12 Things I Want For D&D Next

To be honest I haven't been paying a whole lot of attention to the development process for D&D Next, so a lot of what I am going to say in this article might already be known to be true or false. Moreover, there are items on this list that I know have virtually no chance of coming true. Still, this is what I would like to see in the new edition of D&D due out this year.


1. That it won't be called D&D Next.
Considering Wizards has been calling it D&D Next pretty much since day one, I think this is a huge long shot. But even if its unlikely to change, I think it is absurd to break the naming convention that has been in place since 2nd Edition was announced almost 25 years ago. I suspect this name was dreamed up by a marketing genius who imagined that this cool hip name would help lure in new players, but I assure you, that this edition's ability to attract new players will have nothing to do with that name; all the name does is create confusion.


2. That it won't be released until it is ready.
As of this writing there is no announced release date for D&D Next; that is a good thing. It seems pretty obvious that 4th Edition was pretty much rushed out the door. Hopefully Wizards has learned their lesson, and will take as long as is needed to make this the best edition it can be.


3. That there will be a return of the two version strategy.
In the late 1970s Gary Gygax realized that Dungeons and Dragons had gotten too complicated for (most) new players to be able to just pick up the book and play. So in addition to releasing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, there was also created a simpler version of the game for new players (often referred to as Basic Dungeons and Dragons). After Gygax was forced out of the company, it was decided that having two different versions of the game was confusing to consumers, and so the basic game was  dropped. The thing is, the basic game played a major role in attracting new players in the 1980s. The game needs fresh blood and it is more complicated than ever, so having a full fledged game system for new players to learn on would be great.

(I don't consider having a beginners box as Wizards has done to be a good fulfillment of this because they charge a new player $50 for a product that can be used once or twice and then expect the player to immediately buy the core rule books (for $120) and start playing the full game. The introduction needs to be much longer and much cheaper)



4. That there will be a return of the Monstrous Compendium. 
The 2nd Edition did a lot of things right, but by far one of the best was the Monstrous Compendium. By printing the monsters on loose sheets it allowed DMs to have all their monsters in one place. But far more importantly, by forcing each monster to take up at least a double sided page (at first) it forced the creators to give more information about each monster (thus giving it more flavour) than they would have otherwise. The only things I would change about the original Monstrous Compendium would be print the entries on stronger paper, strictly enforce one monster per page, and rather than sell it in a (cheap) binder, instead pack in decals so any binder could be turned into a Monstrous Compendium.


5. That there will be a return to mathematical elegance. 
One of my favorite thing about the progression of editions in D&D used to be that with each edition the game had fewer nonsensical charts, and more simple mathematical formulas. This pattern was broken with 4th edition, but it should be brought back.


6. That there will be a full suite of apps ready for launch day.
The thing about rpgs is that they get more complex over time. If an app like a character builder is not ready when the game is, the developers run the risk of getting further and further behind as updates add more and more material they need to include.


7.  Sort out the huge mess of legal rights surrounding Living Greyhawk.
As D&D worlds go, I am a huge fan of Greyhawk, and the 2000 or so adventures created for Living Greyhawk include some real favorites of mine. The problem is that the rights for the adventures themselves have reverted to the authors, but the authors have no right to include anything about Greyhawk (which all the adventures are about). Wizards should grant any authors who wish it limited use of the Greyhawk intellectual property so long as the adventures are sold through Wizards. It would be beyond awesome to see a few hundred Living Greyhawk adventures, updated to D&D Next, be available for download (for maybe a buck or two).


8. Make sure D&D Next can play well as low fantasy.
I am a huge fan of low fantasy, and the fact that 4th edition did not play well if your world was not flooded with magic items was probably my biggest complaint about it. I don't care if the game also plays well as high fantasy, but I absolutely need it to play low fantasy.


9. Put the dragons back in Dungeons and Dragons.
In Dragon magazine in the months before the release of 2nd Edition, it was written that one of the goals of 2nd Edition was to "put the dragon back in Dungeons and Dragons" by which it was meant that dragons were getting a huge power upgrade because the designers of 2nd Edition thought they were too weak. While I think a good case can be made that dragons were too weak in 1st Edition, their being weak allowed me to throw them in to adventures of almost any level. My players in the 1980s probably never went 3 straight adventures without seeing a dragon. Since the release of 2nd Edition I might be able to squeeze in a dragon encounter when they hit 5th level, but dragons are uber powerful, and as such aren't a go to monster any more. Give me back the dragons I can use every week - that would make the game live up to its name. (I don't consider any dragon so young it should have a mother around to count in the scheme of give me a weak dragon to throw at my players)


10. Make the game more dangerous.
With each new edition the game has coddled players a little bit more, and made the life of a player character a little bit easier. Even as late as 2nd Edition I thought the game was a little bit more dangerous than I wanted it to be for players. For me 3rd was pretty much perfect in this regard, with PC deaths being rare, but the threat of them seeming very real.


11. Make the PHB more than just a rule book.
What appears in the core rule books, does a great deal to set the tone for a game. A PHB that is nothing but a rulebook, sets a tone for a game that is nothing but a strategy game. I love strategy games, but that's not what I play D&D for. The PHB needs to have stories and information about the world. And it needs to talk about roleplaying. It also wouldn't hurt to have a section explaining how to play the game.


12. Have a good index.
When you have a 300 page rulebook, you need a really good index. Wizards has given mixed results on this in the past. D&D Next needs to hit this one out of the park.




Obviously I haven't touched on any rules with this list, but that is just how I am; there is no rule or race or class that I absolutely NEED to have in my game. That doesn't mean I don't have some preferences about those too, its just that if the game is well put together, there isn't anything I couldn't live without.