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Saturday 14 June 2014

RPGPundit Prophecies on the Impact of the Basic D&D PDF

Its important to understand, and thus for me to reiterate, that the D&D "basic" PDF is:

a) Not just a "quickstart" product. It is the complete core rules of D&D, which will be used as the sole basis for all future D&D products; it will contain everything you will ever need to use any future D&D adventure or sourcebook.

b) Not just an "SRD".  A system reference document for rules is very nice, but it's not set up to be used in play. The Basic D&D PDF will be a free pdf RULEBOOK, not a reference doc.  The intention is that people will certainly be using it to play D&D.

Some people accidentally or intentionally continue to mistake the Basic D&D PDF with either a 'quickstart' or an 'srd'.  Some people continue to wish to claim it is just a gimmick; many have said "sure, it has all the rules needed, and technically it might be true that you could 'play D&D without ever having to buy a rulebook'; but seriously, does anyone think people will actually PLAY D&D with just this product?"


So here I put my Prophet Hat on, and say that in fact, the answer is YES.

I predict the following will happen:

1) There will in fact be quite a few people who will play D&D using only the Basic PDF. Particularly old-schoolers or people who prefer a more basic style of game.

2) In fact, I predict that people will take the basic PDF and create modifications for it that are totally different from the 3 rulebooks.

3) People may form communities (or use existing ones) online to exchange such ideas and modifications.

4) We may very well end up seeing a bunch of 5e D&D Basic "Clones", or more accurately "mutants", which will take the core D&D Basic PDF rules and add and change them in weird and unexpected directions that the designers could never have envisioned.

5) This is less a prediction than a hope: if the above is true, and the people at WoTC have any brains, they'll actually ENCOURAGE all of this, and keep a close eye on what's created, to see what can be brought into the official product.  It may even be a way to look for talent.

So there you go.  Am I sure it will pan out that way? No. There's all kinds of things that could modify the situation; but if Wizards does everything right, and gamers being gamers, I expect that point 1 is extremely likely to occur, points #2-4 fairly likely.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Solitario Oversize + H&H's Beverwyck

18 comments:

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    1. Yes. It will start off with Character Creation rules and playing rules but will grow to include, monsters, treasure, more, more, more as time goes by.

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    2. That's cool. And since I don't use official monsters or treasures anyway, sounds like it may be all I'd ever need if I were to play a new edition of AD&D.

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  2. I think #4 is unlikely. Sure, they'll be slight modifications here and there, but the vast majority of gamers who want to use the Basic D&D 5e will either tweak the game here and there or find a different RPG system or edition of D&D.

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    1. I hereby respectfully warn Venger Satanis that he has until 11:00 pm tonight (U.S. eastern standard time) to answer my challenge of "why", or I--some random guy on the internet--will deem his conclusion insufficiently supported. Bwahahahaaaaaaaa.......

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    2. I am sorry Venger. You had your chance. By the authority invested in me, by myself, I do hereby deem your conclusion to be . . . unsupported. You have been weighed. You have been measured. And you have been found wanting.

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    3. Sorry, I don't hang out on Pundit's blog smoking cigarettes and trying to look cool. My bad.

      Why? Same reason you don't xerox a xerox of a xerox of a xerox if you can help it. Too much incestuous cloning will create a bastard child of science... and you just don't want that, hoss!

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    4. Also, there's a reason people aren't trying to copy water, except tweaking it to make it better. Mutant water, if you will. Sure, there's all different kinds of soda, juice, liquor, and a variety of awesome (and not so awesome) liquids.

      5e Basic will be as foundational as water. You don't try to clone water. You either drink water or something that tastes different.

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    5. I'm afraid it's not that simple. Even the PHB is a mutation of the core rules (i.e. fundamental core rules + extra/alternative rules). I've created my own rules for sections of d20 Modern so that it works better with my setting. I never had to throw my hands up in despair and walk away from the system because it's supposedly like changing water.

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  3. Both D20 and old-school D&D have seen countless modifications. If 5e is successful, there's little doubt in my mind we'll see the same.

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    1. I think it's almost certain. Wizards has said they want to throw the controls of the systems wide open, so to speak, for people to tinker. The 5e DM book is directly aimed at people that want to system tweak. I've seen many positive comments about 5e by people that like basic's style of (1) simpler rules and (2) DM rulings instead of rules. If people like basic's style, wizards is encouraging system tweaking through publications like the new DM handbook, and the rpg community continues to be the creative rpg community it is, why wouldn't there end up being a community of people tweaking the basic rules in all sorts of unexpected ways?

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    2. I already have ideas on what to do with 5th edition for the Black Shadow setting. Lets just say HP = CON score + level. Sure at level one it seems you got a lot of hp to take risks with. At level ten when you are dealing with greater threats you have to deal with the fact that CON + 10 hp won't save your life. You will have to be quite inventive with the challenges you will face.

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    3. Precisely, and I think that'll be awesome.

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  4. Is there any word as to what license the basic pdf will be distributed under?

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    1. There's no news on this yet, I think. I've heard things, but can't say, and its not clear to me if a final decision has actually been reached or not (I would presume so, but I couldn't say it for sure). I know what Mike Mearls WANTS it to be, but its not his decision alone, from what I understand.

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  5. Given what happened when D20/3.x was opened, I have no doubt in my mind 2-4 will happen, and if they have brains Wizards will do #5.

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  6. YES, I THINK THAT IS A KEWL IDEA.
    THIS GUY IS ALREADY STARTING TO MOD:
    http://crossplanes.blogspot.ca/2014/07/advanced-next-figher.html

    NOW TAHT TEH BEAST IS OUT AS A PLAYER DOC ANYWYA, I AM TEMPTID FOR USING WITH MY 1e AD&D DMG AND MM.

    TEHN AGIN I ARE CRAZY THO.

    :p

    -NUNYA

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