D&D 5.0: That Didn't Take Long....

While checking out some YouTube videos yesterday I cam across one that essentially introduced the newest version of D&D - yes, that's right, ANOTHER, NEWER D&D than 4.0! The video is here.

Now I warn you, the video is an hour long. I sat through it all, including the Q&A session. It basically iterates exactly what my concerns and complaints were about the direction D&D was taking. Apparently the designers are well aware that the power in the game has shifted dramatically from the hands of the DM to the hands of the players since 1st edition. They finally realized that this is not optimal for game play (duh) and are starting to shift back to the middle-ground paradigm of 2nd edition.

Some very interesting questions were posed and the panelists danced around some of the questions, dodged others, but tried very diplomatically to address all the questions posed. These designers realize that they are there to provide a framework only, not tell you how to play the game. They create the tools that the players and DM use to enjoy the game. I'm glad they realize that. Really I am. However, one of the questions posed regarded re-buying all the books. Of course they did not answer it in the way anyone wanted them to, but they did address the fact that the constant re-vamping of the game had hurt it in the last 3 versions released (namely 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0). Essentially they want all players of D&D to be playing the new version. They want to make a core "kernel" of rules that apply to all games equally, then modularize the extensions that make certain game play possible and certain settings possible. So, if you liked the story-telling version of D&D (namely 2.0 and 2.5) playing in Forgotten Realms, then you use the rules for dramatic storytelling and the Forgotten Realms accessory which adds and subtracts from the kernel rules until you have what you want.

I think this may finally be the way to go with D&D. Making a completely neutral version of the rules separates all the aspects of the game into its base components and the DM picks and chooses what he or she wants to exist in his or her game. Collectors can still buy all the products and gamers can buy just what they want to play. It seems they are going to strip out all the tweaked rules from 3.0+ and leave the system streamlined, although feats and skills may still remain as a means of explaining how some rules work (i.e. climbing, swimming, perception, etc.) Some of the additions were pretty useful and made sense - not all were as elegant as a "simple" d20 roll that they promised. When it takes a page to describe how to even use the skill and all the modifiers and situations, then there is a problem with the system. I think that defining ahead of time how much detail a campaign will need is something of a watershed moment for the designers and they will have to determine how in-depth some things need to be.

I was NOT impressed in any way with version 4.0. I found the key elements of the game to be overwhelmed with a new way of doing things that, in my opinion, made it into another game entirely. I realize that MY favorite version of the game may never see print again (although they are releasing special editions of the core rules for 1st edition in July 2012), but the game should at least be recognizable as D&D so that if one of us "old timers" picks up a book we don't feel like we need a glossary to understand all them new-fangled rules.