Stunned for 1d4 rounds

Well, the folks over at Wizards are working on 5th edition. Now, I have zero shock that they are. 4th edition has been a bit of an odd duck and I can't imagine it is really driving sales and the insanely fractured nature of the hobby has got to make some impact. Video games, however, are surely the biggest impact to the hobby.

So I am not at all surprised about a 5th edition in the works. I wasn't surprised with the "4.5" of D&D Essentials. These are things that come along every 2-3 years. Very predictable and an obvious necessity of the modern gaming market.

What shocks the hell out of me is that they are seeking input from players in such a public way. I doubt it will bring any unity to the fractured fan base, but it will likely be interesting. I'll be happy to give them my 2 cents when they ask but I know my opinions differ from many peoples.

My personal opinion is that they saw what happened with Pathfinder and are now taking a page from the Paizo playbook. Which makes me wonder if 5th edition will be more like a hybrid of previous editions. I wouldn't be surprised if it has a distinct "Old School" feel tossed in to make that crowd a little happy (they tend to complain a lot).

For me, it doesn't make much of a difference. Having the time and opportunity to game is a rare commodity of late. More than that, any mechanical differences are unlikely to be profound enough for me to switch fully over to 5th edition. If it maintains the core d20 mechanic I'll probably just treat it like I do 4th edition.

pick and choose, pick and choose