Equipment can be easily chosen from quick lists that map to class and background.
In a piece about selecting equipment for new characters, Dungeons & Dragons Next designer Mike Mearls has revealed that a “fundamental philosophy” in designing D&D Next has been a desire to make fast, pick up play of D&D a realistic possibility. “Long setup times are no longer the norm,” wrote Mearls, “and gamers want to get into actual play as quickly as possible.” Alongside this, Mearls described a system whereby players could choose their equipment as quickly as possible “from a short list of options” delineated by Class, background, and skill set. He stressed that this was different than the package sets of gear provided by past editions and wouldn’t limit players one premade option per class.
“With D&D, we’ve always had the option for long, intricate, character creation sessions,” said Merals. “However, the game hasn’t supported truly quick character generation in many years.” The sentiment is a familiar one for anyone in recent tabletop RPGs, stemming from some old school revival in indie RPG players’ insistence that modern tabletop roleplaying games took too long to set up and play.
Dungeons & Dragons‘ Fifth Edition will release later this year.
Source: Wizards of the Coast
Published: Mar 24, 2014 07:55 pm