Originally published at: Getting a peek at the next generation of Dungeons & Dragons, codenamed "One D&D" | Boing Boing
…
2 Likes
Did they get whoever names XBOX consoles to come up with the new name? I look forward to D&D One X and xXOne D&D OneXx.
5 Likes
I’m here for the freakout. Has the freakout started yet? Where’s the freakout?
8 Likes
Make a Perception check.
15 Likes
Added to piece.
UPDATE: Ben of Questing Beast weighs in:
2 Likes
Let me get the ball rolling:
This is WotC executing its plan to take the D&D brand and shape it into the type of ‘live service’ that many companies (notable software and even car manufacturers) are moving towards. In the case of ‘One D&D’ what that means is further monetization of the ‘D&D Beyond’ service, which already offers to sell the existing 5e content piecemeal to its users. Part of this involves adding an admittedly graphically powerful looking virtual tabletop that will likely be filled with micro-transactions for terrain and miniatures.
The new VTT aside this does look to be one of the less offensive SaaS models in that they’re at the very least planning on bundling the books with digital access, which is a welcome change. Though one wonders if they’re publishing these new updated versions just so they can resell slightly modified content. It’ll be telling when we get to see just how different the new books are from the old ones. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mentioning the polarity of opinion on certain rule changes, namely: dropping the ability score modifications associated with each race.
Overall, I’m not personally very excited by all this. More content for 5e sounds great, but I’m not a fan of SaaS and don’t interact with ‘D&D Beyond’ for that very reason. So the entirety of this new push rests on just how different and improved these new books are going to be.
5 Likes
D&D Digital looks very much like ARcana Augmented Reality vtt - I wonder if D&D Digital is actually leveraging the yet-to-be-released ARcana platform or building their own from scratch.
In any case, building it on Unity could open it up for modding. Just checked, btw, and ARcana is built on Unity. Hmm…
2 Likes
One Dungeon and Dragon? Sounds like a short campaign.
2 Likes
i haven’t really played in… decades, honestly, but i did dabble in a game a couple years back (5th ed) with one of my nephews, who is a current generation fan. And i gotta say, the 5th edition was super easy to pick up and was just as fun to play as it used to be. and as a current player, my nephew is VERY excited for One D&D. so there’s that. I also have a friend who’s running 5th edition campaigns for his daughter and her friends, so i’m interested to see what he thinks about One D&D too. i think it sounds fine, and fun, even though it’s clear that it’s also a business move to solidify and lock in their customer base. if they make it so it’s just as good as it is now, but then add in stuff, i’d be ok with paying a subscription or whatever – as long as it’s a reasonable price.
3 Likes
This might just be my day job creeping in; but does anyone else find the explanation of the transition from 5e to 'One D&D" eerily similar to the pitch for the change from Win8 and earlier to the Windows 10 lifecycle model(replace disruptive upgrades from product with 10 years of support to the next with frequent updates that are all named the same but act differently and have really short supported lifespans; for stability!) with heavy emphasis on Azure services and ‘experiences’?
2 Likes
They mention in the video that it’s ‘Unreal Engine’ though they didn’t mention if it’s 4 or 5. Which doesn’t preclude it from modding, there are a few UE4 games with modding currently supported, but does make supporting modding more difficult.
1 Like
praise the powers that be at least they didn’t stan apple with id&d
speaking of supernatural praise, when did demons stop taking over computers? surely with with the satanic panic a “d&d online” would be enough to keep the religious right permanently offline?
although, maybe that’s why software as service has won out. software possession does sound downright dangerous 
1 Like
oh, I thought they said Unity. The whole “starting with UN” thing threw me off, lol; I often confuse Unreal Engine with Unity for that very reason 
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
