Regarding Paladins and Alignment in 5E

 games  1 Response »
May 182012
 

I stepped in it again. And by “it”, I mean the WotC D&D Next Forums. They are Ennis to my Jack; I don’t know how to quit them.

This time, I wandered over there to see the shitstorm kicked up by Bruce Cordell’s latest article on the paladin class. Predictably, there were many people bemoaning the fact that, “Oh, no! They’re telling me how to roleplay!” And, “I should be able to do anything I want with my character!” The thread is here.

I couldn’t resist. I hit reply. I got snarky, but after a couple posts I found my footing and articulated (once again!) my stance on alignments in D&D. I thought I’d reproduce it here. Continue reading »

On That Recent 5E “Leak”

 games  2 Responses »
Mar 202012
 

So, while I’ve been off doing things not D&D 5E related and waiting with bated breath for a firm playtest release date, the Internet went and finally coughed up some NDA-breaking info on 5E. Here’s a link to a Pastebin copy of everything.

Well, sort of. What we got was secondhand descriptions, a large chunk of it paraphrased without the source material at hand by the leak’s own admission, of a 1.0 alpha version of a rules document that was supposedly the first one sent out to playtesters at some indeterminate point in the past. The key source is a Something Awful forum thread, where user Man-Thing posted the first material as a quote, and which other bits of leaked info have been tacked on. Also, the contributors to that thread [and some of the leakers] appear to all be 4E fans who are all disappointed that 5E will be anything than 4E Part 2.

So, are we clear? Paraphrased secondhand information from a dubious source of obvious 4E slant. And you were wondering why I had “leak” in quotes in the title. That said — and assuming that some or all of the info is accurate and reflects actual things in an actual playtest document — there’s some interesting insights in there about what ways the 5E development may be going, some of it echoing things said at DDXP, in the L&L columns, etc.

As a service to the community, I was going to seperate the data from the QQ and list what actual information the “leak” contains … but then I found out that The Dice Are A Lie beat me to the punch. So thanks to OSRBaron for doing the hard work! You all should go and read his post now. That lets me get right to the fun part: giving my opinion.

Continue reading »

Why Alignment Needs To Be In 5E

 games  3 Responses »
Feb 032012
 

Of all the discussions I’ve seen around 5E, one that seems to irk people more than most is the question of alignment. Opinions generally fall into three camps when it comes to “Core” 5E:

  1. “Bring back the classic 9-pronged alignment system!”
  2. “Keep the simplified 4E system!”
  3. “Get rid of alignment altogether!”

I am firmly part of Camp #1, though when I discussed alignment before, I wasn’t ready to go so far as to predict that the old 9 alignment system would be making a comeback. One of the reasons I am firmly in Camp #1 on this is because, in matters of 5E, I find myself trending towards nostalgia and a return to “the way things used to be.” But I’m also in Camp #1 because, as the 5E designers have said numerous times, 5E is supposed to be about the essence of D&D. And alignment is not only quintessentially D&D; it’s also part of the collective cultural zeitgeist. Continue reading »

Predicting 5E: What About Alignments?

 games  1 Response »
Jan 212012
 

The debate over alignments in D&D 5E has been fierce over in the DnD Next forums. There’s a small but vocal group who thinks that alignment should be eliminated altogether; these seem to be mainly 3E and 4E generation players. There’s an equally vocal group of folks who want to see a return to the classic  9 alignment system; these seem to be dominated by old-school types who cut their teeth on AD&D.

Predicating this one is a bit difficult. About as far as I’m willing to go is this: there will be an alignment system in 5E.

There has to be. Alignment is too much an expected part of D&D for it not to be in this “edition that plays like all the editions so that fans of previous editions will want to play it” edition. But what that system will be –classic Law/Chaos & Good/Evil or 4Es more generalized system, is harder to say.

Continue reading »