A Bit About D&D Next

I posted this next bit on a friend's G+ thread and thought it might be nice to share.

A brief debate ensued after my good friend made a post saying "There's currently a thread on Wizards (and reddit) about how the dwarf fighter from the D&D Next playtest isn't so boring after all because, look, he can use the improvise action to do whatever you want. That's like saying a blank canvas is art because you have paints."

I agree and wrote the following:
"Well here are my two cents. Rules are a common and accepted contract between players and the DM. For as long as the rule is there the players and DM agree to follow that rule. If both sides agree, rules can be added in or taken away.

Let's do a thought experiment. Let's assume the next version of D&D is published with no rules. The players and DM must then make at least an informal set of rules to play by. We use dice to determine the outcome of tasks that can succeed or fail. We agree on damages and HPs and all of that. Any improvisations at this point are new and innovative.

After a couple of months though the group will develop a routine or set of actions that work a specific way. These are house rules. Now if this group was making the game, these house rules would be written down as normal rules. How far can a character move? Rule. How tough is my character compared to his? Rule. How dangerous is this monster? Rule. What can my character do that his cannot? Rule....

And it is this last part that is the heart of this issue. The other classes have more rules associated with them and therefor everyone who plays the game agree they can do more. Can the fighter improvise to run a piece of flint across his axe and shoot a spark 30 ft. from it that deals 1d6+Str Mod. damage on a hit? If he can then every other class can as well because it is part of the improvise action. Otherwise the fighter should just have the ability. The Cleric has an ability that is better than this that he can use all of the time and, except if the story calls for it, he will never have to argue his ability to do this where as the Fighter will have to describe it colorfully and fight for it every time.

The Wizard can improvise many thing solely on the basis of being a spell caster but he has a list of spells, a list of codified rules, that he can draw on as well to supplement his abilities. The Fighter doesn't have this to fall back on.

And what if the DM is incredibly strict and not very open to super fantastic uses of improvise? What if, heaven forbid, he is someone who limits improvise to only the plausible? The Wizard can fall back on the rules to keep flinging bolts of magic around ad nausium while the poor Fighter is stuck doing the same old boring thing every round.

And that is what people are upset about. And that is why the Fighter should have more rules. Not to limit his creativity but to bolster his options."

What do you think?

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Youtube and such stuff

We are beginning to post some of our stuff on Youtube to try and increase our reach. If you are interested you can visit us at http://www.youtube.com/user/GamingDisconnect and see some of our episodes in full Youtube glory.

Notice anything new?

So we recently updated episode 10 to make it flow better. If this is popular enough then we might fix some of our old mistakes more often.

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