Recently, I have been looking over the Design & Development articles that were published in the run-up to Fourth Edition and it occurred to me that it would be useful to see whether the goals that the designers set for themselves were met, and whether they will be carried into the Next iteration of D&D. Partly inspired by Style75's discussion thread, the idea of D&D Before was born. In this ten-part series of articles, I will look at each of the Design & Development articles released in the early part of Fourth Edition. I stop when the articles begin discussing materials that are to be introduced in the Players Handbook 2, like the bard and barbarian.Fourteen designers wrote articles for Fourth Edition. Remarkably, all three of the lead developers for Next -- Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, and James Wyatt -- were among them. After analyzing the current designers' "before" articles, I will look at the other developers' articles, also by author. By grouping the articles by designer, I hope to get a sense of each designer's preferences and personal style.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford
3. James Wyatt
4. Rob Heinsoo
5. Peter Schaefer and Matthew Sernett
6. Bruce R. Cordell
7. Chris Sims
8. Rich Baker and Logan Bonner
9. Stephen Radney-McFarland
10. Andy Collins
This initial installment will serve as a general index and table of contents for all the articles to follow. Welcome to D&D Before! Please feel free to add coments below, or in the related discussion thread.
4e Designers Working on D&D Next
Mike MearlsEncounter Design in 4th Edition
The Evolution of Magic Items (w/Andy Collins)
Jeremy CrawfordDispel Magic (w/Michele Carter)
James Wyatt: Pantheon
Quests
Under the Hood of the DMG
Death Matters (w/Rob Heinsoo)
Bruce R. CordellElves
Wizards and Wizard Implements
Forgotten Realms (w/Phil Athans)
Other 4e Designers
Rob HeinsooPC Roles
Warlock
Warlord
Peter SchaeferMonsters! Monsters! (w/Rob Heinsoo)
Elite Bulette
Matthew SernettThe Core Mechanic
Chris SimsDemons & Devils
Zombies (Part 2)
Halflings
Richard Baker
Points of Light
Cosmology
Logan Bonner
Critical Hits
Magic Item Slots
Stephen Radney-McFarlandThe Importance of Terrain
Paladin Smites
Traps!
Andy Collins
Feats
Magic Item Levels
Death and Dying
A note on the photos I use. All are taken either from the author's own blog, Wikipedia, the Wizards' website, or screen captures of YouTube videos of interviews they have given. If any of the authors herein do not want their likeness used, you may PM me or leave a comment on the blog and I will remove it.
