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Designing the New Dungeons and Dragons
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When I got into work this morning, I found an email from my boss with this link in it; the article's pretty interesting.http://www.fastcodesign.com/3034062/des ... ns-dragons
-- Bob --------- Then the horns kicked in... ...and my shoes began to squeak. 
See, that's why I've been doing my utmost to wash D&D right out of my life. The entire problem that guy had, his niece wanting a character concept too unique to be covered by the ruleset, would be no problem if it wasn't locked into rigid races, classes, and levels. Shapechange to two extra forms, enhanced strength, claws, and a bite attack but no hands on either and winged flight in one of them, is really easy in Champions, BESM, GURPS, and every other point-buy game I can think of. She might have had to start off as a young one who needed to grow into some of the powers (by accumulating more character points) but a good game should reward unique character concepts and storytelling ideas, not require seven splats and a house rule to kludge something together that awkwardly approximates it. It would be even easier in Marvel Super Heroes, where less attention is paid to keeping party power levels absolutely even and as long as things aren't too lopsided games generally work out just fine anyway.
The "playtesting" of 5e material was apparently really laughable, anyway - the only commentary I read on it was that they were ignoring the things people pointed out about just about anything but minor details and fluff, even when the reaction was strong and widespread. -- "Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows 
I liked a number of the D&D settings, but when it came down to rules I think 3.5 was the one I was happiest with. I have to admit I never actually played 4th Ed, so for it I really only have what I heard other people say. I find myself figuring that the pre-AD&D versions (never played those or the post AD&D incarnations as the Basic D&D) were rules light enough that if you had an interesting concept it would be pretty straight forward for and DM to say, "Hmm, how about we treat that like a Dwarf but with this special ability rather than that and we can discuss things as the character advances (or doesn't)." 3/3.5 provided a fair amount of flexibility in feats and prestige classes -- but of course as noted at the cost of splat after splat. I downloaded the free rulebooks for 5th and skimmed through them. Then I pretty much just shrugged. Recognizably D&D, and seemed close enough that if invited to join a game it didn't look like there would be much of a learning curve having played some 2nd through 3.5.
I recall however reading through page after page of classes in Talislantia with a mix of awe and the feeling that it was a bit absurd. Especially considering I'd already seen alternates in the form of build systems in Top Secret, the old DC RPG, and 2nd edition GURPS. It seems almost blasphemous to suggest a D&D that isn't class based, but I think my fantasy heartbreaker version od D&D would have a handful of archetype classes: finesse fighter, brute fighter, scholarly type, sneaky type, and then put in some sort of lightweight build system for customizing. A straight of classic D&D class would be something like Brute + outdoors skills + some sort of frenzy trait, gives you The Barbarian; finesse fighter + fighting related skills and boosts, gives you The Fighter; Finesse fighter + some fighting skills + outdoors skills + a little magic (restricted to nature magic), presto you've got a Ranger. But want something different? Take that Barbarian build, free up a few build points to give access to cantrips and you've got, "Mevo, who was apprenticed to a wizard for only a short time before the wizards tower was overrun by a tribe of barbarians he'd offended. Young Meladivo was knocked unconscious early in the battle and woke to be given a choice. Join the tribe or be given a single dagger, water skin, and chunk of cheese to try walking back to civilization with. Not wanting to wander the woods alone he joined the tribe but never gave up the tiny bit of magic he'd learned." But trying to keep skills, etc, somewhat generic. If you want something that allows for intricate modeling there are already the HERO system and GURPS. But... I'm unlikely to spend the time working on that. These days I'd rather do a mostly non-rules write up of one of my settings along the style of a GURPS world book or an the setting book in an old 80's box set. In fact I've been considering doing just that come November. Call it NaSeBoWriMo rather than NaNoWriMo. ----- Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer. |
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