Wizard of the Coast’s ears must’ve been burning after I finally got off my ass to post the overdue book review on Of Dice and Men. Through my gaming friend Flynn, I found out that WotC announced the release schedule for their new Fifth Edition rules. They’re going with a staggered approach like Third. I forgot they put out all of Fourth in one swoop or more appropriately, this version is best forgotten altogether, it sucked.
I haven’t participated in any play testing so I have no idea on the future game’s details. Now that I’m older, and hopefully wiser, I also lack an opinion. I read about snippets from Ewalt’s book plus other friends who got in on alphas/betas. Still, little specifics. The generalities I gathered were this version being “edition independent.” Not exactly sure what this MarketSpeak term means. Another friend implied a possible definition by saying he was excited about re-integrating Second Edition rules through Next/5E…blech! I thought Fourth was awful, Second is the runner up. Seems D&D has the opposite problem of Star Trek films, remember, only the even-numbered sequels are good (Khan, Voyage and Undiscovered).
I will definitely give the new PHB a decent look over but I’m 99% set on sticking with Pathfinder‘s rules, aka D&D 3.75E. Not out of spite, more for economic reasons. Besides, I really like what the Paizo design team has done with their default campaign world. They also publish materials to keep the game moving: stand-alone adventures, six-part mini-campaigns and regional supplements. Paizo is also guilty of making stuff I felt drowned D&D’s 3/3.5, too many rulebooks which leads to paralysis via the DM getting hit with excessive options.