You need nine years to re-arrange the chairs?

[RPGnet Columns]

Post originally by Sergio Mascarenhas at 2005-03-29 21:50:47
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I'm not a D&D player and I read your column as an outsider looking in. The first observation is, why do you put it 9 years in the future instead of one? Nine years is a lot of time and there will be a lot of new things to consider in 2014 if someone is to do a new edition of D&D, including things we don't even dream of today.

Now, the way I see it you basically change nothing substantial. All you do is to re-arrange the content of D&D3 in a different way. That and to take out some things. Is there nothing out-of-the-box you want in your D&D? Maybe things inspired by other rpg systems, or of your own imagination?

It seems to me that you set your goals too low, too slowly (that 2014 thing). You've better consider other oportunities of investment other than buying WotC from Hasbro.

Sergio

[RPGnet Columns]

Post originally by Charlie Dunwoody at 2005-03-30 06:33:44
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Sergio,

Thank you for your outsider looking in viewpoint. I'm going to address your last point, buy something other than D&D, first.

D&D is a game I've worked on, DMed, thought about, and wrote about for over twenty years. My only professional publications to date so far are in Dragon Magazine using D&D rules.

I can't think of any other creative endeavour I'd want to be involved in more than building D&D 4th edition. I'm not entirely logical when it comes to D&D because so many of my thoughts are tied to emotions and memories of many, many enjoyable gaming experiences.

To address your other thoughts, I picked 2014 (with 4th edition coming out a year later) simply because so many players don't want to see a new edition too soon. 2nd Edition was around fifteen years or so before 3rd Edition came out so I simply picked fifteen years.

I really wouldn't want to change D&D into something else. I'd want to take what works, streamline it, throw in lots of roleplaying and flavor, and rebuild some things from the ground up. Keep it D&D but with a lot of fun and storytelling thrown in.

I would also want to make D&D into something that the majority of current and future players would want. A very difficult goal, but with the power of the internet and playtesting I think a great effort could be made to make many D&D players happy with a 4th edition.

Again thanks for the feedback. I know non-D&D roleplayers don't always get the D&D fixation some of us D&D players have so I appreciate a non-emotional viewpoint.

Charlie

[RPGnet Columns]

Post originally by Sergio Mascarenhas at 2005-03-30 09:11:29
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<< To address your other thoughts, I picked 2014 (with 4th edition coming out a year later) simply because so many players don't want to see a new edition too soon. 2nd Edition was around fifteen years or so before 3rd Edition came out so I simply picked fifteen years. >>

Good! I figured that but I prefered not to mention it because it could undermine my main point: Why consider developments for D&D that don't tap into the many alternatives that are apearing all around.

<< I really wouldn't want to change D&D into something else. >>

A perfectly reasonable reason to keep it insulated from other things. In any case, other people are proposing changes within the D&D tradition.

I would add one (and one I read has been handled in C&C): Saving throws for all basic attributes. I was always mistifed why only half of them have ST when these can be meaningful for all of them.

And another one: A class based on persuasion. If there's a stapple of med-fan is the merchant, the courtisan or the friar that lives through its tongue, sharp or sweet, outspoken or vicious. There's a lot of potential for such a class. (In any case, I'll handle this issues in one of my coming GlovE columns. Stay tunned to it.)
Actually, it could provide a major driver to two of your aims, "I'd want to take what works, streamline it, throw in lots of roleplaying and flavor, and rebuild some things from the ground up. Keep it D&D but with a lot of fun and storytelling thrown in."

Sergio

PS I have my ideas about D&D. You can find the same in my RPGnet reviews of BDD and DD3.