Tag Archives: D&D Next

D&D Next – Pure praise!

I am only one of many but that concerns me not. I received my invite to participate in the next iteration of my lifelong passion’s playtest today and so far I am beside myself in joy. If the new Dungeons & Dragons stays ANYTHING like what I had the joy of reading today, all my prayers have been answered. Gone is the stuff I had to stomach in 3.x and Pathfinder and 4e. Back are the simply joyous days of old yet with the refinement of the newer rulesets. Because of the NDA I can’t give details but I am allowed to talk about it so here I go:

Combat. Everything I always wanted and reminds me of 2e AD&D but without the Thac0 which many complained about (not me. I passed fourth grade math). Now if only they bring back weapon speeds (I can dream)

Healing: The section titled Healing. This simple paragraph settled it for me. I am hooked and will support them going forward.

Damage & Dying. All I can say is “Precisely!”

Resting: Not the way I would have done it but I like it, but more importantly it answers many of my players complaints since, well…. forever ago. Yet isn’t that 4E version atrocity. Yay!

Conditions: Simple and playable. I am torn on this subject. I hated complicated conditions. I have always preferred DM handwaving of them or direct/circumstantial handling given the situation. This mimics this without having to buy a deck of cards to support gameplay (sorry Paizo) ALTHOUGH… I like my deck of Conditions. I will miss it a little. But only a little given the new ones 🙂

Weapons and their Attacks. A houserule I have been using since the early 90s made real. I cannot contain my joy if they keep it this way.

and finally Magic:

I am not sure yet. I will have to see it in play.

Synopsis: If what I opened as a pdf today were a hardbound book sitting on a shelf, they would have secured my purchase. I cannot wait to see what they do for character creation rules, how monsters will evolve from what they drafted. The funniest part to me overall is it matches what I have already done as a customized ruleset for my own game at about a 40% rate. This just saves me a few thousands words of typing as I will test what is written and report back when they ask.

I can now truly dust off all (and I mean ALL) my pre 3.x Forgotten Realms books and not have to rewrite everything with rules to make it work with the system.

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