Anyone watch this? Thoughts/reactions? I was unable to watch it due to other commitments, and there does not appear to be a video out yet, but I have been reading reactions this AM. Highlights seem to be (in no particular order):

1) Forgotten Realms will be the first setting, tied closely to the novels, and six new FR novels will be released in tandem with the new edition.

2) Playtesting will last another two years.

3) Early 2013 will see a release of WotC back catalog "electronically." Some skepticism regarding what exactly that means.

4) More new playtest materials released today (8/17): warlock, sorcerer, and a new adventure.

Just watched, two things popped out in addition to your notes,

* The Sundering- Reboot of forgotten realms. Makes me want to read these books.

* Magic modularity- Three types, I like!

Hmmmm. 2 years.

That actually gives me hope for them doing 5E right, as that sounds like the correct time frame to me.

Two years definitely sounds like a more reasonable test period. Here is hoping! Will definitely be at the 5th ed panel at PAX if at all possible.

2 years for testing definitely sounds a bit more hopeful for 5e.

Anyone know if there were any questions about an OGL?

Okay, here is the video...watching to see if we missed anything of note.



[quote=Zenguy]Anyone know if there were any questions about an OGL?[/quote]

I will be watching for this intently, but I would think others would have pointed it out by now if there were.

Sadly, no questions regarding OGL...actually no fan questions at all.

Overall, a good presentation. They did say the overall timeframe is two years, so that may be since the playtest started, not two more years.

Also, Ed Greenwood was kind of overly dramatic for this setting...I know that is his line of business, but business decisions do not have to be dramatized.

After "the sundering" in the Realms (which I do like the collaboration they are working on), the main characters are going to take a back seat to PCs and (supposedly) they are going to collect stories from gaming groups and put that into the realms...not sure how that is going to pan out.

I'm only part-way through, but I have to say the performance (separate from content) is underwhelming. I had to fast-forward through Peter Adkinson -- his job was to pump up the crowd and...well, didn't. It was too painful to watch.

Greg Leeds didn't build from that base.

I'm hoping the guys with the content do a better job -- probably that's what they should have started with!

Sorry to snark, but this is hard to watch. And I'm actually sympathetic, both to the game, and the challenge these speakers have.

lol

I watched pretty much all of it, except Mike Mearls' parts, there's not much said overall.

They announced that GenCon players would be able to make Sorcerers and Warlocks. That was about it.

One KEY NOTE, that disturbs me is they want to make it the fans world, basically taking a culminated census of what happened in "your campaign @ home" and changing the world in that way officially.

On the surface this sounds great. But, here's my analysis:

- How long is the window open to submit what your adventurers did? 1 year? 3 months? So, DMs have to buy, run and write-up a submission in either a really short time or it lags on forever.

- Who the hell is going to read all of these submissions? That's going to be a HUGE undertaking for some poor slob at WotC. I feel sorry for them. And who's going to know?? They could just lie and choose submissions at random for all anybody will know.

- Out of 500 submissions, many actions/events/results will be MOOT as certain characters can do certain things others can't, like resisting fire or breathing fire or being immune poison (warforged) and how they accomplished things in their campaign may not tie in to how things resolve in the story world of D&D - it's just overly complicated.

- And let's say that 500 submissions go in and it's a culmination of those events, people's campaigns are going to get so diluted it won't matter that they submitted anything because they're likely not even recognizable anymore.

2cents

Wow, I was so caught up in prep for the Retreat that I clean forgot that Gen Con was this weekend.

I guess that I need to watch the video.

The Auld Grump

The warlock and sorcerer are intriguing. I will print them at some point this week.

The two year projection is likely going to get cut short...but any projection likely would have. This seems to give some more merit to the playtest.

Forgotten Realms has such an extensive history that I have always been intimidated. Due to this I haven't even read any of the novels or played in an extensive campaign there.

Wild Talents suggests psionics...

Digital rereleases have been announced (via a twitter feed) that they will not be pdfs. I am antipating something similar to the proprietary software utilized for digital comic books.

Wow, I watched part of it...

That was... awful. Nothing to do with the game itself, mind - there was just this forced jollity that made them seem like tap dancers on a minefield.

It felt like there was a lot of panic behind the decision to start 5e, and still a lot of infighting.

Peter Adickson and Mearls... did not look happy to be there, but were trying to act as if they were. Ed Greenwood... harder to tell - I think that he really was happy, but whether that had anything to do with 5e...? He likes being a game designer, and it sounds like he is getting some control over FR again.

A two year timeframe seems like a reasonable goal - more doable than the one year that I was expecting.

At the same time, a two year wait while sales of 4e are so soft is a long time - and it is likely that Paizo will be doing their best to cement their lead.

Non PDF sales of old material... yeah, that will be a huge success.... ( <--- Sarcasm.)

All in all... I have no more confidence in 5e than I did before trying to watch the video (I did a lot of fast forwarding). No less confidence either, but more feeling that if 5e does not succeed then the D&D brand is pretty much done.

The game may live on as Pathfinder, but the D&D imprint itself may vanish.

I need to eat and sleep - for some reason talking about 5e always brings me down. Not angry, like 4e, but just this feeling that it is too little, too late. That 4e may have killed the brand, even if another edition is unveiled.

The Auld Grump, but mostly I feel like that keynote address... sucked! The game itself may be brilliant, but that address....

is a link to some more videos from GenCon. I just finished the first one. My takeaway from this is the removal of the God-awful 4E rule that "everything is core." Not that it really matters as a DM - you control what is allowed, ultimately, but it definitely is nice to see them agree with this. Also, core races: human, elf, dwarf, halfling. Everything else is considered an option.

One good thing - I have not seen any WotC folks trying to talk down previous editions this time around. Not even 4e, which got them into this mess.

So, good on 'em! Trying to tell folks that earlier editions were bad was just plain a terrible idea.

So:
Being open during testing - good!
Not insulting previous editions - good!
Reducing Core - good!

Not having info on the license - bad!
Horrible DRM protected digital reprints - bad!

Skill handling - ??? I really don't like what they have in the current playtests, but... maybe it will be changed?...

The Auld Grump

I am working my way through the videos also. I watched the first one and it had some more crunch than the keynote for sure. At the same time, everything seemed to fall in line with what my thoughts about Next already are. (no surprises iirc).

The second video, that I am all of four minutes into, had something that stuck out to me. James said something akin to "Nothing we have said is set in stone yet. We are not actually writing a DM's guide or a Monster's Manual yet." This is great news to me. I mean, I know that they have announced that the playtest would be two years (but I am still unsure of the truth due to the 4e playtest).

Hmmm...

Video 2: a +1 sword will still be relevant and wondrous at 10th level because of the way the math works out.

Not sure if I like this. I mean, I can see this working, the math is flatter, but I hope that does not mean the game is duller...part of playing is advancing the characters and if the math is that flat, I am curious what types of enhancements players will be receiving through level ups.

Just ONE question:
in one of the modules... is there a magic system without spellslots/known charts???