Today I received a communication from Wizards of the Coast inviting my gaming group to join the Friends & Family playtest of the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Given that my gaming group has been playing together for over two decades, I didn't think they'd be interested. On a whim, I passed the inquiry on to my players. My gaming group consists of:
- Jeremy, who prefers point-based creation systems and karma points. He's a role-player first, stats player second. AD&D: Wildmage. D&D 3.5: Psion. D20 Modern: Telepath
- Joe, a long time D&D player who ran his own 4th Edition game. He's stats first, role-playing second. AD&D: Druid. D&D 3.5: Dwarf Fighter. D20 Modern: Acolyte.
- George, who has been running a Shadowrun campaign for years. AD&D: Gladiator. D&D 3.5: Sorcerer. D20 Modern: Gunslinger.
- My brother, who enjoys playing quirky characters. D&D 3.5: Barbarian. D20 Modern: Field Scientist.
- My brother's friend Bill, who likes playing sarcastic wiseguys. D20 Modern: Infiltrator.
To my surprise, they all enthusiastically volunteered to participate. So my group is in. We will be signing the non-disclosure agreement, which means I will unfortunately be unable to comment on the actual content of the game. You can rest assured that as soon as I'm released from the NDA you will hear a lot more.
As Jeremy succinctly put it, being involved in playtesting of 5E means "…we can't bitch if the new edition sucks." We'll see.
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