Way back when Monte Cook rejoined the Wizards of the Coast development team and took over the Legends & Lore column, I sent an inquiry asking for an interview. The response I got back was: "No Wizards staff will be conducting interviews until early 2012, but look to our Legends & Lore column for updates." I correctly guessed that it was code for: “We're announcing 5th Edition D&D in that column in early 2012.”
Of course, there have been signs for months. Monte’s Legend & Lore articles have been more research inquiries than articles, polling readers about their likes and dislikes. Greg Tito’s State of Dungeons & Dragons: Future article was one long conciliatory note from Mike Mearls in an attempt to mend fences between fans of different editions. Margaret Weiss just came out and said it. And the latest announcement, launched in the New York Times by stalwart gamer Ethan Gilsdorf, begins thusly:
True believers have lost faith. Factions squabble. The enemies are not only massed at the gates of the kingdom, but they have also broken through. This may sound like the back story for an epic trilogy. Instead, it’s the situation faced by the makers of Dungeons & Dragons, the venerable fantasy role-playing game many consider to be the grandfather of the video game industry. Gamers bicker over Dungeons & Dragons rules. Some have left childhood pursuits behind. And others have spurned an old-fashioned, tabletop fantasy role-playing game for shiny electronic competitors like World of Warcraft and the Elder Scrolls.
In short, D&D is sorry and wants you to take it back. Gilsdorf recognizes Dungeons & Dragons’ formidable impact on the gaming community at large, a topic I covered in my recent book, The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games:
Many computer coders once dabbled in the hobby, which explains why so many video games today use a “run through a dungeon and kill monsters” premise, and borrow concepts — avatars, levels, open-ended stories, cooperative game play — pioneered by Dungeons & Dragons.
The article also makes it clear that sales have slumped. Having presumably blessed Gilsdorf’s article, Wizards is owning up to that dire fact:
The company does not release sales figures, but analysts and gaming experts agree that sales of the game, and all tabletop role-playing ones, have been dwindling for years. Ryan Scott Dancey, chief executive of the game company Goblinworks and a former vice president at Wizards of the Coast, said the overall market peaked between 1999 and 2003 and has been in steady decline since 2005. “My instincts are it’s slower than ever,” he said.
Why should errant gamers make up with Dungeons & Dragons? Because it’s going to really, really listen this time around:
That is why we are excited to share with you that starting in Spring 2012, we will be taking this process one step further and conducting ongoing open playtests with the gaming community to gather feedback on the new iteration of the game as we develop it. With your feedback and involvement, we can make D&D better than ever. We seek to build a foundation for the long-term health and growth of D&D, one rooted in the vital traits that make D&D unique and special. We want a game that rises above differences of play styles, campaign settings, and editions, one that takes the fundamental essence of D&D and brings it to the forefront of the game. In short, we want a game that is as simple or complex as you please, its action focused on combat, intrigue, and exploration as you desire. We want a game that is unmistakably D&D, but one that can easily become your D&D, the game that you want to run and play.
This is smart business. Wizard of the Coast’s announcement is both a marketing event and a massive playtest that harks back to the survey they conducted in 2000. Wizards is pulling all the levers at their disposal to generate feedback and good will:
We have begun obtaining feedback from a limited Friends & Family playtest consisting of internal employees and their gaming groups and soon we will be expanding that group to consist of members from our existing body of playtesters. Then at the D&D Experience convention in late January, Wizards of the Coast will conduct a special playtest of ideas currently in development. The D&D Experience will be moving to Gen Con in 2013, so as a convention special this year, we will be offering show attendees a first-look at a draft of the new set of rules. Then beginning sometime in the spring, we will begin open playtesting. Through our web site, we will release a growing set of rules, classes, monsters and other materials for your study and feedback. We seek to reach as many people as possible, from the gamer who just started with D&D last week to the gaming group that has been together since the early-1970s. For this process to work, we want to give a voice to all D&D fans and players of all previous editions of the game.
An article in Forbes lays out Wizards’ goal of unifying every player under one system: One Game to Rule Them All, if you will. The development team has also recognized the criticism about 4th-Edition's mechanics being too MMORPG-like -- focused more on combat and not enough on role-playing. But we now know why 4th-Edition was built that way, and in part, why it failed to live up to its full digital potential.
The development team was announced on the D&D Next Group. It’s a formidable roster of gaming veterans (Twitter handles at right):
- Mike Mearls, Team Lead, @mikemearls
- Greg Bilsland, Team Producer, @gregbilsland
- Monte Cook, Design Team Lead, @montejcook
- Bruce Cordell, Designer, @brucecordell
- Robert J. Schwalb, Designer, @rjschwalb
- Jeremy Crawford, Development Team Lead
- Tom LaPille, Developer, @TomLaPilleMagic
- Rodney Thompson, Developer, @wotc_rodney
- Miranda Horner, Editor, @mirandahorner
Will this 5th Edition fix all the problems that have gone before, unify players under one brand, and create a gaming experience everyone can agree on? Doubtful. But if this experiment fails, it's now on the gaming community's shoulders.
Want to participate? Click here to sign up for the playtest or share your opinions, talk with other gamers and stay in touch with D&D game designers by joining the official group page at: http://community.wizards.com/dndnext.
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