In his weekly Legends & Lore column, D&D lead designer Mike Mearls revealed not only that a new edition is in the works, but also that we'll all get a chance to help shape the future of our favorite hobby.

Mearls said:

"[...] Starting in Spring 2012, we will be taking this process one step further and conducting ongoing open playtests with the gaming community to gather feedback on the new iteration of the game as we develop it. With your feedback and involvement, we can make D&D bette...

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In his latest Legends and Lore column, D&D designer Monte Cook stated:

"Having lots of tools to customize characters is good for players. Lots of complexity is bad for players."

Cook began by explaining how earlier editions of D&D offered little in the way of customization for PCs, but followed it with an observation that rings true with me:

"By having no skills, feats, and so on, you could—in theory—create anything at all."

When I first played D&D, no Samurai class existed. ...

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No, this isn't a joke about D&D being dumbed down. Illustrator James Stowe whipped up six professional, stylistic character sheets for his son's 8th birthday party so that the 2nd graders could play D&D. The rules were simplified to make the game approachable to young minds and easy to grasp in a short amount of time, and everyone at the table apparently had a fantastic time.

The character sheets are remarkably well-made and are actually modified PCs from DND Insider. James has kin...

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When I first read the 4th Edition rules, I was struck by the simplification of the skill system. It had become more streamlined and less of a hassle, but it also offered less diversity and forced us to make some uncomfortable concessions. Jump, Swim, and Climb were combined to form Athletics -- efficient, but unrealistic. Despite what Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory may tell you, climbing isn't "a bit like vertical swimming."

Mike Mearls, RPG Group Manager for the D&D Research an...

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In this week's D&D Quick Tip, I cover the basics of Dungeon Mastering. Well, some of the basics. As much as I'd like to give hour-long seminars, that defeats the purpose of the "Quick Tips."

Also, I've changed the look of the video effects -- I may not stick with this new visual theme, but I think it's an improvement over the crimson text on faux parchment.

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Chris Perkins, Senior Producer of D&D, spoke about voice talent in his recent column. One tidbit he touched upon really resonated with me:

"It’s perfectly fine to mutilate real-world accents. So what if your Maine accent doesn’t sound like a real Maine accent. It’s not like your campaign in set in Maine, after all; the players won’t hate you because your rendition failed to conjure memories of summers spent in Bangor."

People will sometimes shy away from accents they can't properly e...
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Mike Mearls, RPG Group Manager for the D&D Research & Development, suggested in his weekly column that D&D will evolve toward minimalism with respect to its overarching mechanics system.

Saving throws, skill checks, attack rolls, defenses... So many mechanics boil down to your six ability scores. But those ability scores are rarely directly called upon.

Mearls said:

"You already have a Constitution score. While your Constitution modifier can factor into a save or defense, why bother with that...
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If you're a disenchanted (former) DDI subscriber hoping that Wizards of the Coast will revive the paper-format Dragon and Dungeon magazines, here's some bad news for you.

In a recent editorial, Steve Winter stated:

We’re committed to digital publishing for Dragon and Dungeon online. This medium offers many possibilities that we’ve yet to explore and raises questions that we’ve yet to answer. Is a web-based periodical that publishes stand-alone, unbundled articles still a magazine? If ...
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Bruce Cordell, game designer and member of the D&D Research & Development team, has flat out stated that he doesn't care for the two-page tactical spread that 4e adventures have been using for combat encounters.

And his reasoning is sound. The two-page spread forces developers to shoehorn encounters into a very specific format, and the result for the reader is a mix of encounters, some of which feel underdeveloped (the case when a particularly large encounter is squeezed into two pages) or ove...
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A lot of flak is thrown at 4th Edition because "it's all about combat." Many claim that there is little to no roleplaying in 4e. While I personally disagree with that statement, I can understand the argument behind it: there are few pages dedicated to governing roleplay in 4e, and the number of pages spent on a given topic is a reflection of its importance.

I choose to see it as follows: instead of providing a ruleset that tries (and fails) to govern any scenario imaginable, 4e focuses on co...
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In this weeks' Legends and Lore column on the official D&D website, RPG Group Manager for the D&D Research & Development, Mike Mearls, stated:

"Setting aside mechanics, I think you can boil D&D down to three basic activities: exploration, roleplay, and combat."

While each of those elements certainly plays a strong role, what about problem solving? Puzzles and riddles have been staples of D&D since its inception. You don't fight them, you don't interact with them in a meaningful way, and you do...
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A few updates ago, I mentioned the new D&D board game, titled Wrath of Ashardalon. Well, Wizards of the Coast recently posted an article explaining how they arrived at that title.

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Not exactly news, since we already knew that WotC canceled three books scheduled to launch this year, but it looks like the makers of D&D have finally realized that pumping out a book or two a month is just not a sustainable business model--especially given that most of those books released new feats, classes, and powers. Combine that with the monthly issues of Dragon magazine, and maintaining game balance amounts to a herculean task.

Third edition became so bogged down with supplemental ruleb...
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PAX East is a three-day game festival for tabletop, videogame, and PC gamers. This year, it takes place in Boston, March 11-13 -- and Wizards of the Coast will be there with great D&D events.

More details here.

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Wizards of the Coast recently posted an interview with three celebrated authors on the topic of their roleplaying game experiences and how it helped their writing careers.

A great read for aspiring authors!

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For those who haven't heard of the controversial D&D Fortune Cards, they basically add a dash of Magic: The Gathering into your Dungeons & Dragons soup. You buy a pack of cards (though the intent is to keep you coming back to buy more and more and more), shuffle them at the start of your turn in combat, and draw a card to play.

What do they do? Here's an example:



Hate them or love them, it seems they're here to stay, because the first booster pack, Shadow Over Nentir Vale, has been released....
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That's right. Publishing giant Forbes has posted an article about How To Get Started With Dungeons & Dragons. Of course, it can't do so without offhandedly mocking us "geeky losers" who play it.

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Yes, that's right. Wizards of the Coast released a board game based on their tabletop game.

Since I haven't played the game, and likely never will, I'll refrain on commentary. Well, maybe just one comment: It's like D&D, but without all the stuff that makes D&D great!



From the official site:

A cooperative game of adventure for 1–5 players set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons.

A heavy shadow falls across the land, cast by a dark spire that belches smoke and oozes fier...

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Recently released:



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Wizards of the Coast released their latest D&D rules supplement, The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea.

From the official website:



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Wizards of the Coast has released its D&D rules supplement, The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos.

From the official website:

No realm in the D&D world stirs the imagination like the Underdark. This vast subterranean domain holds thousands of adventure possibilities and myriad threats, including drow, mind flayers, dragons, and worse! Entire campaigns can unfold in its depths, and its rewards are boundless.

Underdark contains everything a Dungeon Master needs to run adv...

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Wizards of the Coast has released their D&D rules supplement, The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos.

From the official website:




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Wizards of the Coast has released their D&D rules supplement, Primal Power, as well as an epic-level adventure, Prince of Undeath.

From the official website:



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Wizards of the Coast has released their D&D rules supplement, Dungeon Master's Guide 2, as well as a paragon-level super-adventure, Revenge of the Giants.

From the official website:

A source of inspiration for Dungeon Masters of any level.

This core rulebook for the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game features advice and rules for Dungeon Masters of all levels of experience, with a particular focus on running adventures and campaigns in the paragon tier (levels 11–20). It includes advanced enc...

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Wizards of the Coast have released their latest Dungeons & Dragons rules supplement, Adventurer's Vault 2.



From the official website:

This supplement for the D&D game presents hundreds of magic items, including legendary weapons and artifacts. Whether you're a player looking for a new piece of equipment or a Dungeon Master building a dungeon hoard, this book has exactly what you need.

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