DND next. 5th edition is being play tested.

[morfiction]

Can I blog/post/talk about my playtest experiences with others who may not be in the playtest?

Yes. You may publicly discuss your thoughts about the D&D Next playtest materials and your experiences while playtesting.

Am I allowed to make copies of the playtest materials or publish parts of them on my blog?

As part of your participation in the D&D Next playtest, you must agree to our playtesting terms and the Online Playtest Agreement, which prohibits copying, excerpting, redistributing and the misuse of playtest materials. (This does not limit participants from making copies of playtest documents for the sole purpose of sharing them with their gaming group provided they have all signed up to playtest D&D Next.) For more information, see the Online Playtest Agreement.

Where can I go to talk to others who are playtesting? Is there a forum or discussion area?

Feel free to discuss your thoughts about your D&D Next playtest experience anywhere. We have also created a dedicated D&D Next playtesting forum on our community site located here: community.wizards.com/dndnext which is a great place to connect with other playtesters.

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (D&D Next Playtest FAQ)

So this is a playtest that lets you describe it outside of the restricted areas.

Problem is you can't play it online. You have to do the game locally. Blah.

Anyone play-testing or have tried the other editions that is feeling dread for the future?

 

[Steerpike]

I thought 4e was the worst edition of the game ever, so D&D Next can only be an improvement. So far, I like most of the direction they're heading, but I don't know if they'll come up with something better than what I do currently.

 

[TWErvin2]

I guess I am so out of it, when the group of folks I went to school with do get together to play--it's a good excuse to get together every 4-6 months--we still play largely AD&D, I guess it would be first edition--the old brown books that have held up very well over the years. The 'rules' have been modified some, depending on the DM, but really it's more about role playing than anything else.

I'm sure more than a few folks have seen these youtube clips of 4th edition (and edition/update which I've heard from just about everyone is pretty lame), but I'll include a link to one anyway:

 

[Devor]

I thought 4e was the worst edition of the game ever, so D&D Next can only be an improvement. So far, I like most of the direction they're heading, but I don't know if they'll come up with something better than what I do currently.

Yeah, I'll bite. What rules do you play by?

 

[Feo Takahari]

I believe that D&D screwed up from the start by having so many things depend on ability scores that are fixed at the start of your character's life and can't be changed. This is a good mechanic for games in which character death is frequent and replacements are plentiful, but if you want to use a character through many campaigns, it's much better to start out characters as similar to each other, then allow them to diversify as players recognize what play patterns they fall into and what they want to do with this particular character. (So you've just decided that you want to take a level or two in Dragon Disciple? Too bad, because you should have made sure you had the stats for that back at level 1.) I expect this edition to maintain the ability scores, so I'll continue to be more interested in other systems like Don't Rest Your Head.

Edit: Then again, I suppose this is where a DM can just say "Well, there's no harm in changing your ability scores now." Cheating in tabletop games is only unfair if it makes the game less fun. Still, I'd like a system more conducive to diversification without requiring rules-bending.

 

[Steerpike]

I believe that D&D screwed up from the start by having so many things depend on ability scores that are fixed at the start of your character's life and can't be changed.

This isn't accurate for any of the versions of D&D, as far as I know. Changing an ability score is rare in 1e/2e. In 3e. You get to raise a score every three of four levels, and there are tons of items that raise scores, so the norm is that characters ability scores are going up all the time.

That said, I like the older way better, where ability score raising is limited.

 

[Steerpike]

Yeah, I'll bite. What rules do you play by?

I either play 1e/2e or Castles and Crusades, which is a d20 (OGL) game inspired by 1e (they even had some of the 1e people working on it at one point). Rules are light, but you can build on them as you wish and you can use materials from any edition, 1 through 3.X, without much trouble. I doubt you could use much in the way of 4e material, but that's no real loss.

 

[morfiction]

Where can one get the 1e or AD&D rules?

Ah. Googled and found something called "OSRIC."

 

[Steerpike]

Where can one get the 1e or AD&D rules?

Ebay, or search for a torrent online.

 

[Feo Takahari]

This isn't accurate for any of the versions of D&D, as far as I know. Changing an ability score is rare in 1e/2e. In 3e. You get to raise a score every three of four levels, and there are tons of items that raise scores, so the norm is that characters ability scores are going up all the time.

If you set your Charisma to 10 at level 1, and realize at level 4 that you'd like to take a prestige class at level 6 that would require a Charisma of 13, can you use a +3 magical item to count towards that 13? I didn't think you could, and that wasn't how either of my DMs approached it, but I'm not sure any of us paid as much attention to the manual as we should have.

 

[Steerpike]

If you set your Charisma to 10 at level 1, and realize at level 4 that you'd like to take a prestige class at level 6 that would require a Charisma of 13, can you use a +3 magical item to count towards that 13? I didn't think you could, and that wasn't how either of my DMs approached it, but I'm not sure any of us paid as much attention to the manual as we should have.

I think you can, but if you lose the magic item you can't advance further in the prestige class. In my view, if you get a low CHA at character creation, that's part of the game, and if that forecloses certain classes, that's part of the game too. In 1e, people may have wanted to play a Paladin, but the truth is rolling the stats to be able to play one was very difficult. That's part of the game. I much prefer it to the idea of just letting the player change their CHA to meet the requirements, which would be nonsensical in terms of game world logic.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I once met a group of gamers whom I think really understood the concept of gaming. They used no system, no dice, and no character classes--they just made up their characters, and had their DM make up their setting, playing around in it like kids playing make-believe. Classes, rules, and dice add more challenge and more luck, but I don't think they should obscure that basic sense of play, and they certainly shouldn't cut off certain routes of play.

(I said before that I like Don't Rest Your Head. It has dice rolls and abilities, but no classes per se, and much of what you can do depends only on what you can justify to your DM. I think it provides just enough luck and challenge to serve as a framework in which play can be directed in an orderly fashion, helping to prevent arguments from breaking out, and helping players to not realize and become embarrassed at the fact that they're having fun playing make-believe.)

 

[Steerpike]

I've played some of those diceless, structureless games before. They're OK. They amount to collaborative story telling in a raw sense, I suppose, and if that's what you're going for then I think they're good. When I want to play a "game" I prefer either an older version of D&D (or C&C) or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which is a great game (at least before the new edition; I haven't played that one).