Kuunari

It’s with heavy heart that I change the name with which I refer to the next edition of D&D as it appears 5th edition has fallen out of favor among the commenters, bloggers and posters in the TTRPG net-sphere.

I think one of my favorite aspects of the official report of D&D Next, besides the fact that we’re (by that I mean RPG bloggers) all talking about the same thing for a bit, is that there are some amazing suggestions for what D&D Next should look like.  It seems to have really sparked some excellent ideas on gaming, and ones that I’ll likely steal even if they don’t end up in D&D Next.

First, Gamer Assembly has a great collection of responses to D&D Next collected on their wiki.  Of course they don’t have summaries and insightful commentary, but really, this isn’t a competition.  But if it was, I would win.  😉

We’ll start with Dave “the Game” Chalker at Critical Hits talking about his first experience with D&D, which came in 2nd edition.  I know, I know, not a D&D Next article, but this is the second in a series of articles that were inspired by the D&D Next announcement and it just so happens to be the edition that I got my start in.  So I included it.

Jeff Greiner over at RPG Musings joins the bandwagon, as if talking about 5th edition is the “in thing to do”.  See how I did that, working the title of his post into my summary. I’m that good. Man, I gotta remember, sarcasm does not carry well over the internet. His post is mainly an “anti-wish list”, focusing on the big things that he felt 4e got right, i.e. a lack of simulationism, a lack of complexity in task resolution, and skills without rolls, as well as a few other ones.  Interesting stuff, and a type of D&D Next post I enjoy.  With a game that can be as divergent as D&D, it’s sometimes easier to say what you don’t want in D&D Next, rather than what you want in it.

David Guyll over at Points of Light talks about how D&D Next inspired him to play some Original D&D.  His verdict: “would [he] play again? HELL NO”! How do you really feel David?

Vanir at Critical Hits continues with his look at how technology could help shape the next version of D&D.  Rather than a PDF, what if the next electronic document pulled information from a DDI like service, making it a living document.  Sounds almost like Stephenson’s Diamond Age, which is a world I want to live in, please.

Sage LaTorra at Syntax Error talks in his Indies and More column about how some of the ideas that are being presented in Monte Cook’s Legends and Lore column have been done in some indie games, specifically Burning Wheel, Shadow of Yesterday and my personal favorite, Dogs in the Vineyard (one day I’ll get to play it!).

Sage LaTorra also had one of my favorite posts I’ve read so far about or pertaining to D&D Next called Fluff.  In the post, he argues that there is no such thing as flavor text, because it is in the flavor text that you get a sense as to what the game is really about.  That is something that I absolutely agree with.  Since this game we play is all in our heads anyways, the flavor text helps to define to us what the game is about.  Without it, the game is just a bunch of numbers.

Finally, Blog of Holding has a random playtest report generator, based on the encounter that poor paladin suffered through.  Funny!

EDIT: And a great post on Enworld about how disappointed people are going to be with D&D Next.  So true.

If you want to read other commentary from North of Nowhere on D&D Next (it’ll always be 5th edition in my heart…) here they are.

Last, Second, and First posts.