Generally speaking, I'm always wary when a game listens too much to fans. Firstly, because a lot of fans means a lot of ideas, and we all know the expression 'too many fans can spoil the IP'. But it also feels like the megafans who tend to shout the loudest have a very specific, meme-addled relationship with any given property, and want their favourites to be shielded from any sort of pain, trauma, or difficulty that makes them interesting. However, it's still a relief to see D&D listening to its fans.

Dungeons & Dragons' new rules rollout has not been smooth sailing. Originally announced as One D&D, an online, always evolving system of rules, this was rolled back due to fan fears over what seemed to be a live-service game in tabletop form. People generally like 5e, so the prospect of a 6e system was met with caution, if not disdain. This was rolled back to a 5.5e update, not unlike the highly popular 3.5e update that remains a highly played version of the rules today. Eventually, any labelling was abandoned in favour of the well-received but entirely too long name "the 2024 update of the 2014 5e rules", which we'll probably end up calling 5.5e after all this anyway.

Unearthed Arcana Playtests Have Strengthened Player Support For D&D's Update

That's the first part of listening to fans effectively. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Wizards of the Coast did a thing, the fans rose as pretty much one voice and say 'no we don't like that', so it didn’t do it. To further endear fans to this new set of rules, Wizards published nine playtests that offered different subclasses, rules, and levelling systems for each class in the game, asking fans to test them.

Publishing them in full via Unearthed Arcana served two purposes - one, it meant fans like me could read through the rules and make judgements based on the text (like the inclusion of an 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Aquaman-style Druid, a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:mystic viking Barbarian, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:finally fixing Monks), while also letting players actually play them for short adventures or one-shots to get a more active 🔯grasp of how they work. Secondly, these rules existing in full means that even when the final update drops later this year, fans will have nine alternatives to use for their character so long as their table is open to it.

But Wizards of the Coast is still not done. In teasing some of the new rules for the final update (which goes beyond classes and subclasses and includes a rebuild of everything), the two points highlighted thus far have been to take common homebrew rules and make them official. The first one revealed was crafting, with the ability to create new tools and weapons with material you find along the way, tied to your Proficiencies. We don't know exactly how it works, but it seems to be formalising systems that fans have so far had to make up as they went.

Crafting And Potions Are Homebrew Rules Made Official

The other update is much smaller, but is in the same vein. Drinking a potion is now a Bonus Action. "Heh, it was always a Bonus Action you ignoramus," I hear you mutter. No. It was actually always a full Action. Everyone just treated it as a Bonus Action because a full turn to drink a healing potion is stupid. Wizards of the Coast agrees, and now, it's a Bonus Action.

Of course, there are drawbacks to this fans-first approach that even D&D is not free of. Over time, as the tabletop game has swelled in popularity, there has been a shift in its art and stories. Some feel the traditional roleplay elements have been stripped away to make room for a ‘fantastisation’ of ordinary life. D&D's escapism has attracted a progressive audience, and its values have shifted with that audience, but there are parts of its promotion (recently revealed art features two gay dwarf bakers with tattoos of each others' beards on their biceps) that feels as though it falls into cosy pandering more than engaging worldbuilding.

However, the pre-written modules retain a dark edge, and D&D offers a homebrew playground where different tables can shift the game into fresh, unique directions. Again, since it puts so much control into the players' hands, it can listen to players and canonise some of their choices, without forcing an unwanted tone (too soft or too sharp) on others. Its malleability is its strength, and I'm glad Wizards of the Coast has shown a willingness to be flexible with these rules, moulding them through vast public playtesting of each class and subclass before locking them in.

I'm not sure how the transition from 5e to kinda still 5e but maybe 5.5e or possibly even 6e in disguise will go. But the fact the game seems to be responding to fan desires and adapting the rules to how people actually play rather than a prescribed idea of how the game designers feel it must be played, is a good sign.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Dungeons & Dragons

Created by

𒈔 Eꦺ. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson

Latest Film

𓆉 Dung⛦eons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

First TV Show

🎃 🌼 Dungeons and Dragons

First Episode Air Date

September 17, 🐎ꦚ1983

Video Game(s)

Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Baldur's Gate 3, Neverwinter, Icewind Dale, Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game that first took the world by storm in the 1970s, and continues to enchant millions of players today. With a seemingly endless number of modules and campaigns for you to play, as well as the possibility to do your own thing, you'll never get bored of playing D&D. 

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