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Although the 'anticipated' release for DnDN is August 2014, they have made it clear on many occasions that they are willing to take whatever time it will take in order to accomplish their goals with D&D...that means it may not release until 2015 or even later. The game brand has redirected their marketing focus to Board Games, and Re-releases and System Neutral information books so that they can sustain the brand without having to rush out the release. Yes, a company needs a product on the shelves, but these things give them products to offer to maintain.

D&DNext will release when its good and ready.

As to a few other claims on the board...they Core has been 'mostly' finished, however, Core != BASIC...BASIC is just the most streamlined version of the game exercising the core. Some other elements aren't necessarily Core, but rather, the Default Options assumed to be used. Every Class, Every Race, Every subsystem like Skills and Feats is in essence modular content. A Modular game can in fact start with Default choices already chosen...shoot, the examples of other Modular games sited on this forum do this already, assumed options pre-chosen is how GURPS is handled, a particular set of options makes up a GURPS Fantasy game, a different set of default options put together makes GURPS: Traveller and so on. The same is true for the White Wolf systems, WoDampire uses a set of defaults to express the Vampire game, WoD:Werewolf uses some of the same defaults, some different ones, and so on.

D&D's Modular approach is an endeavor far and away bigger than what any other game has attempted. Larger scope, for one, and for another, they are talking about not only making it Modular, but also including System Options that can change the Core of the game at its base, so you have Dials, Modules, and what I like to call Mutations all possible. They have to do all this, AND please almost 40 yrs of fans and keep up the feel of the game that pretty much invented the RPG genre.

I may not be happy with the playtest as it currently is, but I am still very hopeful of what it can become. I see definitive evidence of them LISTENING to the playtest feedback and changing things they had previously set in stone. I am a die hard 4e fan, I am also a Grognard who's played since 1978, and have played every edition, so I definitely break out of the various stereotypes that people try to claim....I don't see another playtest packet coming out really quickly BECAUSE they are trying it out in Encounters and don't want to disrupt the Encounters season too much by constantly changing the rules. I expect no more than 1 packet release throughout the season in fact, and maybe 1 or 2 minor updates/corrections and that's it. 

Mar 17, 2013 -- 7:55PM, Shamanstarr wrote:

Although the 'anticipated' release for DnDN is August 2014, they have made it clear on many occasions that they are willing to take whatever time it will take in order to accomplish their goals with D&D...that means it may not release until 2015 or even later. The game brand has redirected their marketing focus to Board Games, and Re-releases and System Neutral information books so that they can sustain the brand without having to rush out the release. Yes, a company needs a product on the shelves, but these things give them products to offer to maintain.

D&DNext will release when its good and ready.

As to a few other claims on the board...they Core has been 'mostly' finished, however, Core != BASIC...BASIC is just the most streamlined version of the game exercising the core. Some other elements aren't necessarily Core, but rather, the Default Options assumed to be used. Every Class, Every Race, Every subsystem like Skills and Feats is in essence modular content. A Modular game can in fact start with Default choices already chosen...shoot, the examples of other Modular games sited on this forum do this already, assumed options pre-chosen is how GURPS is handled, a particular set of options makes up a GURPS Fantasy game, a different set of default options put together makes GURPS: Traveller and so on. The same is true for the White Wolf systems, WoDampire uses a set of defaults to express the Vampire game, WoD:Werewolf uses some of the same defaults, some different ones, and so on.

D&D's Modular approach is an endeavor far and away bigger than what any other game has attempted. Larger scope, for one, and for another, they are talking about not only making it Modular, but also including System Options that can change the Core of the game at its base, so you have Dials, Modules, and what I like to call Mutations all possible. They have to do all this, AND please almost 40 yrs of fans and keep up the feel of the game that pretty much invented the RPG genre.

I may not be happy with the playtest as it currently is, but I am still very hopeful of what it can become. I see definitive evidence of them LISTENING to the playtest feedback and changing things they had previously set in stone. I am a die hard 4e fan, I am also a Grognard who's played since 1978, and have played every edition, so I definitely break out of the various stereotypes that people try to claim....I don't see another playtest packet coming out really quickly BECAUSE they are trying it out in Encounters and don't want to disrupt the Encounters season too much by constantly changing the rules. I expect no more than 1 packet release throughout the season in fact, and maybe 1 or 2 minor updates/corrections and that's it. 

Those defaults are additive to the core is the thing. They're not a part of the core. In fact, the "defaults" you mention are the actual modular part of the game.

Mar 18, 2013 -- 6:20AM, Mand12 wrote:

Mar 17, 2013 -- 7:19PM, Tony_Vargas wrote:

Mar 17, 2013 -- 5:47PM, Zardnaar wrote:

Erm I guess 20+ years count as a long time ago for D&D to go out of print and get replaced by AD&D.

That's the point: it was concurrent.  In the 70s/80s it was intentional.  In the 90s, people just kept using the Rules Cyclopaedia.  One of the cute things about 3e is that the numbering made sense whether you were looking at AD&D editions (1e & 2e) or D&D edition (0D&D & BECMI/RC). 

The cute thing about Next is that it'll make sene even if they conveniently forget that 4e ever existed....

 

It's worth pointing out that 4e was barely ever really called 4e.

It has been called 4e constantly here on the forums since its release.  If you're talking about out in the real world and not on the forums, none of the editions are frequently referred to as 1e, 2e, 3e, etc.  Everyone I know and have talked with calls them First Edition, Second Edition, etc.  3.5 is the only exception and I often hear that called Third Edition, since it's not really an edition of its own.

Mar 17, 2013 -- 2:49PM, Tony_Vargas wrote:

Seems unlikely:  their mandate appears to be to unite the fan-base.  Nevermind that the fan base now has 3 distinct divisions that have discovered they don't want anything to do with eachother.

Their real mandate is to implement Bounded Accuracy.

Mar 18, 2013 -- 7:26AM, Mand12 wrote:

Mar 18, 2013 -- 7:10AM, wrecan wrote:

Mar 18, 2013 -- 6:20AM, Mand12 wrote:

It's worth pointing out that 4e was barely ever really called 4e.

What was it called? 

According to the cover, "Dungeons and Dragons"

This is what I called it.
When dealing with people outside of the forums, I found it easier to refer to it is "the most recent edition of D&D" than to try to describe OD&D, BECMI, 1E, 2E, 3E, 3.5, and 4E as different things, and that 4E isn't really the fourth edition of the game...it would technically be the 6th or 7th edition (depending on how you seperate the BECMI/1E time-frame, or if you seperate it at all).