D&D Next Playtest: First Thoughts

Ok. I have the playtest docs in hand now.
Now there is lot here, and there is a lot I can't say due to the NDA.

Let me take a bit and talk about the NDA.
Every game company on the planet uses an NDA. There are exceptions of course, but those companies are exactly that. Exceptions.  Plus the two that are often mentioned, Pathfinder and Dungeon Crawl Classics, are so derivative of the SRD that there is not really much in the way of new material to protect.  Plus the "beta" of Pathfinder was much more polished than this playtest of Next/5e.  This is not kick the tires or looking for bugs, this is a real play test.

That's out of the way what did we all get?
Well.....I can say there pages of rules, a bunch of pre-gens, a descent set of monsters and an entire adventure based on B2.

My thoughts, in no particular order.
- Someone put all their favorite rules from all editions of the game in a blender and hit frappe.
- Very much like 3e, with some 4e ideas.  I have noticed things though from 1st ed and 2nd ed.
- Lawful Evil and Chaotic Good are back
- like how they are doing hit points.
- advantage and disadvantage.  neat ideas. Not sure yet on how much I'll like them.
- Monster stats can now be written in one line of text!  Just like AD&D1

Characters now have Race, Class, Background and Theme (this is all old news) but damn it is nice to see it all working on one page of a character sheet.  Heck once you have your class, race, backgroun and theme down you can put your entire sheet on a half piece of paper.

On the character sheet I see bits from 3e, 4e, 2e and a lot of Basic D&D.  I also see things that are new.  Not new-new, but certainly new to official D&D rules.

I have often asked for a rule set that combines the best features of all of D&D from the last 40 years.
Damn if D&D 5/Next doesn't come really, really close to all of that.

We are going to play it this weekend.  I'll let you know how it goes.

D&D Next

I now have it in my hands and while I am not 100% sold yet, man it is a lot neater than I thought it would be.

I am much more excited now.

There is an Old School vibe to this game, yet it still has the things from 3x and 4e that I liked.  Did WotC hit a home run here?  No. But it is was a solid Double moving the runner to Third.

I don't even mind it took a long time to get.

Next Day

The playtest docs for D&D Next/5e come out today.

I am expecting them to be kinda raw to be honest, but who knows.

Are you planning to try it out?

New Class

I got some word on Eldritch Witchery today, still in edits.
The Witch will be back to from the editor on June 1.

So I figure while we are all waiting, I have a new class to share with you all.

It's not done yet, and it is designed specifically for "Basic Era" games.
It will be released as 100% Open under OGL and even better, I am going to give it to you for free.

Just give me a couple of days (or less) depending on how much I get done tonight.

White Dwarf Wednesday #17

We kick off the 80s with White Dwarf #17 for Feb/March.  Again we see a noticeable jump in quality in terms of cover art.  This piece by Angus McKie has always been a favorite of mine.

Ian Livingstone talks prices of games in his editorial.

The Fiend Factory is next with the "Near Misses Monsters", the ones that did not make it the Fiend Folio.  What is  nice about this batch is we are given the reasons why they were not included.  First up we have a Night Rider, which is to humans as drow are to elves.  The Spice Worm (should be obvious), The Heat Skeleton and the Green Worm (both not included because there were already too many skeleton and worm like creatures). The Bodach (nothing at all like the Bodak) and the Goom, both of which were not really all that interesting.

Open Box gives us reveiws of Time War (8/10), Under the Storm Giant's Castle (5/10) and Dark Tower (9/10), both Playing Aides from Judges Guild. Also we have two games from Judges Guild, Operation Ogre (5/10) and Caverns of Thracia (8/10).

Lew Pulsipher gives us a classic, "My Life as a Werebear", or rules for playing Monster Characters in D&D.  The tables and the rules are very D&D while the art and monsters are AD&D.  It was an interesting time when the two rules existed side by side like this.  The rules are solid and could be reprinted today and branded OSR and sell.

A couple of pages on painting minis.
The Sable Rose Affair is a short Traveller scenario.
Letters again focus on Fiend Factory.
Treasure Chest has a couple of Artifacts, the Tablets of the Ish Than, the Skeleton of Zzkeel, The Marvellous Flask of Suethrin the Mystical, The Ring of Manfred the Sage, The Sword of Ehemakil and Gurthlin's Silver Harp.

We have the Questionnaire results next.  Most people (51%) read WD for the RPGs, with D&D (53%) being the largest percentage of that. Most readers want a questions and answer page, and only 31% want a comic.  Most readers want WD to come out monthly.  Soon...very soon.

There is a nice interview with Chaosium's Greg Stafford.

A new Ability for D&D is introduced, Perception.  Neat idea, but it never really took off.

We end in ads.

So the start of the 80s has us looking at WD that still looks 70s.  There are improvements, but not a lot so far.  The issue is really solid, but lacks a solid feature article.

For comparisons sake check to see what is going on over at Land of Nod.  He is doing the Dragon magazines one by one, with Dragon by Dragon.

Another Award

I got another award this past week from K. D. Storm of "A Coffee Driven & Adventure Bound Life".

Here is the award:

To accept I have to answer 10 questions about me, 10 Random facts about me and pick 7 other bloggers to get this award.

Since I am all about building a community online I think it is a great idea.

The Ten Questions

1. What is your fave song? So many.  I love Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven".  Whenever Kansas' "Carry On Wayward Son" comes on I have to blast it.
2. Favorite Dessert? I am not a big dessert guy. But I love lemon flavored things.
3. What ticks you off? So much....but mostly People that waste my time.
4. When you're upset what do you do? I talk to my wife.  She is a great person to talk to and bring me back to reality.
5. What is your favorite pet? I am deathly allergic to animals. So no pets.
6. Which do you prefer black or white? Black. 
7. What is your biggest fear? Anything happening to my kids..
8. What is your attitude? Generally optimistic. 
9. What is perfection? An interesting concept, but nothing is ever perfect. 
10. What is your guilty pleasure? Playing 80s music in my car turned up to 11.

Ten Random Facts

1. My wife and I met out first week of college and were friends all throughout college.  We did not start dating till she moved 300 miles away.
2. In high school I hated writing. Now look at me.
3. And I was editor of my highschool news paper.
4. I am afraid of heights.  I am not too fond of rats either.
5. When I was younger I would sleep with my eyes open.
6. I learned the alphabet frontwards and backwards when I was 3, I can still recite it backwards as fast as frontwards.
7. Cottage Cheese makes me gag and I will throw up if I get too close to it.
8. I am in a Metalica video.
9. I am no longer allowed to play Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. 
10. I knew at a very early age I wanted to be a father, now I am and it is great!

Now Seven bloggers.  The trouble with this one is there are so many good ones out there.  I wanted to choose ones that were good, that I thought would appreciate this award and would in turn send it out to others.  Also I want to pick out blogs that I felt could use some extra exposure.  Plus they are an ecletic bunch.

*Pixies Don't Have Wings - Writer Buffy Armstrong's site.  It has been a great resource in looking at fae creatures a different way.

The Groovy Age of Horror - Horror movies and comics from a funkier time.  I love the overall feel of this blog and I come here for inspiration on my own horror themed games.

Space 1970 - A great site dedicated to SciFi of the 70s (well till 1983 with Return of the Jedi).  I grew up in the 70s and this site is a constant trip down Memory Lane-if Memory Lane was really a Hyperspace wormhole thing.

Propnomicon - pictures and posts on the creepiest props you will ever see.  Focused on the Lovecraft mythos, everything is here.

Precious Monsters - there are a lot of Paranormal/Urban Horror review sites out there, but I like this one the best.  Very edgy and has stuff the other sites don't.

Vibrant Oxymoron - A great Doctor Who and Star Trek site focusing on the classic series.  Awesome blog.

Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm - Ever wonder where your food comes from?  Not the folks at CVSF, they grow it, raise it and eat it all on their own.  Follow the story of what happens when two suburban professionals leave the Chicago suburbs to go live off the land.  I could not do what they do, but I do find it all very interesting.

There they are!  Please enjoy!

Free Stuff!!

Hey all.

I have a bunch of stuff (pdfs, docs) I want to start unloading and I thought why not here and why not for free!

Some of it is not in shape to sell and others are just better as free.

So what I want to know is what is a good place to store files that won't give you all viruses and I can track the number of downloads.  I have Box.net, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Lulu accounts.

Thanks!