Honestly speaking, I have already
written something on the subject on my blog in Polish (it's title
could be translated as Scribblings of a Part-time Monster), but as
some linguists try to prove, the character of a person changes while
he or she speaks in another language, so I decided to give it try and
see what my "English self" has to say about D&D Next,
or rather this little part that we've gotten our hands at for now.
But before that, I have to state
something: I am by any means not a grognard. I'm far too young to
remember the Golden Age of RPG as some people call it. Or the
beginnings of the hobby, for that matter. Hell, in 1974 my father was
9 years old! So all I know about D&D of that time I know from
reading.
That being said, D&D Next seems to
be a step backwards, but this time it's not a bad thing. I mean, I
ran a couple games of 4ed. But I do tend to play by the book (I have
something around 30 games on my shelf, not to mention all those
available as legal, free pdfs), and before DMG 2 that was not a game
for me (and when it came out, my group did not want another run of
that game, as I could run loads of other things). Honestly, I'm not
the type who likes to design multiple encounters in order to let the
team advance.I like to improvise, and on my sessions people sometimes
don't even unsheath their weapons. I do remember a game in which the
PCs spent half of the time in a tavern.
I began my adventure with the hobby
with D&D 3,0. And the current iteration of the playtest goes even
further in terms of some aspects of the game, but onwards in others.
I do enjoy the idea of a more static
AC, of simplified weapons etc. Right now I don't see any rules for
BAB, and it's possible that there will be none. Getting rid of the
majority of the skill system is a great thing (but I thing they will
be included in the final version, as Backgrounds provide training in
certain skills).
The new statblock for monsters is
marvelous. It's simple, without things that you can't use. I do get
the impresion that some of them have too many hit points, but that
will be verified as soon as I give the game a try (damn you,
Finals!). Oh, yes, the fact that the hit points for a given monsters
are set is another thing that I don't like, but the format being
neither as long as in 3,x nor as complicated as in 4 ed (yes,
everything was written in the statblock, but the monster could have
one attack normally, one if you rolled a 5, other when he's bloodied
etc.) really suites my taste.
And the great novelty:
Advantage/Disadvantage. I've read the article of the curve of
probability with the additional kept die, but... Honestly, I see it
as a great thing. Again, testing will verify my opinion, but I always
preferred die over static bonuses.
That's all for now, if I have any more
musings regarding D&D Next, I'll definitely post them.
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