Friday, May 23, 2014

Schedule slip is a bitch

I guess this depression is going to be one of those long frustrating ones for me... For a month now I start feeling better and then crash again. I haven't been in any shape to do anything creative in that time. Apart from which I feel like... I dunno, I don't have much to say about gaming lately, and particularly OSR stuff. I still like it, mind you, but I am still pretty excited for D&D 5th Edition, and expect to drift over to that in the coming months as the finished game rolls out. I think my interest will perk up a lot when that gets out the door.

Just to give you all some actual gaming talk, though I expect you've heard already, the initial 5e product line has been introduced. I'm annoyed that character generation isn't in the box set, but having it in a free PDF (and possibly more according to the RPG Pundit) makes up for that. I mostly like the cover art for everything so far as well. What are the opinions of my tiny handful of readers?

4 comments:

lars_alexander said...

The cover art is awe-inspiring but does not inspire my imagination. But I like it much better than 3e, or 4.

For new players who want to start out with D&D it's probably quite nice to get a part of the PHB for free, and buy the complete book if interest is high enough.

As for the price tag, I'd only buy it, if there was nothing else on my priority list; which is another way of saying 'I'd stick with Basic Fantasy.' And Risus, of course... ;)

Take care, and I wish you all the best!

Holly Oats said...

With the exception of the Starter Set, I didn't care much for the new cover art. I will say that it's far better than what we saw for 4E, but that's kind of a low bar...

The "age 12+" part was nice, as was the ampersand and the darkness of the Monster Manual, but the log looked cramped, and having both that and the title seemed superfluous. All covers appeared to share a theme completely divorced from the game's origin's and what makes it stand out

My understanding's been that the rules will be pretty close to what we saw in the final playtest document, so I have absolutely no interest. I might flip through it at a bookstore or something, but I'm not forking over $20 or more to check it out; I've got student loans to pay off! Even 3.5 had material I've been tempted to steal, but neither 4E nor 5E have given me anything to work with (no, I'm not a fan of the advantage/disadvantage mechanic)

Best of luck to Wizards, and I hope any buyers actually like it, but I'm gonna pass on this one

Scott Anderson said...

Pulling for you. Come every day to see what's up.

yuri said...

late of the party and not gaming too...
anyway, if i'll ever be able to start a new campaign i won't probably use d&d

next, but rather my favourite labyrinth lord or mentzer basic or maybe lamentations of the flame princess.
I totally agree with you about the contents of the boxed set and the free pdf.

The cover art is clearly focused on roaring badass monsters: that's ok, i like

monsters!
In brief, i think the new edition will be a fine game, but not my game of choice

as a DM.
As a player i will surely give it a try.
Which setting will you use for your 5e campaign?

oh, wait a moment...my birthday is july 20, so the boxed starter set could be a

good present :-)