5E Friday

After last week's announcement on the next version of D&D, I've taken the past week to mull it over and take in all the various thoughts/blogs on the topic. I've decided to give Friday over to putting out some of my random thoughts on the topic of D&D5E.

Monte Cook made an interesting comment in his weekly Legends and Lore article.

"Imagine a game where the core essence of D&D has been distilled down to a very simple but entirely playable-in-its-right game. Now imagine that the game offered you modular, optional add-ons that allow you to create the character you want to play while letting the Dungeon Master create the game he or she wants to run."

This is not brand new information. Mike Mearls said pretty much the same thing in his announcement and Monte Cook has hinted at much the same over past L&L articles. However, the question on most people's minds is 'Can this be accomplished?' 'Is it even possible?'

And then I read this later in the article, "Second—and this sounds so crazy that you probably won't believe it right now—we're designing the game so that not every player has to choose from the same set of options."

The first time I read this statement, it struck me that the design team has already accomplished their goals of a "simple, basic, core" system. I believe they already have a system in place (it's obvious they already have a system done) that they feel meets these goals of providing a core system. They believe it can be accomplished and that they already have that system built. I think the real question now is (and I believe it is also foremost on their own minds as well), will their system meet the needs of everyone?

I don't think the play-testing and feedback is being looked at as a means to create the system, but rather, to be used to make sure it does what WotC already think it does. If nothing else, the "new" system will be interesting to take a look at.