What I Want From 5E Revised
During 2021’s D&D Celebration at the end of September, Wizards of the Coast teased several new releases for Dungeons & Dragons, including the announcement that a new version of the rules would drop in 2024 for the 50th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons!
No exact date is know, but given the anniversary is in January, Q1 might be a good guess, but it could also replace the big summer or fall books for that year.
Little is known about this revision except that it will be backwards compatible. Or at least that’s the current goal, which might shift as work continues, because designers gotta design and hate not enacting a new change they just thought up. As such, because the release is still two-and-a-half years away, I doubt even the designers even really know for certain what the final product will look like.
It remains to be seen if the final books resemble the reprints of 1st Edition & 2nd Edition or the compatible rules but incompatible classes of D&D 4e Essentials or the “compatible but not really” sub-edition of 3.5 Edition D&D. Heck, we don’t know if it will be 5th Edition, 5.5 Edition, 5th Edition Revised, or even a non-numerical edition designation like “50th Anniversary Edition.” (But, in that case, many commenters on the internet will be quick to label it a Sixth Edition.)
6e?
Speculation regarding a revision isn’t new. Since the release of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything in November of 2020, there’s been increased rumour that Wizards of the Coast is working on a 6th Edition and that 5th Edition had reached its endpoint. That the new mechanics and experimental changes in that book signal the end of the edition.
I didn’t personally subscribe to that opinion, because I didn’t—and still don’t—feel 5th Edition is experiencing rules bloat: the game only has as many player-facing books as 3rd Edition had by 2001 and 4th Edition had by early-2009, just a year after launch. There’s relatively little content. And every D&D accessory tends to have some new mechanic or idea it’s adding to the mix to see what works. The game is always experimenting. (Again… designers gotta design.)
And after the rapid-fire edition changes of the previous two decades, there’s always been someone shouting that 5e was about the end. Ten years is longer than many expected.
Furthermore, making a new edition is always a gamble: it’s creating products for a potential audience rather than the existent audience currently buying the books. A new edition doesn’t make financial sense until sales decline to the point where the theoretical sales of a new book will be significantly better than existing sales of actual books. Because—as 4th Edition reminded everyone—even if you put out a new version of D&D, not everyone will buy the books and convert their campaign. You can lead a horse to gaming books, but you can’t make them roll dice. Or something…. So, if the number of new players who come into the new edition is less than the number you lose, the new edition quickly declines in sales. And the less dramatic the changes, the easier it is to convince people to keep buying.
So will it be a #.5 edition like with 3.5 Edition from 2003? I certainly hope not. But that’s getting ahead of things…
Why a Revision?
Grognards and greybeards around during the time of 2nd Edition might recall the “black border” series of books. The revised version of 2nd Edition. The game rules were the same, but the reprinting cleaned up the text while incorporating errata and tweaking the layout. Same rules and same edition, but a new printing. These were released in 1995, just six years after 2nd Edition was released. A far shorter span of time than 5th Edition would have been around by 2024.
That’s what I’d love to see for the 50th anniversary. Not merely a “backwards compatible” rules revision, but the same edition and same rules, but repackaged for anyone who wants to buy the rules again AND presenting those rules in a slightly improved way for new players. And if it makes the books easier to use and reference for existing players, you’ll want to upgrade for the convenience. And for anyone who doesn’t want to buy the rules over again (especially those who can’t afford to), their old books will still work just fine with new content, regardless of where they play.
D&D has grown almost exponentially in the last few years. Buoyed by streaming games and its presence in television shows, more people than ever before are playing D&D and numerous new players are coming into the game. But the 5th Edition rulebooks were really written for established roleplayers in the world of 2014. 5e’s rule books were designed as much to win back lapsed players as bring in newcomers. It has a lot of awkward phrasings and obfuscated rules. As such, a fair number of the rules could be cleaner, and the presentation as a whole could be stronger: the D&D team could seriously punch up the book in terms of art. And binding. (Which is hopefully a given, as shown by their willingness to change how recent books have been bound, starting with Candlekeep Adventures, which returned to saddle stitching rather than using the perfect bound process).
But how exactly could a revised printing improve the books?
Cleaner Rules
After ten years, the designers should have a better idea of what rules need to be rewritten or rephrased; a light revision can retain the existing Rules as Intended while still tweaking the Rules as Written (or just make the RAW more clear and less subject to disagreement). Just making things easier to parse. But this has to be done carefully, to avoid stealth errata and changes that might lead to rule confusion when comparing the two sources. For example, it seems like a small thing to change the Lucky feat so that using it with disadvantage is no longer as… advantageous… but that results in people who took the feat for that reason coming into conflict with the rules and having to rework their character concept.
There are those occasional obscure and easily missed rules that could be brought to the forefront, such as how to calculate Armour Class, calculating proficiency while multiclassing, the inability to convert actions to bonus actions, bonus action spells, and the like. And then made even more apparent with a few cross-references. Certain easily forgotten and potentially unnecessary rules could theoretically be dropped—like how readying to cast a spell uses your concentration—but this might be a bad idea as changes like that are super easily missed: you more readily notice added text & rules, not subtracted text. Instead, drawing more attention to that rule would be preferable. Alternatively, making it an optional rule in a sidebar, would make people aware that the rule exists AND draw attention to it no longer being a codified rule, while also generally doing away with potentially unnecessary mechanics.
There’s also the pages of clarifications in the online Sage Advice Compendium. Some of these rulings could be incorporated into a reprinting outright, or the text could be tightened to make the intended rule more obvious. And some of the weird and unpopular rulings there (which come from strict adherence to RAW) could be removed by editing the exact text of rules or adding clarifying statements. Likewise, a reference to the Sage Advice Compendium could be included in the book, directing users to consult that if they have questions.
They could also reprint the class fixes from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, keeping them as alternate rules confined to sidebars to make it obvious they’re being added to the existing text. (Not that it would be too egregious if they just added them outight.)
While I believe this reprint should be 100% compatible with the past printing of the game and alter virtually no rules, Wizards should probably use the opportunity to revisit problematic aspects in the books, like race and essentialism, reprinting updated versions of the drow and half-orc (possibly including bits of the dragonborn revision being teased for Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons). Removing ability score increases from races is not something I personally want—I like my agile elves and hardy dwarves—but that seems like a heavily requested change. I’ll defer my personal preferences in favour of making more people comfortable with the game. I imagine they’ll be tempted to go a step farther and remove all cultural traits from existing races. But as that would dramatically impact the balance of many races or sub races, it’d require them to redesign races from the ground up, which is far more revisionary than I’d like. (And is a textbook example of how a simple reprint quickly shifts from “backwards compatible” to a “backwards convertible.”)
Layout
The difference between a good gaming book and a great gaming book is the layout. It doesn’t matter if a game system is the most revolutionary thing since an unknown player in Dave Arnason’s hacked Chainmail game decided to adopt a personality and speak in-character, if the book looks like it’s using basic templates from InDesign and has Papyrus for a font, people won’t be wowed.
With roleplaying games in general having a renaissance, it behooves the team at Wizards of the Coast to step-up their presentation of the rules in an attempt to make the game even more accessible to new players, to stand out from the increasingly stiff competition. And, y’know, just being easier to use at the game table.
One really simple thing the game could do (which board games have done for years) is a “Read This First” page. A quick summary and condensed table of contents that directs players to three or four key sections in the book. Making a character? Go to this page. Wanting to learn how to play? Go here. Basic terminology used in the book? Here’s a reference to the appropriate sidebar. Heck, this is the kind of content that could be on the end paper inside the cover of the book.
Expanding on this, a really good index can also help. And unlike the 5e index, it absolutely should NOT just redirect people to other entries in the index. Instead, it should give a page number and a “see also” redirection to the proper term. Instead of “Insight (skill). See under Wisdom.” which requires the person to continue flipping and delays finding a rule very much needed at that table, it can be “Insight (skill), 178. See also Wisdom.”
Something other games have done well is have a combination index and glossary, so “Melee” would have a page number for attacks (195 for those keeping track) as well as a definition of what “melee” means. Bonus points for also including the correct pronunciation (may-lay not mee-lee).
Something else that could radically make the books easier to use would be sidebars. A smaller third column on each page with supporting text. The third party D&D book Ptolus and games like Marvel Heroic Roleplaying and the Witcher RPG make extensive use of sidebars. These could offer simple reminders and rules cross-references. As an example, you can imagine alongside options that change your AC—like Unarmoured Defence—there could be a reminder of how calculating armour class works with page numbers. These don’t need to be large, comprehensive sidebars. For example, by the Ritual Caster class feature, there could just be a page reference to the spellcasting section on rituals, or by the Champion fighter’s Remarkable Athlete feature a reference to the where jump distances are calculated (page 182 for the curious). Anything to just make using the book easier.
Sidebars could also contain design tips and background on why rules work the way they do. Knowing the “why” of rules helps immensely when customizing and homebrewing, as well as determining Rules as Intended vs Rules as Written. Sidebars could also add bits of lore and flavour. The elf chapter could reference famous elf characters in the game, variations of elves in different campaign settings, and the folkloric origins of elves. In the spell chapter, these could describe who Mordenkainen, Rary, and Tasha are and the history of some spells. There could even be references to fun little stories, such as the famed Gazebo, the Head of Vecna, and Tucker’s Kobolds.
New Content
While I strongly believe a revised reprint of the Core Rulebooks shouldn’t contain much content beyond what was originally in the books, there’s a few things that could be added to make the books slightly more appealing to people who already have the books without feeling like a blatant cash grab. Adding a few new player races would be a nice but small addition. Such as goliaths and genasi or the deep gnome subrace, all from the Elemental Evil Player’s Companion. As those options are free already, there’s less pressure to buy the reprint, but it makes for a nice perk. Goliaths are also super popular (with one of the more popular characters in Critical Role being a goliath, and a goliath even appears in the trope-mocking D&D Logic series by Viva La Dirt League. Promoting goliaths to “core race” wouldn’t be a bad idea. This might also be an opportunity to punch up the genasi’s racial abilities, which are a little underwhelming at the moment.
Over in Dungeon Master’s Guide there’s advice on making a race and subrace, which provides examples in the form of the aasimar and eladrin. As these were published in very different forms in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes and Volo’s Guide to Monsters respectively, those should be replaced with new examples, such as grey elves; something in high demand, like gnolls; or maybe something odd like wilden or bladelings.
Monsters
We’ve already seen some tweaks to monsters with The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. NPCs no longer have either the spellcasting trait or spell slots, instead having a list of 1/day spells and special abilities that aren’t spells. They don’t want to hide abilities essential to the monster’s Challenge Rating in the spell section or require DMs to have to reference the Player’s Handbook (or spell cards/ DnDBeyond.com on a device) just to run a monster.
There’s a lot of pros and cons to this, such as the loss of upcasting or recasting desired spells, balanced with not having to have to reference multiple books and read lengthy spells to play a monster. It tries to balance and merge 4e monster design—which sacrificed flavour and utility for speed and ease of play—and classic 5e monster design.
However, in my opinion, the current iteration needs more work because it completely invalidates a bunch of player spells and abilities, such as the Arcane Trickster Spell Thief ability, the Oath of Ancients paladin aura, the Mage Slayer feat, globe of invulnerability, and counterspell, which all rely on enemies casting spells not using magical attack options that mechanically replicate spells. It’s frustrating for a shield spell not to function because an NPC wizard is using the Arcane Missiles action and not magic missile.
For the final revision (or future monsters prior to the revision) I’d like to see monsters’ spell-like abilities called out as being spells and given a set level. This is a micro change, that could be by just adding “(#th-level spell)” after the ability’s name. So Kelek’s action in TWBtW would be Fiery Explosion (4th-level spell; Recharge 5-6).
Speaking of which, I would also prefer monster’s spell-ish abilities be given the same name and numbers as spells. Rather than monsters having Fiery Explosion, Scorching Blast, Burning Burst, Immolating Orb, Flaming Ball, and Expanding Cinder Sphere of Painful Death just give them fireball but summarize it in their stat block. Don’t reinvent the wheel with every monster.
(Not that monsters couldn’t be customized. The spell could be Kelek’s Fireball and have a special effect. Which would also make finding the spellbooks of NPC wizards super desirable and a form of unique treasure.)
Monster design also doesn’t need to be all-or-nothing. They could continue to move away from spell slots and a focus on daily use spells with less spell-focused monsters, like demons and low CR spellcasters, while retaining the full range of options for higher CR spellcasters, like the lich and the archmage (but still having a key attack options in the stat block). That way you can opt into the complexity with a few centerpiece monsters, or avoid it if that’s not your jam.
Handling the DMG
The Dungeon Master’s Guide is a trickier issue.
While I want 100% backwards compatibility and books that are basically reprints with a facelift, the DMG might benefit from a heavier revision, if not a complete rewrite. Not a rules change per se, but a reordering of information and expansion on the advice. With so many new players coming into the game, the content in this book could be presented in a manner much more friendly towards brand new Dungeon Masters. Clearer and more basic advice on running the game at the very start of the book. More examples. More encouragement for DMs. Common pitfalls to avoid. The basics of table management. And newly added expectations, like Rule 0 conversations and establishing lines & veils.
(For many examples on the issues of the 5e DMG, check out the Edition Wars podcast.)
I imagine some optional rules like madness and honour will just go away, as those are divisive. And the book might just direct readers to revised rules in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything for downtime and Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything for patrons rather than trying to present lesser versions of that content.
So long as there’s no rule changes, this is much less of an issue. A completely different DMG will just feel like a DMG 2. No remotely experienced DM will feel pressured to purchase a revised DMG just because the included advice has been improved; unlike a revised Player’s Handbook with revised classes, which will feel mandatory (especially for anyone participating in Organized Play/ Adventurer’s League, where a revised rulebook would be a required purchase and a $60 entry fee).
But remimagining the DMG is hard, because space and wordcount is limited. Restricted even. Every addition likely comes at the cost of subtracting other content. Which raises the question of the best way to add more content to the DMG.
Rethinking Format
Even if just reprinting the core rules—even if not changing any of the rules—there’s no real reason the rules need to be presented in exactly the same format. Apart from legacy and tradition, there doesn’t need to be the same three core rulebooks using the same names as books from the 1970s.
After all, the core rulebooks are HUGE. At least 320-pages each, and it still doesn’t seem to be enough…Especially with the DMG. Entire books can and have been written on the subject of being a good Dungeon Master, managing prep, running monsters, and expanding on single topics just touched on in the DMG. (I myself wrote an entire book just on worldbuilding.) Vloggers have made entire careers over explaining DMing. (And over-explaining DMing.)
But the official books have never done a great job at explaining DMing, with the least bad (surprisingly) being the 4th Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide. And arguably, a part of the reason was the extra space from magic items being moved to the 4e Player’s Handbook. Because having more room meant being able to add more advice.
It’s easy to say “well they should just add more pages to the book.” But printing doesn’t work like that. Books have a finite size and page count for a reason: larger books become more expensive, less durable, and frankly more intimidating. If you wanted to add fifteen pages of advice for new DMs to the Dungeon Master’s Guide you’d need to cut fifteen pages out.
Which leads to the quandary: how do you add more rules and make it easier to teach new DMs how to run the game without leaving out key parts of the book?
There’s a few possible options for making more space in the DMG:
1) Supersize the PHB. Wizards of the Coast could do what 4th Edition did and move magic items into the Player’s Handbook. Or do what many other game systems do—such as Pathfinder—and have a much larger Core Rulebook that has ALL the rules for running the game in that one book, leaving more room for advice in the DMG.
The disadvantage with this method is that it makes the DMG more optional. And not enough people read the DMG already. Plus, it means players will have to carry around rules that they don’t need. And by making those rules more familiar to the players, it’s potentially harder for the DM to fudge or vary that content. But far and away the biggest problem is it also makes the basic rules even more intimidating, and likely more expensive. Expecting people to read a 320-page book is daunting, and expecting them to read a 416-page book is bordering on ridiculous.
2) Add a Fourth Book. This idea is simple. You pull out some content from the various books and have a fourth core book, leaving much more room in the DMG for advice. This is tricky, as D&D already gets a lot of criticism for requiring three rulebooks to play. The cost for entry is already pretty high with three expensive hardcover products. But this can be alleviated by which content is moved.
One easy option would be to move the advanced DMing options into their own book. Content such as optional rules, house rules, homebrewing content, monster design, worldbuilding, customizing for different types of game, and the like. Make a hacker’s guide to D&D. A book akin to Unearthed Arcana from 3rd Edition. This would free up ample space in the DMG for the basics of running the game and table management, while allowing those optional topics to have greatly expanded advice and far more usable examples.
Magic items could also be moved into their own book. Not unlike the Magic Item Compendium for 3e or Pathfinder’s Ultimate Equipment. Magical treasure occupies such a large section of the DMG that removing it would free up a staggering amount of space. This would split the difference between having magic items in the Player’s Handbook and having it in a DM book, as DMs could choose whether to let players treat a Magic Item Compendium like a shopping list or not. And by having its own book, magic item creation, magic item shops, artifacts, and customization could be given more attention. And even alternate rules for elements like attunement.
3) Everything is Optional. A third option here would be to pull out rules from the Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Player’s Handbook and make a smaller and more condensed Core Rulebook. Much like the content in the Essentials Kit but a hardcover book rather than a boxed set. All the rules and advice needed to run along with all the rules for four to six classes and a half-dozen races. Given they can fit all the basic rules into a 64-page book for the Essentials Kit they should easily be able to cover the basics of encounter design and many DMing rules in a svelte 256-page hardcover. A product like this could even include monsters, being an all-in-one first time purchase. All you and five friends need to play the game for 10 levels for a single $50 purchase, which can be increased to a full 1-20 campaign with the purchase of a $60 monster book (or the SRD).
This sounds unusual for D&D but it’s not unprecedented: this is the Rules Cyclopedia from Basic D&D. You could still have the other core rulebooks, but these would be optional expansions. To avoid confusion where the Player’s Handbook is no longer the must-buy purchase, these could be renamed something like Player’s Expansion, Monster Expansion, and Dungeon Master’s Expansion. Or include numeration on the cover to emphasize they’re not the first book to buy.
This would free-up space in the books for much more advice for DMs and also for players! Without having to include the basic rules for combat and adventuring, there’d be ample room in the PHB for other subjects. It would be lovely to have a chapter on being a good player, roleplaying advice, table etiquette, sharing the spotlight, and expanded suggestions for making a good backstory.
Incorporating Technology
In the current digital age there’s a lot D&D could do with technology.
PDFs have long been a request but this is sadly unlikely. But it’s nice to dream of them having scratacble stickers in the back redeemable on the DMsGuilld.com or working with Wizards Play Network stores to hand out free codes with purchase. Even just codes for DnDBeyond.com would be nice. (Or the potential replacement platform teased, which might launch with the revision.) But I’d still prefer PDFs that work on any device and platform rather than versions that require a proprietary app and can’t be saved when you inevitably change devices.
As far as other technology goes, QR codes to videos might be the easiest way of incorporating technology. Scan the code and get taken to a brief actual play session showing what D&D is. Another is a walkthrough on the basic rules and how to play. A third tells you how to make a character. Videos that don’t replace the book but offer an alternate way to absorb the rules. These could be easily placed in sidebars or in the corner of the splash pages that start chapters.
I mentioned the online Sage Advice compendium earlier, and a link to that would also be a good ideal. Or a QR code link. Anything directing questioning DMs right to the compendium and telling them it exists.
Designers Large and Small
Arguably, a major revision is possibly the worst thing they could do right now.
D&D is at its peak in terms of popularity and sales. A new edition just stands to cost the company fans as people decide to stick with the existing rules and play through the content they have rather than buying all new books. It could dramatically splinter the audience as fans pick between content they own and the new shiny books. Rather than re-buying rules for a game they already have, many are just likely to spend money on different rules sets, branching out into different games and genres. After three lengthy 5e campaigns and one more in the works, I know the next two RPG games I run won’t be D&D.
That’s without considering the effect on game stores and 3rd Party Publishers. The d20 glut of the 2000s resulted in a surge of poor quality and low effort 3rd Party Products, which stores couldn’t even give away following the transition to 3.5e. This also killed many 3rd Party Publishers, who couldn’t sell the 3.0 books they had in the works. Paired with the recession following 9-11, a lot of game stores went under. And there’s a LOT of 3PP again. So many that game trade magazine ICv2 ranked D&D 3PP as the third and fifth biggest RPG over the past few years. Changing monsters and classes would seriously hurt sales of Nord Games and Kobold Press and also stick game stores with their product that might no longer be valid. I feel bad for companies like ENWorld Publishing, which is set to launch a Kickstarter for Level Up, a higher complexity version of 5e, that is also designed to be backwards compatible. And it’s now uncertain how useful and compatible that product will be in two years. Or Paizo, whose long delayed 5e conversion guide for Kingmaker won’t be out for 7+ months and is going to feature outdated monster design.
And there’s also the DMsGuild, whose creators might be hit hard when they’re monthly sales drop suddenly. I make a couple bucks a week on the Guild, and because I live on a tight income, this is my “mad money” that I rely on for fun purchases (like new RPG books) or unexpected expenses (like when my hard drive died without warning last November). And a large reason I get that much of a payout is because I have six years of content on the Guild, and lots of small sales add up. If the rules get revised too much, that money goes away for me and everyone on the Guild, and creators will have to build-up an all new stable of content, which will take months.
I don’t think WotC should never create a new edition of D&D to avoid hurting small publishers. But if they have the choice between a small update that preserves their content and a heaviler revision that invalidates it, I hope they do the latter.
What I Don’t Want
I don’t want buying these new books to be mandatory to use future books or participate in public games. I’d rather they be optional purchases.
I have three copies of the 5th Edition Player’s Handbook: a signed first printing, a second printing for regular use, and the slipcase collector’s edition. Plus the digital copy I have on DnDBeyond.com. I really don’t want to buy another because they revised the races, all the core classes, adjusted a bunch of spells, and made some subtle rule tweaks. I’ve lived through three-and-a-half edition changes already (plus Pathfinder) and 5e is “close enough” that I really need to be sold on a new version to make it worth my while. Especially as I’ve already been feeling somewhat disenfranchised by D&D and WotC of late: abandoned as a desired audience in favour of eager new players half my age. (Being a D&D fan over 30 these days is like being Leonardo DiCaprio’s girlfriend.) It’s very tempting to see this as a good “end point” for 5e, allowing me to finish my collection and walk away.
If I can get by with a two-page conversion guide that includes all the changes, then that’s great. If I need to buy new books because of a several dozen small rule changes and heavy revisions to all the classes means my old 5e accessories aren’t useful anymore… well, I might just sit this edition out. So far a single page from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything has seen use at my table, and maybe three options from Xanathar’s Guide. There’s lots of life in 5e for me. Throwing those books in my pile of “outdated” books atop copies of Martial Power, Complete Arcane, and The Complete Ninja’s Handbook would be depressing.
And given 2019 and 2020 were among the best years for D&D ever, there’s probably a LOT of other people out there who have copies of those books where they’ve barely cracked the spine.
I don’t want to show up at a game day at my LGS and be told I have the “wrong” book. I don’t want a new player to show up for my game with the wrong version of the game. I don’t want anyone to be confused by which version of the rules to buy at a bookstore, or be disappointed because their parents/ grandparents purchased the wrong version as a Christmas gift. I don’t want anyone to decide D&D isn’t for them because a revision was released right after they spent a tonne of money on the old version.
As mentioned, the D&D team teased that this release is going to be backwards compatible. But similar claims were made regarding the 3.5 Edition, which started out as a reprinting but grew into a major revision over time as the designers couldn’t help but tweak. (Cause, for one final time, designers gotta design.) Even in the build-up to release, they were selling the update as minor. Just look at some quotes from an archived interview regarding 3.5e on the WotC site:
WIZARDS: Was the temptation there to simply overhaul the whole thing?
Skip: The temptation to overhaul everything was huge, and it had to be fought every step of the way.
Andy: It’s our job to write rules, so of course the temptation existed to “do more,” but I don’t think anybody ever seriously suggested overhauling the entire system. Not only was there no real business reason to do so, but even more than that it just didn’t need it.
WIZARDS: How vital is it for players to use this revised version if they have the 2000 release?
Skip: Frankly, two players could sit down at the game table with different versions of the books and play for hours without knowing they weren’t using the same rules.
Andy: I think the revised core rules represent the best version of D&D to date, so I guess anyone who’s interested in the best D&D experience available should see these books as “vital” for their game. Obviously, following products will rely on these books as well, so players looking to enjoy such products to their fullest extent will want the revised rulebooks on their shelves.
WIZARDS: Given more time, would you have made more changes?
Kim Mohan: Well, sure. As they say in the game business, no game is ever finished; it’s just published. If we had been allowed to keep the books in R&D indefinitely, we could always find more and more small ways to improve the game . . . but then the books would never get printed. I’m extremely happy with how clean and well organized these books are.
Given there’s something like two-and-a-half years before the revision needs to be finalized for printing, there’s lots of time for their plans to shift for the worse and “backwards compatibility” to become less of a goal. Anyone who was around for the D&D Next playtest remembers there were ample design goals that fell to the wayside.
Shameless Plugs
If you liked this article, you can support me and encourage future content. My disposable income—which is necessary to buy RPG products—is entirely dependent on my PDF sales.
I have a number of PDF products on the DMs Guild website. Including Who’s Doomed, a book of 5e stat blocks of darklords for the classic version of the Ravenloft campaign setting. Which is a huge passion product but also really handy for anyone who wants actual darklord statistics. There’s also the companion product Allies Against the Night, which takes classic Ravenloft heroes and makes them into sidekicks (based on the rules from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything).
Others include the Blood Hunter Expanded, my bundle of my Ravenloft books, the Tactician class, Rod of Seven Parts, Traps, Diseases, Legendary Monsters, and a book of Variant Rules. Phew.
Additionally, the revision of my book, Jester David’s How-To Guide to Fantasy Worldbuilding is on DriveThurRPG, available for purchase as a PDF or Print on Demand! (And now in colour!) The book is a compilation of my worldbuilding blog series, but all the entries have been updated, edited, and expanded to almost two-hundred pages of advice on making your own fantasy world.
