The announcement of the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons came out today in the NY Times. It promises to capture the hearts and minds of all D&D players, young and old, no matter which edition they thought was best.
My Challenge For You
In your discussions of “5e” (or whatever it ends up being called), stay positive.
We all love slaying dragons. We all love exploring dungeons. Let’s focus on the positive aspects of what make us LOVE a game rather than talking about the new game in the light of how much you hate (your least favorite edition).
Think Of It This Way
When you meet a new romantic interest, you don’t immediately start in telling them how they can be the exact opposite of this girl/guy you dated that you totally hated.
“OMG, and you’d BETTER not leave your beard clippings in the sink! Howard did that and it is SO DISGUSTING. I can’t stand beard clippings!”
“I could not STAND how my ex-girlfriend used to leave her half-empty coffee cups all over the damn house. Seriously, if you can’t understand how to use a goddamn SINK, we will never fall in love!”
Sounds pretty rude, doesn’t it?
Wizards of the Coast is Listening
If you want to be heard, if you want to be respected, if you want to have your views taken into consideration, wrap them in things positive. Wrap them in the love you have for your game. Wrap them in the respect you have for the men and women who work long hours to try to make a game that makes thousands of people like us happy.
Leave your old, old, old edition war drama in 2011. Let’s make 2012 the year of awesome.
More D&D “5e” News:
About e
Hear, hear!
Great stuff, though I was confused about the “bread clippings” until I re-read it. BEARD clippings. That makes more sense.
But seriously, great stuff. I’m very excited for 5e, mostly because of that fantastic dream team of designers and developers they have lined up.
I’m optimistic, because it seems like they’ve learned from what’s happened with 4E (which is a shame, as I rather like 4E, and I’m sorry others didn’t find in it what I did) and they’re really trying to reach out to the fans.
I’m taking your advice on this one and I’m going to be as positive and constructive online about 5e as possible. I’ve started a series of posts on my blog to suggest what I think would be positive ways of growing the D&D brand.
Woooo! I’m really excited to see what comes out of this new edition. Maybe I’ll love it. Maybe I won’t. We’ll see.
Dave & I had dinner with Chris Tulach and he was mentioning that the biggest win with 4e was on the DM’s side, which I totally agree with. The simplicity of 4e was the only reason why I felt confident enough to try my hand at running a campaign. So I’m hoping that the new edition keeps the DM’s job easy enough that it encourages players to step behind the screen. We need more DMs!
The math behind the 4E engine was very solid. Making encounters was a snap. I suspect that this will hold true for 5E/D&D Next.
In my opinion, three things alienated people. The game felt like it was designed to be a series of encounters rather than a story. WotC focused too hard on establishing their own “IP” while tossing out the basics. The whole “powers” system made “easy” classes complex while dumbing down the truly complex classes.
I plan on going to the D&D Experience with an open mind, if nothing else because I’m a geek for game design.