D&D's Big Announcement

If you're a "Dungeons and Dragons" (#DnD) player, you probably have an opinion on "Fourth Edition."

Over the decades since #DnD was introduced, it's been revised a few times.  Each time, players had to get used to new rules, adapt their characters and their play styles, and of course buy new books and materials.  I've been around for all the major transitions after the first (among our group, only Craig had the original rules, as I recall, and we didn't play them.)  Being an optimist, I typically thought that each new change was good, the new editions seemed like natural extensions to the existing rules, so I bought the new material pretty quickly.  This despite the fact that didn't play for at least a decade.  I

Then came "Fourth Edition."

4th was very, very different.  Reading the rules, it was clear that the development team had been influenced by -- or perhaps was trying to capture the feel of -- Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games such as World of Warcraft.  Sure, most of the traditional #DnD classes and races were there (but not all of them!) but the game play and character design was very combat-centric.  Characters no longer started out fairly weak, but rather fairly strong.  Advancements in levels were very focused on improving the character in combat situations.  Sure, there were non-comabt options, but if a character chose those -- for the character-building role-playing which was a key component of prior editions -- then that character was at a significant disadvantage in a fight, and might even be a very weak point in a group situation.

It took me a long time to decide to buy 4th.  I've been running #DnD for my "Dude Friends" for years, and now for my "Son Group" for a year or more.  I never tried 4th with either group, because of the drastic change which would be required.

But I did buy the books. 

And now Wizards of the Coast has announced that they are creating yet another edition!  It even made the New York Times.

I'm not upset about the money, to be honest with you.  I buy games pretty frequently.  Sometimes, they never get played.  Most often, I play them, but every once in a while, a game sits on a shelf, having provided me nothing more than a cool thing to read, or the anticipation of fun.  4th Edition #DnD might be just that.  I have enjoyed reading it, and I really like a few of the new concepts (Minions -- great idea.)

But now that the creation of "5th" has been announced, I doubt I will ever play 4th.

Amazingly, the designers are asking for input from the gaming community.  That should be interesting.  For every three #DnD players, there are at least four opinions on how things should work.  The consolidation of ideas will get geometrically difficult.

But the motive is good.  I bet 4th is not nearly as successful, financially, as they would have liked.  Getting customer input sounds like a great idea -- as long as they haven't given up doing innovation of their own.  Because, really, we don't need just a warmed over #DnD.  We want the excitement of the legacy game, with new ideas that make us say "Wow!  Perfect!  I want to play that!"

In the meanwhile, my two groups will continue playing the amalgam of 3.0 and 3.5 rules we've grown accustomed to, and we'll continue having a great time imagining our heroics, within the bounds of the game system which has kept us playing for so many years.

[That is, if I can figure out how much trouble Ezekiel, Garthor Armorbellows, Sifla Armorbellows and their group will have getting past Stampede Ford on their way to the big city of Deepwater.  So much preparation needed!  So little time!]

[Follow up article:  I can still use my old rules and play new D&D?  That sounds interesting....]