D&D 5th Edition

[Barrister]

That's nice, although that might change as the system matures.  Looking at past editions of D&D/Pathfinder, it was fairly simple when it started, but it got a little mind-boggling as feats and prestige classes piled up.

I think that's been an issue for every RPG ever made.  You come out with a nice tight rule system, but once everyone buys the one copy that's it.

[The Brain]

Call. Of. Fucking. Cthulhu.

Or maybe I should just stop shitting up D&D threads.

[Neil]

Yeah for sure. Though in this case, they've explicitly identified avoiding that kind of bloat as something to avoid. It'll be interesting how it plays out, though, as it seems bloat supplements are what have brought in the money traditionally for rpgs in the mid-life and later.

Yeah, that will be interesting.  You make money by releasing sourcebooks to your customers, and sourcebooks need to have a good mix of fluff and crunch.  Unfortunately, crunch means bloat, and without enough crunch, you won't sell as many sourcebooks.  We'll see what happens.

Yeah. I had the grey box but never played it that much... what I remember was pretty evocative. The 3rd edition book was pretty damn solid IMO, while 4th left me pretty uninspired. I believe their stated intention is to get back to the feel of earlier versions.

That 3rd edition book was amazing, and it really helped revitalize a product line that had lost a lot of direction in the last couple years before 3rd edition came out.  I felt like the 3rd edition Realms were struck down right as it was becoming mature, and a lot of the themes and characters that they were introducing were eliminated by the edition change.

[Neil]

That's nice, although that might change as the system matures.  Looking at past editions of D&D/Pathfinder, it was fairly simple when it started, but it got a little mind-boggling as feats and prestige classes piled up.

I think that's been an issue for every RPG ever made.  You come out with a nice tight rule system, but once everyone buys the one copy that's it.

You know which game was absolutely hilarious for the amount of bloat and sourcebook creep?  Anything from Palladium Games.

[The Brain]

That's nice, although that might change as the system matures.  Looking at past editions of D&D/Pathfinder, it was fairly simple when it started, but it got a little mind-boggling as feats and prestige classes piled up.

I think that's been an issue for every RPG ever made.  You come out with a nice tight rule system, but once everyone buys the one copy that's it.

You know which game was absolutely hilarious for the amount of bloat and sourcebook creep?  Anything from Palladium Games.

Descriptions of every hamlet and fort in the world was necessary.

[Jacob]

Call. Of. Fucking. Cthulhu.

Or maybe I should just stop shitting up D&D threads.

It's alright. CoC is great... though these days there are like a million CoC rpgs on the market.

[katmai]

Call. Of. Fucking. Cthulhu.

Or maybe I should just stop shitting up D&D threads.

If only we could get you to stop shitting up all the threads....

[CountDeMoney]

Do magic the right way, people: earn it.  Ars Magica 5th FTW.

[CountDeMoney]

Call. Of. Fucking. Cthulhu.

Or maybe I should just stop shitting up D&D threads.

If only we could get you to stop shitting up all the threads....

He can't.  He has an Imperial Warrant from the Emperor.

[Razgovory]

That's nice, although that might change as the system matures.  Looking at past editions of D&D/Pathfinder, it was fairly simple when it started, but it got a little mind-boggling as feats and prestige classes piled up.

I think that's been an issue for every RPG ever made.  You come out with a nice tight rule system, but once everyone buys the one copy that's it.

You know which game was absolutely hilarious for the amount of bloat and sourcebook creep?  Anything from Palladium Games.

Oh, yeah I remember those.  It was like "Lets throw in every cool thing I saw in a comic book/movie.  The power disparity was enormous.  We played once where one of the characters was a space marine in flying armor and the other two guys were a crazy person with electrodes stuck in his head and librarian.  We fought a giant robot.  Flying space marine came out okay, but crazy guy and rogue bookworm were vaporized.

[DontSayBanana]

You know which game was absolutely hilarious for the amount of bloat and sourcebook creep?  Anything from Palladium Games.

The Robotech RPG was alright, though- hell, it cleaned up the canon enough to make the series make sense.

[Neil]

That was the first Palladium game I ever played.  While I enjoyed playing Robotech, it didn't really capture the 'feel' for me.

[celedhring]

Do magic the right way, people: earn it.  Ars Magica 5th FTW.

Hands down my favorite RPG system and setting. Sadly my friends think otherwise and I have never been able to get a lengthy campaign going. They prefer high fantasy.

[crazy canuck]

I wonder why they are giving it away.  Isnt this the core of what they sell?

No, not the rules.

Monsters, players, DM handbooks are the core.

You are right.  I skimmed the link over the weekend.  Not much to it - which I suppose is the back to basics they were looking for after 4.0.