I haven’t really written much yet about D&D Next, but I will, but right now’s not the time. I’ve given my opinion here or there, but I haven’t really reviewed the game or anything like that. WOTC published an interview today with me for their playtester profile series… If you’d like my general opinion about where I think the game is and what it needs (from a DM point of view) check out the link.
Something I didn’t mention in the interview, which I think is worth mentioning is that I think D&D Next needs to provide DMs that came into the game via 4e with guidance on gridless playing. If gridless is going to be a part of the game, 4e Dms need advice. it’s not fair to expect them to figure it out, after having played a game so dependent on a grid.
I will get to talking about D&D Next, I promise. 🙂
www. Newbie DM .com 
Ace42
August 11, 2012
Concur completely about the need for serious explanation about how to run gridless play; also how to deal with travelling, using hex-maps for bigger terrain, and generating random \”travelling\” encounters, etc. Core D&D concepts that didn\’t really get touched on with 4E\’s \”you set a few individual scenes like a movie, and how you cut between them doesn\’t really matter; hell just pick one encounter per dungeon room\” scenario.
But really, the things I am most interested in are:
Robust economy (none of this \’I hit L5, now I can afford to buy out every mundane item in the shop without evening blinking malarky);
DIFFICULT CHALLENGES BY DEFAULT – players are great at finding excuses to get an advantage, DMs have a lot harder time justifying why the monsters should get an edge; make the default assumption for combat to be \”50-50 chance of party losing\”, and then let the DM throw the party soft-balls or accept their hair-brained schemes for swinging stuff in their favour.
Better skill-progression. 4th ed made MASSIVE strides forward with the skill system – stopping skill buys being an all-or-nothing proposition; but there were too many things that didn\’t scale well with level – like heal checks being guaranteed successes for all classes irrespective of attributes or skill-training after a certain point, etc etc; climbing and jumping becoming meaningless tests for some builds after certain points, etc. All peril from these checks became moot, there should always be at least a chance of failure, and there shouldn\’t have to be a \”critical-fumble\” house rule to introduce that. Again, these things should be difficult by default.
Snarls-at-Fleas
August 11, 2012
I’d say they need at least some system for gridless play. Right now there is no plusses in playing gridless in D&DNext, only minuses.
justaguy
August 11, 2012
I’m not sure what sort of system you could have… gridless is the game, really. What do you mean by “system”? I can see the need to give some more guidance on it, for those who’ve never seen that sort of thing, but… is it really baffling for people? I ask honestly, I don’t really know.
As for no plusses. Well, from what I saw the gridless play went faster, and people felt more inventive with it. So I see those as plusses. I think both grid and gridless have their place in the game.
As for Economics… for me personally, it just seems like adventurers end up outside the economy regardless. They make way more money than “regular folk”, and if you try to balance prices around them makes it so the rest of the world can’t afford anything. Unless you go more towards a fix of not making adventure that profitable, which for me would be counter intuitive.
Philo Pharynx
August 13, 2012
@justaguy, It’s one of those things that’s second nature to the people who’ve done it for years. But it’s a skill that takes some practice. There are also many ways to do gridless. On one end of the spectrum is a system where movement is tracked like a grid in people’s heads. On the other extreme is one where each person is essentially “in melee” or “away from melee”.
Another skill is figuring out how resolve miscommunication. Most of the time each person has a little to do with the confusion, so you need to figure out a way to get everybody on the same page fairly.
I mostly use maps, but one person in one of my groups is legally blind. I’ve had to work to build up these skills to communicate the situation to her effectively.
yahoo
July 16, 2014
At this time I am ready to do my breakfast, once having my breakfast
coming over again to read additional news.