rules.
Those adventures will be edition agnostic. They won't be using 5e rules. Mike said two year development cycle. Haven't heard anything to the contrary.
The argument goes, that some idiot at the table might claim that because there is a "default" that is the only true way to play D&D. An idiotic misconception that should be quite easy to disprove just by reading the rules, coming to these forums, or sending a quick note off to Customer Support and sharing the inevitable response with the group. BTW, I'm not just talking about Next when I say this. Of course, D&D has always been this way since at least the late 70's when I began playing.
My First D&D - 1979 D&D Basic Set (6th Printing)Show
Books aren't going anywhere. Even if the company chooses not to publish them, someone will create one. Even if the company shuts that person's website down, the book will then be out there and once that happens, people will play D&D using the books 'cause it's the medium they prefer.
Hey, my whole thing was just a guess -- your guess is as good as mine.
However, I don't agree -- I think that books are "going somewhere" -- they're changing. The content isn't -- actually, I've seen several studies and reports that show that reading is up -- but the book as an object made of paper -- that is already starting to fade out. It's not going to be something that happens by Easter or anything, but IMO if you're a strategist for a company like WOTC/Hasbro, if you're not thinking about how these larger changes in technology and culture around us can be made to support your business rather than undermine it, then you're going to be out of work soon.
I saw the story the other day from CES about a digital table that was being used to play Monopoly -- the game is still there, even if it's not still played on a cardboard board.
The choice, then, is simple: do they want those customers to pay them or not?
I think you're right, but that the choice is bigger. It's like a leather goods company at the time the model T is hitting the markey. Do you keep making saddles for your loyal but dwindling old customer base, or do you retool your workshop to make leather seats for all those new cars?
I don't disagree with you about the VTT vs Imagination thing. I mean, I've been using projectors and other tech gadgets at the table for years (which is why I'm writing a column for EN World that focuses on Tech). I think there are things that technology is great for at the table, and in preparing to sit down -- more than half of my players these days are using an iPad as their character sheet, for example, and I wouldn't want to make a D&D character without the character builder. Preparing for sessions is made MUCH easier with tools like the compendium, and I'm a huge fan of power2ool.com, which is a fan-created interface for creating your own monsters which also connects to the compendium. But, all of that said, I know that has changed the way we interact with the game, and one of the things I find myself trying to do these days -- after years of 4e's focus on polished, set-piece encounters -- is finding my way back to some of the imagination-driven, RP stuff.
Where I differ from you is that I don't think this is a either/or choice. I don't think -- and it has not been my experience at the table -- that having the tools to run polished, prepared encounters on a digital surface does not prevent our group for having the other sort of imagination-driven interaction when that's what is the most fun.
I think I said in my piece (or in comments on EN world in the thread) that I think that what we've seen is that, so far with the tech stuff there are a lot of things that the technology can improve for us, but the actual act of playing is still really the social act of sitting around the table and playing with friends and cracking fart jokes. Using an iPad app for a character sheet or for the game books doesn't impact that fun, but other solutions may.
Anyway, like I said, it's all just me spitballing. I could be completely wrong. My wife keeps telling me I am about other stuff, why would I be more right about this?
Hey, my whole thing was just a guess -- your guess is as good as mine.
However, I don't agree -- I think that books are "going somewhere" -- they're changing. The content isn't -- actually, I've seen several studies and reports that show that reading is up -- but the book as an object made of paper -- that is already starting to fade out. It's not going to be something that happens by Easter or anything, but IMO if you're a strategist for a company like WOTC/Hasbro, if you're not thinking about how these larger changes in technology and culture around us can be made to support your business rather than undermine it, then you're going to be out of work soon.
I saw the story the other day from CES about a digital table that was being used to play Monopoly -- the game is still there, even if it's not still played on a cardboard board.
Oh totally, the definition of the word "book" has expanded more in the past 30 years than it has in the entire history of books because we have more ways of delivering them to people. I think the important part of the definition of the word "book" here is that it is a piece of work in its own right. A book in this scenario is a piece of writing of a significant length that is self contained. Paper doesn't have to figure in, nor does a computer or ereader for that matter, but it has to stand on its own as a piece of writing. The problem with web utilities and games as a service is that they're not self contained and don't stand on their own and that's OK in the context of a service because it's meant to function as a service, not a book.
That's really my objection in this case. I don't want to rent my game, I want to own it. I want to walk away with something and not be dependent on the goodwill of the company when they decide to move on to a new product. I don't want that migration to a new product to result in my servers going dark, leaving me with nothing to show for my years-long investment in the hobby.
I agree that computers aren't going anywhere any more than books are, and we're constantly coming up with new ways to do stuff and businesses need to keep their eye on trend, but I think one of the things that we often see is a tendency to forget what worked so well with the old medium. The trick is to provide a variety of media to accomodate the fans, not to force the fans into using the medium the company feels is best.
Where I differ from you is that I don't think this is a either/or choice. I don't think -- and it has not been my experience at the table -- that having the tools to run polished, prepared encounters on a digital surface does not prevent our group for having the other sort of imagination-driven interaction when that's what is the most fun.
I think I said in my piece (or in comments on EN world in the thread) that I think that what we've seen is that, so far with the tech stuff there are a lot of things that the technology can improve for us, but the actual act of playing is still really the social act of sitting around the table and playing with friends and cracking fart jokes. Using an iPad app for a character sheet or for the game books doesn't impact that fun, but other solutions may.
Anyway, like I said, it's all just me spitballing. I could be completely wrong. My wife keeps telling me I am about other stuff, why would I be more right about this?
-j
Well I admit I was being more than a little rhetorical and I think it's more complicated than an either/or situation as well, but the key to getting consumers to spend money on something in the digital world is to offer it in a way that the customers want and when they want it. Take things like Game of Thrones. Popular show, HBO only. Not very accessible online unless you've got a cable service or you steal it. Australia accounted for something around 10% of the piracy of the show because it was broadcast a week after it was aired in the US and in a lower quality. Many came forward and said that if it was broadcast at the same time as it was in America and in the same picture quality they would not have found a torrent and watched the broadcast instead.
D&D is no different in that WOTC needs to enable players to customise their game. They might be able to do that with DDI. They might offer me a service that allows me to store my own records and resources locally and pick and choose my updates and save my system mods. As you've pointed out, the community is all ready trying to fill that gap in a digital medium. I hope they succeed but the buck stops with my wallet. If they can't deliver that and they decide not to publish books in some form that I can use without their service then they won't get my money.
I know your piece didn't specifically address any of this, but I think the issues of ownership and property are really important and when I see companies moving away from selling me property and toward selling me a service, I see my rights as a consumer being eroded away because my rights in the context of a service exchange is nowhere near what my rights to property are. We need the freedom to decide. I'm pretty sure WOTC will give us that choice this time around but I'm not so sure they will in the future, which is why I'm taking a strong stance on the issue now.
I did really like your piece though. It's provoked this conversation which is totally awesome
I was going to pull some quotes, but found I'd be quoting just about everything kadim wrote. I'm with him on this -- I don't want to rent my content, I want to own it. I have books from 1st through 4th on my shelf, and since that shelf is in the room where we game, they're easy to refer to without having to power up a smart phone or tablet or laptop. If the power goes out at the table, we light candles and keep going.
I have the 2e Core Tools (and expansion) that I use every single week to plan out the next session. I have a lot of custom data in there that wouldn't exist if I used a DDI-type planning tool. Since people are allowed -- nay, encouraged -- to modify rules as they wish, content that can only be accessed by a company-owned portal completely closes that option, since I can't see any way we could upload our custom content (any update would overwrite our changes). If it's an install-locally product, there's no worry that modified rules, monsters, items, etc. will be deleted by the company.
Yes, ebooks are popular, but physical books are still selling satisfactorily. I anticipate paper existing alongside digital for quite some time, and I'm quite happy with that.
Great article! I love being given things to think about.
In memory of wrecan and his Unearthed Wrecana.5e should strongly stay away from "I don't like it, so you can't have it either."
EN World has a must read article for anyone interested in the digital future of D&D Next.
While I'm pretty sure that WotC has no plans to cease printing game books, my money is on the fact that there will be a run of core book(s) with most or all of the modular content delivered through a digital subscription service. For those of us who depend heavily on DDI to run our 4e games, we're already there. Is this the future for D&D Next as well?
Paizo's digital subscription service seems quite popular so I could see WotC copying that model as well.
The free-to-play model intrigues me. I can see them letting people access an online CB and MB with levels 1 to 5 for free. Then if you want to take your game past level 5, time to pay the cash.
Do you think WotC will backtrack on their web only character builder? Will they release an offline CB for D&D Next?
Discuss!
Actually they should allow the creation of core characters to the highest level with the other options greyed out with a little dollar sign on them and either allow entire books to be bought for $9.99 or whatever and each power, feat, magic item, or spell to be bought with $0.45 cents or whatever. Then they could draw people in using the real "free to play" method instead of the "fee to play" method that gets rejected time and time again in MMOs and other services. They could even use a server side code that is put into each book to allow the purchase of the book to unlock the content and tie it to their account online. There are literally no drawbacks to this, because if you get someone that opens the shrink wrap of the book and uses the code, then puts it back on the shelf, all the new purchaser has to do is email WotC a copy of their receipt and a picture of the code and the previous user of the code gets their account banned and loses access to everything...
As we draw further and further into the "information age", it's only natural D&D needs to evolve with the digital world... despite my paranoia of a cyberpunk future. All in all, pretty cool article. Also, free-to-play is a nifty idea.
As for the virtual table and other things? Everything kind of fell apart for a multitude of reasons (many beyond their control). It's still a real shame. I bet there's a lot more drama behind the scenes than most of us see. Perhaps it's probably best left up to a third party to tackle this stuff.
Sorry, this excuse doesn't fly, they could have picked up the pieces and moved on to another developer at any time and still had their fancy 3D VTT only a year or two late instead of getting a very simple version at the last minute created by a third party in a few months. There is just no excuse for what they did from a business perspective. It was literally a failure of the management...
My dream would be to have a touch screen table top platform which would provide music, videos, and pictures to support each adventure. Characters could be programmed into the platform and the touch screen would help run the adventure and simplify statistics. The touch screen might cost $500 and professionally made adventures would cost $40 each. DMs could create their own adventures for free with software provided. All rule books would be included in PDF format on the touchscreen. There could even be shareware adventures or for sale adventures with ratings. Some scoring mechanism might help compare players around the world. Some Skype like software might allow players in different cities or countries to play together if both owned the touch screen tabletop. It could be like a larger iPad which was dedicated to roleplaying. A touch screen flat monitor which is lying face up.
You realize all of that can be accomplished now with modern tablets...
Hey all, I'm flattered anyone read my stupid column.
I really think that, in the end, printing books and selling pdfs are just too easy, too democratized. The tools are the ticket -- and we're already seeing that play out.
As far as the download/web service choice goes, it really only makes sense to have a web based service. Do you remember how hard it was to get the downloads of the updated character builder when they would launch? The servers would be crippled by the demand for downloads. Updating a web service -- and allowing access to it -- is far more efficient. They also get a lot of great analytical data out of the bargain.
I mean, can you imagine how interesting it would be to see which monsters are accessed most often? If they were to continue with the distributed install model, they would never have those sorts of data points to work with.
And it means that you can interact with that content anywhere -- on your phone, on a friend's computer, on a laptop in Best Buy waiting to get chased off by a guy in a blue shirt. And more and more, this is the interaction model people will expect.
So, yeah, there's a risk of alienating peoploe like you, kadim. They'll need to be careful as they design their business plan around this. But, I think it has some cool potential.
-rg (Radiating Gnome on En World)
Actually using a custom bittorent app would alleviate any server problems...
My dream would be to have a touch screen table top platform which would provide music, videos, and pictures to support each adventure. Characters could be programmed into the platform and the touch screen would help run the adventure and simplify statistics. The touch screen might cost $500 and professionally made adventures would cost $40 each. DMs could create their own adventures for free with software provided. All rule books would be included in PDF format on the touchscreen. There could even be shareware adventures or for sale adventures with ratings. Some scoring mechanism might help compare players around the world. Some Skype like software might allow players in different cities or countries to play together if both owned the touch screen tabletop. It could be like a larger iPad which was dedicated to roleplaying. A touch screen flat monitor which is lying face up.
You realize all of that can be accomplished now with modern tablets...
That would in no way be big enough for most gaming groups. That's probably why kezzek specified "larger iPad". I'd want something about the size of 20 iPads.
In memory of wrecan and his Unearthed Wrecana.5e should strongly stay away from "I don't like it, so you can't have it either."
