Wednesday, January 11, 2012

D&D 5e: Vox Populi

So 5th edition is on the march and the people will have their voice in it.  

Question, is that necessary? In short, no.

1)       WotC has all the market info they need already in the form of: reaction to 4th, success of Pathfinder, and the rise of OSR.  What is Billy from Madison going to tell you? I like goblins more than skeletons? Who cares!
2)       Everyone has a way they play the grand old game and no one will be 100% happy with your design decisions.  By involving people, you are instantly creating conflict and potential backlash against your game before it launches.  New untried games may need this, D&D does not.
3)       While this does provide a “social media” buzz the marketing kids are hot for, it will not provide a workable nor cohesive design blue print.  
4)       This only reaches out to or excites the veteran players who will buy your stuff anyway! The new potential player will not be responding to this, and frankly THAT is who you should be reaching out to most.  Swapping pieces of the same pie around with Paizo is pointless, you need to get a bigger pie my friend.

To me this idea is akin to asking everyone watching the Oscars to vote on what the best movie of all time is, and announce you will make a movie based on an amalgam of people’s replies.

I looked through 4th, played a few sessions and quickly abandoned it never purchasing any of it.  It took too long to do anything.  In the days before video games this may have been okay, but in today’s instant gratification consumer market, you can’t  try to mimic video games by codifying and emulating their workings in a paper based space.  Play to your strengths in relying on the flexibility and creativity of the individual and the game group.

To use a house analogy, the rules should be enough to provide the framework, and then rely on the individual to furnish the rest of it.  I see modules as furniture options to add in your house and source books as paint jobs or entire room add-ons.  Let people make of the game what they will, that is the strength of pen & paper RPG’s.  My only suggestion would be to go lean and mean with the rules, then provide lots of resources and let everyone make his game his own.  Warcraft, Final Fantasy, and even Skyrim can’t compete with that.  

Video games all have limits, Pen and Paper RPG’s still represent gaming with no limits.

4 comments:

Tedankhamen said...

"in today’s instant gratification consumer market, you can’t try to mimic video games by codifying and emulating their workings in a paper based space"

Brilliant shot to the heart. The first and last time I did 4E and had to 'mark' a foe before using a power I saw exactly the same thing you did. Even the DM abandoned it and a week later bought Pathfinder.

Fenway5 said...

It's too bad really, but the more I think of D&D and how its being handled, the more I think of Atari. It was the industry leader, the 800 pound gorilla, a sales juggernaut and the global definition of video games...now its an after thought. Is this the fate of D&D?

Paul said...

you can’t try to mimic video games by codifying and emulating their workings in a paper based space. Play to your strengths in relying on the flexibility and creativity of the individual and the game group.

Yes! Hopefully, 4e taught WotC that they can't compete with video games by writing one to paper. If 5e focuses on the strengths of the medium, and is given enough time and support, they can grow a healthy community.

Fenway5 said...

Agreed Paul, and with December Video games sales down 21% vs. Last year, and table top gaming continuing to grow, playing to their strength is critical. Although the current "Play anyway you like" OD&D through 4th ed character sheets and rules...in the same game...threat by WotC seems like a mess waiting to happen. That makes a referee responsible to know EVERYTHING from all 4 editions and to adjudicate it. Frak that mess.