When I read the title of this post I had no idea what the topic was. Mike surprised me with a post all about how D&D has to serve every audience. From a business and marketing stance this is a fantastic idea: good enough for everyone. Give everyone something they like, or at least enough to keep them playing your game. From a design standpoint I’m not so sure. I feel like I’m bordering on repeating myself with the whole “one thing well” design philosophy, so I’ll quote the Bible instead: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one,...

I’m trying (again, post-honeymoon) to catch up on Mike Mearls’ Legends and Lore posts, continuing my parallel Indies & More series. I’m still way back at the beginning of July, taking a look at magic items. The most interesting bit to me about Mike’s explanation of the D&D Next approach is the way he treats mechanics and story as distinct aspects. There’s plenty of discussion of what the system assumes, but no carryover into what that says about the world. Let’s start with a few bullets that summarize Mike’s post (in my words): Improved mundane items are presumed Access to magic items is not...

There’s not much game design in Mike’s post from a few weeks ago about the playtest so far, so I’m just going to throw a few of my thoughts on the same things he’s talking about. Overall The overall reaction I’ve seen the most is actually a kind of quiet. That may be because I’ve been distracted by other things, but D&D Next hasn’t quite exploded like I thought it would. That may actually be a good sign for the long term: a solid base may be more useful for their goals than something crazy that draws a lot of discussion right off the bat. Combat Options The tactical rules module that Mike talks...

Still playing catchup, and still talking about monsters. The basic topic here is how monsters get used (in increasing numbers) and how humanoids fit in (as basic stats that leaders modify). This is a mechanic that I love for some games and hate for others. The idea of increasing numbers of enemies that are individually uninteresting but under the guidance of a leader take on some extra abilities sounds like a wonderful part of a tower defense game or a boardgame or a squad combat game or a tabletop wargame. It’s a very mechanically interesting idea, one that leads to interesting tactics and play. Awesome! That’s because all of...