Legends & Lore: Charting your Course for D&D

Also known as “zOMG 5E!”

Before I get into it, you can check the announcement here (as well as sign up for the open playtest when it comes out), check out a 60+ page on RPG.net here, and read an article on The Escapist here.

So, yeah, 5E (or whatever, that is not the real name, but for sake of ease I guess that is what we are going with).

When 4th Edition was announced I was apprehensive that I would hate it. As more of it was revealed the apprehension turned to excitement as I realized that I was really liking what I was seeing; classes besides spellcasters had shit to do and did not become obsolete, and monsters were much easier to create on the fly and deal with. In actual play I was surprised at the flexibility of classes that previously had rigid progressions and options, such as the monk, ranger, and paladin, the ease of which it was to realize concepts like dual-wielding fighters and fighter/wizards, and how different classes felt despite being non-magical melee archetypes.

Basically it was dropped like a bomb without any build up (thread upon thread of random forum speculation does not count).

This time there was build up in the form of Monte Cook (of system mastery fame) being rehired, along with a slew of ill-received columns where he pitched existing concepts, posted polls with loaded choices, and seemed to do his best to illustrate that he did not actually read the 4th Edition rules. So with him as one of the heads of the chimera that is the 5th Edition team–the design one no less!–and the popular theory being that his Legend & Lore columns were his attempts to try and sell us on his ideas that, regardless of poll results, were going to be effected anyway…well, let us just say that I am again apprehensive.

Really all I have heard so far is that the rule set will be modular–allowing groups to set complexity to taste–and also be an edition that will somehow cater to fans of every edition. Just going off of my years of experience on the forums over the past few editions, to put it mildly this sounds like an impossible order to fill. After seeing how well it worked for Paizo and Pathfinder, even the prospect of an “open playtest” does not fill me with much hope (though I signed up anyway). 

What I am hoping is both that Cook can be kept in check, and that things do not go back to the days of Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards. The guy on The Escapist mentioned that we would “be surprised” which rules make a comeback, and I am hoping that those are good surprises. Ultimately I do not think that I will hate what comes next, though this is the first time where the thought of skipping an edition has crossed my mind. Eh…if that is the case I still have my books.

Gearing up for Lair Assault

In less than a week DMs will be able to start running Lair Assault at their local stores, starting with Forge of the Dawn Titan. On the off chance you are not familiar with it, a Lair Assault event is like a sessionf of D&D Encounters cranked up to 11; a mega-encounter that does not allow for short rests, takes about 2 hours to wrap up assuming you do not die…and the mortality rate is pegged at about 80% on your first try. To make matters worse, even if you go in for another shot the DM has options to change things up, making it more dynamic and difficult to plan for. This is not for the casual crowd, but for all the power gamers/optimizers/players that love the tactical elements of combat.

Though we do not know what is in the scenario (yet), there is a lot of speculation and planning going on a few forums, mostly to expect creatures with lots of fire-based attacks and lava since, well, one of the achievements glory awards requires that you die in lava.

I have never ran D&D as a competitive game–I normally fudge stuff either way if I think it will add to the overall excitement, or to just keep things moving–so it will be interesting to see how I DM Lair Assault. My plan is to just roll all the dice in the open to “let them fall as they may”, as it were. I am curious to see what parties (and Fortune Cards, if any) people are going to bring to the table, especially for groups going for the “one race” glory award. This is definitely something I am going to cover in depth, so expect to see at least a few play reports sometime in September.