Choose Your Destiny

So, the release of 5^th Edition inspired my ill-conceived return behind the screen. After getting tentative committals from enough people to make a group (happily, mostly people I’ve never gamed with), the next question becomes: Are we actually going to be throwing down on 5^th Edition?

The preview stuff for 5^th looks phenomenal. The art is better and has more character than anything in 4^th (and, let’s be honest, than some of the stuff in 3.X). Everything we’ve seen so far is geared more towards flavor than mechanics (Backgrounds even give you abilities that grant you no particular mechanical benefit, just storyline ones. That is amazing). I haven’t yet seen any of the monster entries so I don’t quite know how those work (and I may not get the opportunity until the Monster Manual drops next month), but from what I gather of the combat system it looks like it flows smoother and moves faster than 4^th did.

Still, Pathfinder is looking pretty good at this point. For those of you reading who might not be familiar, Pathfinder is the game that came out after Wizards of the Coast ended Dungeons & Dragons’ 3^rd (and 3.5) Edition series. My previous DM job was Pathfinder, and it has a couple of big benefits: it’s been out for several years and its full rules are available for free on the Interwebs.

Pictured: under consideration.

Those two items work in a very close tandem with each other. While the books are always better (and WotC, take note: Paizo sells cheap, brilliantly put together PDFs of their new releases on their website), we still have the option of using six years of character options and customizations for nothing. This could be huge when for getting everybody I’d like together to rock this campaign: most of us are on opposite sides of the country and getting everyone together to share a book simply isn’t an option.

So that brings us to Dungeons & Dragons. As of this writing, I’ve only had the chance to peruse the Basic Rules. The Player’s Handbook drops this week, but money may be a barrier (and as much as I love that they did the Basic Rules as a free download, that puppy is not going to satisfy me or my group, I don’t think). Then we have to wait a month for the Monster Manual to release. We have the monsters released with the Hoard of the Dragon Queen, but those are without fluff and a little incomplete in places. It’s going to cost money and time (I’ve never been a “run the adventure out of the module” guy).

Pictured: under consideration.

Having discussed this with a couple of my players, we’re going to start off with D&D. We really want to support a good quality game, and it looks like 5^th Edition is. I’m willing to let WotC win me back.

I’m just glad nobody wanted to play 4^th Edition.

Pictured: Nnnnnnope.

Discussion Question: Holler back at me, humans. What game are you planning on playing after 5^th releases? Making the jump to 5^th? Ready to give me a good talking-to over my jokes about 4E? Sticking with 3.5 or Pathfinder? Are you more of a GURPS sort of person? Do you like something else? Lemme know, guys and gals.