Your thoughts on D&D Next

[Arjan]

Today i took a quick glance on the D&D next playtest (very quick) and i was quite suprised how much it actually looks like a 3.5 revamp... maybe revamp is even to big, more like a 3.5+

what are your thought on it?

[Vicente]

I've read a good part of the materials, and so far I like what I see. But the playtest was very basic too, and they seem to be changing even fundamental things at this phase of the project.

Honestly, I'm pretty sure no matter what they put out I'll probably buy at least the core books Now about what I would love them to do, I have been reading lately quite a few DnD retroclones (OSRIC, Myth and Magic, ACKS, L&L,...) and I've enjoyed them a lot, so I hope they do something along the lines of AD&D 1e or 2e as a base, with extensions to add the best things of 3e and 4e.

[Magian]

They way they make it sound I envision that the basic rules will be like OD&D and with expanded rules to comply with edition variances along the way. This to me would make the most sense if they wanted to bring the player base back into their fold. It would allow for players to focus on the rules they want to play, and allow for products to be sought by the entire base. The expanded worlds with the so called naturalist outlook could be ignored by the OD&D while the mega dungeons could be their focus. The "naturalists" could be using the mega dungeons as supplements to their settings. With one outlook, conversions from one ruleset to the next would be easy since the game is being unified. At least that is what they intend.

I never understood why they didn't do this in the first place. I always used OD&D to introduce players as the basics. I used Mystara and converted things to AD&D my more favored system along with the various AD&D settings. With there being somewhat of a gap with AD&D 2E to 3E I'm sure more people would favor the 3E as well as pathfinder. However, coming out with a rules book for each edition type with conversion rules for adventures and supplements, and maybe even each one of those having conversion pages where needed, they could revive their business pretty easily. Rather than constantly reprinting the same books with new editions, they could bring back their entire line of books and fit them into the selling scheme of new products. But of course we are talking about a business with business minds running things that tend to lack vision and rarely make sense along those lines. With their prime motivations as keeping and justifying their jobs, I doubt anything of the sort will come about.

[Rowan]

I think it looks pretty awesome! I'm quite enthusiastic about it. I can see how every previous edition has influenced it. However, I think it feels most like 2e. I actually think there's less of 3e than most of the others in it--which I think is a good thing. 3e was, IMO, a transitional experiment. 2e with mechanics smoothed out, but horribly imbalanced. 4e swung too far in rigorous balance and gamey-ness. 5e seems a return to the story feel of 2e with the lessons learned from 3-4.

[sirgareth]

I ran the playtest materials 3 different times. The first group had only played 4e, and after some adjustment, they really liked the freedom to improvise during combat a little more than 4e. They told me that they felt they had to be "more creative" to overcome challenges, as they no longer had a large proscribed arsenal of specific abilities.

The second group had started during AD&D, and they commented that the playtest felt much more like the early rules sets more so than 3.0 or later, but incorporating good updates from the later rulesets.

As a DM, I found running the game much more akin to AD&D / 3.5 than to 4e. The monster stats were presented more like an old school monster, and of course the module was from an earlier time.

I liked the way that powers were handled, I thought the fighter was a little too much like 2e than 4e (only swung a weapon) and the wizard was a nice mix of old and new (few powerful fire-and-forgets with basic attack powers that allowed for some battlefield control). Healing was a mess, but that's always a hard balance to strike.

Overall, the rules felt rough, but were headed in a nice direction that should appeal to oldtimers and newcomers alike. Everyone will have to make some adjustments to their expectations. This is not exactly like any single version of the game, but it is like every version of the game in some ways.