WotC Confirms New D&D Edition

It was inevitable sooner or later — Wizards of the Coast has announced they’ve begun work on a new edition of their flagship RPG, Dungeons & Dragons. The brand has taken something of a pounding in the past few years, as disgruntled fans unhappy with the changes in 4th Edition have eaten away some at the fanbase, and the successful rival game Pathfinder, which hems more closely to previous D&D editions, has taken a chunk out of the market.

The new version is said to incorporate varying levels of complexity, so more experienced players can have their cake while newer players can eat it too. Moving away from the secrecy of the past, open playtests begin in spring 2012.

I’m not sure crowdsourcing is the way to go in designing an RPG, because there will always be elements that will be unhappy with any change that doesn’t fit their vision of the game, and most diehard fans aren’t concerned with making the rules accessible to newcomers. Unfortunately, that’s the people D&D needs to attract: online RPGs have drawn away people who might’ve otherwise played D&D 10 or 15 years ago, and without new players, D&D will stagnate and die as a brand.

While the start of 4th Edition was often unpolished, and several promises WotC made went unfulfilled, I do feel good about how this edition has turned out, and I feel it has become a game with varying levels of complexity, which I can see in my own campaign — the hardcore players enjoy the challenge of picking their powers, while those who just want to pick up a character and play have simplified characters that are no less powerful.

So it’s with trepidation that I receive this news, especially as 4th Edition has started one edition and now announced a new one in the very short span of less than 4 years. But we’ll just have to see what the future holds.

Also, Escapist Magazine has a fairly good editorial about the upcoming changes and the design process, which is more informative than D&D’s release.