Although
I haven’t been following the development of the ‘5th edition’ of Dungeons and Dragons very closely
(indeed, not at all over the past year), I could not avoid learning that it
very likely would start being released this summer. And now it’s official.
The core rules will be released from July 20th to November 18th.
I’ll
be getting the ‘Basic Set’ – er… the ‘Starter Set’ – for sure. The price is okay, and I would like to
see what this version of the game looks like.
I
really hope that I like what I see, that it turns out to be the case that the
wonderful ‘Old School Renaissance’ did indeed have some impact on the development
of 5th edition. I
hope this not because I’m dependent
on the Wizards of the Coast for my RPG needs. (Quite the contrary.
The only WotC products that I’ve purchased in recent years were the
reprints of the 1st edition AD&D rules and modules, the reprint
of the original (1974) D&D rules, and some PDFs of out-of-print
materials.) For ‘D&D-style’
gaming, my copies of 1st edition AD&D, Basic/Expert D&D, 0e
D&D, the ‘clones’ like OSRIC and Swords
& Wizardry, and the ‘quasi-clone’ Crypts
& Things, will continue to meet my needs perfectly well. Nonetheless, I would be delighted to
see a broadly ‘old school’ style of play being supported, at least to some
extent, by the hobby’s leader (or one of its leaders, if WotC really has been
supplanted by Paizo).
The
price for the core books, though, certainly is worrisome: 150 USD for the
traditional triumvirate!
Nice to see C&T gets a mention in this ;) Been a good 2+ years since it was released.
ReplyDeleteLooks like this time round they have done away with the subsided Core books and are marketing them at realistic prices.
Newt, your comment made me realize that it's been a full year since I had a post devoted to C&T here! That's strange, since it's one of my favourite games from the OSR, and the only one to which I actually contributed. I'll try to rectify this in the near future. :)
DeleteThe final decision to make the rules works as "Ability Mod + Proficiency Bonus (if any) + D20 roll vs DC" has really sold me.
ReplyDeleteProficiency covers weapons, tools, skills, and saves and is +2 to +6 (levels 1 to 20) for every class works better than I even imagined.
Or you could use Target20. http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/p/primary-house-rules.html
Delete4th edition was so atrocious this incarnation had better work. Honestly I wish that they never started meddling with the rules to begin with. A little re-organization of the original rulebooks were all they needed to do. If this flops at least there is Pathfinder.
ReplyDelete