Man. I have been so swamped with life lately that blogging about D&D Next has been impossible. But that officially ended a couple of hours ago, and so I’m finally free to post!
I’m just going to bang out a quick reaction to several Daily D&D items that have come up over the past couple weeks, in no particular order, just to get the juices flowing. Let me know if you agree (or disagree!) in the comments section.
So, after a frustrating morning of broken links and nerdrage, I finally got my hands on the playtest documents. What follows are my first knee-jerk reactions concerning the playtest materials:
First: This should really be called “D&D: Dungeon Master’s Edition.” Because boy howdy, have they placed a lot of power in the hands of the DM! Rules lawyers are going to hate this edition, if what we see here remains true. You could also call this “D&D: Storyteller’s Edition,” because it really seems to have a lot of little bits that boil down to, “Figure out what you want to do, let the Dm decide what ability covers that, and make a role.” In other words, it seems to be a case of “DM as Storyteller first.” [Reminds me of the path the recently released Marvel Super Heroes Roleplaying Game took.]
Second: This feels most to me like AD&D 2E. I’m down with that. Also, I don’t detect a whole lot of 4E in here at all. I’m down with that, too. Frankly, the fact that there doesn’t appear to be a Power in sight just warms the cockles of my heart.
Third: I freaking LOVE these character sheets. More text than numbers! For the first time in a long time, the character sheet doesn’t look like math homework. I hope this it a trend.
Fourth: Lots of good things about the pregen PCs. Dwarves, Halflings, and Elves all feel the way they should. Good riddance to teleporting Eladrian! Also, I really, really want to play a thief.
More organized and developed thoughts as I get to read in more detail. But my first impressions are overwhelmingly positive.
Much like all of you, I’ve been following the recent Legends and Lore columns with some interest. As Mike Mearls has made his way through the various classes, I’ve been panning for gold in each article. Up until now, I’ve been rather disappointed — basically, they want a fighter to work like a fighter, a cleric to work like a cleric, and so on. Crunchy bits have been few, and it felt like a lot of what we’d already heard previously.
Not so this week’s column on the wizard. Maybe it’s because the playtest is getting so close, but Mearls actually reveals a fair amount of detail concerning the wizard we’re going to see next week. You’ll probably want to read the whole article, but here are my thoughts on the crunchier bits. Continue reading »
I know, I know. It’s been a few weeks. Sorry. I got busy at work, and there’s no new news on the playtest, and the DnDNext forums have beaten every dead horse to a bloody pulp already.
But I’m back, folks! Because Monte Cook’s new Legends & Lore column just made me smile.
It’s true. Monte Cook kicked me in the jimmies today. It happened, plain as day, in the most recent Legends & Lore column. Cook wrote:
… it would be difficult to imagine that THAC0 would make a comeback.
And I drop to my knees, hands clenched around my privates. I glance forlornly at the sidebar of my blog, where THAC0 tops my “Wants” list, and I cry silently to myself.
So, as we await today’s DDXP revelations, I thought I’d take a few minutes to get personal.
Why do I care about 5E so much that I’ve started blogging about it? Getting into edition wars over it? Feel both sympathy and schadenfreude for 4E fans as they watch their edition become “the old edition”? It’s a long history. But here, in brief, is why I care so much about 5E, and why I hope they get it right. Continue reading »