Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'D&D'

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MagickalMemories ( 832 )
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Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'D&D'

Post by MagickalMemories »

Seems like they finally realized 4e cannot be salvaged:

http://geekout.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/09 ... hpt=hp_bn8

Your thoughts?
Soon, diehard players of the iconic “Dungeons and Dragons” role-playing game will be getting a new way to slash orcs and slay dragons.

Mike Mearls, lead designer for D&D at parent company Wizards of the Coast, announced Monday that it is developing a new version of Dungeons and Dragons.

While the details are still to be developed, Mearls said the latest iteration will aim to incorporate the best of its predecessors, along with the varying play styles and different approaches of the players who have loved them.

As such, Mearls said the company will be reaching out to its player base for suggestions.

“We could guess at those play styles, or use our own, but gathering a broad range of input makes sense to us,” he said. “We want to cast as wide a net as possible. We can only deliver on that promise if we give the varied audience of D&D players a chance to kick the tires and let us know if we’re on target.”

A long-running tabletop role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons was created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. - better know in the hobby world as TSR or TSR hobbies.

In 1997, Wizards of the Coast, creator of the popular “Magic: The Gathering” card game, bought TSR and has been publishing D&D ever since.

Over the years, there have been several different editions of the game. Wizards of the Coast currently produces materials only for whichever is the most current version, while third-party companies are allowed to publish materials for players still enjoying the older versions.

Fans differ on which updates over the years should be considered new versions. But most acknowledge six versions, with what’s referred to as 4th Edition being the most current.

This announcement, or “official acknowledgment,” of a new edition of the game is something that Wizards of the Coast has been laying the groundwork for for roughly a year.

Hints have appeared in the “Legend and Lore” column in the online magazine devoted to the game, “Dragon.” Speculation hit a fever pitch when former Wizards employee Monte Cook, one of the lead designers for D&D’s third edition, was rehired.

Mearls confirmed Monday that Cook is the new version’s lead designer.

“Monte Cook is one of the smartest, most creative game designers I know,” said Owen K.C. Stephens, a professional game designer who worked for Wizards of the Coast for 14 months. “Any chance to read his thoughts about game design in general, and what makes D&D popular and/or successful, is always good.”

Mearls said, after acknowledging the past year’s speculation, that Wizards of the Coast knows the announcement won’t be a shocker for many diehard D&D fans.

"We’re not trying to completely surprise or shock people with a change to the game,” he said. “In some ways, this is a natural time period to start looking at the next edition of the game.”

He said the update is, in part, geared toward reinvigorating the classic franchise at a time when many gamers are going online for their epic quests.

"I think there are also fears out there that tabletop RPGs are going away, that there are these external forces that are going to eventually squeeze the hobby into a continual twilight," Mearls said. "I think the hobby needs a jolt, something positive and exciting, to kick-start it into its next 40 years.”

One question on the minds of most D&D players is what the new edition is going to be called. D&D has had an edition number associated with it since the release of “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition” in 1989. Will this be called 5th Edition? “Most people will think of this as the fifth edition of D&D. In many ways, though, we want this to be a version of the game that embraces the entirety of D&D’s history," he said, "One that all D&D fans can turn to and use.

“I think that the actual naming of the game will come down to how the play-tests go and how people react to it. I’d love to just call it Dungeons & Dragons and leave the edition numbering behind.”

“Dungeons and Dragons - that brand is far stronger than worrying about version numbers or cute marketing terms like ‘30th anniversary edition,' ” said Mike Shea, who runs the D&D blog SlyFlourish.com and has written two books about the game. “However, for those already part of the community, they will likely want to call it ‘fifth edition’ just to separate it.

“Not heavily promoting a version name also gives them the option to market version-agnostic products like the Dungeon Tiles, Map Packs, miniatures and flavor-focused setting source books.”

In Monday’s announcement, Wizards of the Coast invited the D&D fan base to help shape the future of the game. But will content really be shaped by players outside the company?

“We are 100% committed to giving players and DMs (dungeon masters, who run the games) ample time to play-test and provide us with their feedback,” Mearls said.

Players will get their first chance to play-test the proposed changes this month at the Dungeons & Dragons Experience convention – running January 26-29 in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Convention attendees will have early access to the initial draft of the design concepts they’ve been working on. In the spring, Wizards of the Coast will begin an open play-test of the game, available to anyone who wants to sign up at wizards/dndnext. In early December, I got a chance to play-test this new edition, and I can tell you that it was fun to play.

Mearls said the company has been doing internal play-testing for a few months. Most of the time, employees have been testing mechanics of the game to make sure it plays at the table the way they think it should.

Shea said he appreciated the thought that the “Dragon” column showed the new version’s creators are giving it.

“I like how both Cook and Mike Mearls went back and dissected the original concepts behind D&D and hunted down the core elements of the game,” he said. “I like how they both have discussed designing D&D as a modular game with a core set of rules that can be expanded to add levels of complexity as a gaming group desires.”

Cook is working with Robert Schwalb and Bruce Cordell, two names that are well-known in D&D for their work on fourth-edition products.

As with anything that is as deeply ingrained into the geek culture and community, the announcement of a new version of D&D will probably be met with a level of reaction that, to quote “Ghostbusters,” could reach “dogs and cats living together” levels of hysteria.

“It will be a re-creation of the scene from the movie ‘Airplane II,’ when the passengers were told the vessel was out of coffee,” Stephens said. “[That will be] followed by increasingly intense online debates about which edition of D&D is better, and what the chances are that the fifth edition will be the next best thing since sliced bread, or the end of Western civilization.”

“[Gamers] are a passionate bunch who are extremely vocal and ready to give our most blunt opinions about things at the drop of a hat,” said Jerry LeNeave, who runs the D&D blog DreadGazebo.net and is content director for D&D wiki Obsidian Portal, a free service for tracking all of your tabletop RPGs online.

“The thing about those opinions is we often double back to take a second look at things after we have cooled off. So if a new edition were to be launched, I think the community would need some time to regain its composure before forming truly fair opinions.”

Stephens said he’s hoping for strong support for players who want to develop abilities and skills outside of combat in the new edition.

Shea wants the combat part of the game – obviously a big part for any player – to run faster. He’d also like to see the game be consistently challenging for players (and their characters) at all levels.

Ultimately, it seems as though the kind of game that fans want the new D&D to be is up to them.
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Re: Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'Dungeons

Post by starslayer »

Interesting! I hope its not like 4th edition. If the game gets back to its roots then I'll buy. I play Labyrinth Lord by Goblinoid Games right now. A Retro D&D game.
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Re: Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'Dungeons

Post by wookieegunner »

Let's see:

1) Hire the guy who designed 3rd Edition.
2) Going back to it's roots.
3) Getting player comments.

Sounds like someone has finally paid attention to the number of people who left D&D for Pathfinder.
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Re: Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'Dungeons

Post by Adunaphel »

I guess being outsold in the Fantasy RPG niche by a company that is basically using your last edition is a bad thing...

I too like the Labyrinth Lord rules, and I like the Mutant Epoch rules too (because the same thing applies to the newest Gamma World just like 4h ed. D&D).

Now, if only somebody could fix all of GW's inadequacies by outselling them...

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Re: Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'Dungeons

Post by MagickalMemories »

In all honesty, I've been so soured by 4e that I won't "waste" money on a 5e book (or whatever they call it).
I'd probably (a) find someone with a copy I could borrow or (b) find a digital copy.
If I looked it over, LIKED IT, and it was something my group wanted to get into, I'd THEN buy the books (and ditch the digital copy).

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Re: Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'Dungeons

Post by spiralingcadaver »

Well, I'm glad I bought up 3.5 stuff when 4 came around instead of going for 4.

It's pretty remarkable about the backlash, though. Usually, it's just the old guard that doesn't like the shift, and most eventually are more comfortable with the newest version (which, in most cases, is an improvement).
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Re: Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'Dungeons

Post by prime »

spiralingcadaver wrote:It's pretty remarkable about the backlash, though. Usually, it's just the old guard that doesn't like the shift, and most eventually are more comfortable with the newest version (which, in most cases, is an improvement).
Well that's the rub. If 4th Ed isn't being outsold by Pathfinder, then it's at least on even footing. That's a huge change from the total market domination they had with 3.5. And for a company like Hasbro/WotC, that means major changes are in order to re-establish the brand's dominance (and revenue stream, which is the real driving force).

So it's a safe bet they're going to backtrack to the "previous big thing" (which is the natural inclination for any publishing house), and I just hope that Monte Cook and team can throw enough innovation and coolness into the game system to pull us (and our spending) away from Pathfinder.

No pressure, Monte. No pressure. :roll:
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Re: Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'D&D'

Post by wookieegunner »

The problem with using the word "usual" in this case is that 4th Edition was such a huge change (complete rules rewrite) that it wasn't the traditional "I don't like this new version" it was "I don't like this game". Image if GW decided to rewrite 40K so that the game used rules similiar to Warmachine's new "large scale rules". That is effectively what happened.
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Re: Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'D&D'

Post by psychobob »

MEH... Sorry... I played HEAVILY in highscholl when it was still 2nd edition. I LOVE 1st and 2nd edition. I don't think that I would play the new stuff just because I don't feel like it's been back to its roots for a long time. I played a bit of 3.5 but I felt that they ruined it all. Personally I'd prefer to see reprintings of some of the old material.
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Re: Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'D&D'

Post by MagickalMemories »

I've said it before. I started with the original D&D when I was 10. I played that through 2ed. I loved them all.
I fought 3.X, but ended up liking it. AD&D 2e is still my favorite incarnation of the game. I'm introspective enough, however, to know that the majority of my feelings on this are nostalgia. Only a little of it is because of the way 3.X focuses more on combat than role playing.
That said, if I'd been confronted with D&D/AD&D at 10 yrs old, and D&D3.X at the same time but under a different name, and was asked which I wanted to play, I KNOW I'd have chosen 3.X. It was a very streamlined system and was very easy to learn. Thac0 was not easy for this 10 year old kid to teach himself... and I was always ahead of almost anyone I knew within 1 to 2 years of me, intellectually speaking.

I despise 4e, and look forward to seeing what they do with 5e.

Eric
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Re: Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'D&D'

Post by Mr. Bigglesworth »

I started with 2e and loved it. 3.s came out and it felt more streamlined but to big. Skills seemed counter intuitive, I couldn't swim because I had no points, it just felt like I was limited with my skill sets. Also you get to a point where you could power fame too easy.

4e dropped the power game and made it feel like a current mmo. I hated it, I couldn't create a unique character. I felt my cleric, was just that, a cleric. I couldn't make him my cleric a unique character. The roleplayibg aspect was lost. It felt like a minatures game.

I hope they do something good here.
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Re: Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'D&D'

Post by kturock »

I started gaming in 1980, when I started college. I was 18. Now, at 50, I've played more sytems than I can recall. I've modded, and playtested some that were released and others that died on the press. [I know I play tested Settlers of katan/catan [sp?]. at a convetion in the late 80's.

I started with D&D the AD&D 1st ed and then left when 2nd ed came out with the buy more books, 1 for each class; attitude.

I had easily 3 dozen other rpg's and played or playtested at least that many more. You name it and i've probably owned or played it. [except for V:TM, but I did own Demon.]

I tried Savage Worlds and like it for most every genre.
I've tried FUDGE, ala' Dresden Files RPG and like it also; but it requires a more 'story-tellying' group as opposed to 'minis gamers'.
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I read through the 4e rules in a couple hours.
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I'll read the new version, only if I get it for free.

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I'm not a big fan of class-based systems either.
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Re: Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'D&D'

Post by MagickalMemories »

Skills seemed counter intuitive, I couldn't swim because I had no points, it just felt like I was limited with my skill sets. Also you get to a point where you could power fame too easy.
I think you didn't fully read the skills section. Any skill (such as swimming) in 3e CAN be used "untrained," unless it is marked as unable to be. So, for swimming, you'd make your same check as you would if you had the skill, you just wouldn't get to add any ranks.

Eric
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Re: Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'D&D'

Post by IraShaine1972 »

I just think the WotC/Hasbro are hell bent on D&D being a lucrative "brand" come hell or high water. Frankly I think that its just a money based grab. The idea of creating some new awesome D&D game is a tired idea. In over 30 years of playing D&D and rpgs in general I think the game just is what you make it. Currently there is Pathfinder which to me is as good a D&D game as I really feel any need for. Paizo made what 4e should have been. If I dont want to play that there are all manner of clones out there. RPGs are creative games and some new edition isn't going to inspire my imagination beyond what it already is at.

When I started this hobby it was based on imagination and creation. Now its all about generating hype to cash in on a release then piss on it when its all over. Re write it or re sculpt it or re design it and start the hype all over again for another splash sale. Thats probably why the fantasy gaming industry gets less and less of my money all the time. Nothing new or original just re hashes and price hikes.
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Re: Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of 'D&D'

Post by starslayer »

I'd be glad if the game is revamped & rereleased. It might mean mew players.
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