Next Summit

At Game Summit in Gatineau last weekend, I DMed a game of D&D Next. It is the latest iteration of the rules which included the Barbarian and Monk classes. The game turned out great. The players were brighter and more thorough than expected, and their tactical planning allowed them to mop up the opposition, so we were done a little early. Not a huge problem, given that it was a Saturday night.

I continue to be optimistic about the D&D Next rules. I had no real issues with the rules as written. It’s tough, of course, to give a well-considered review based on a single, one-shot game. First of all, I can’t even begin to posit that I’m conversant with the rules. I’ve read them over about three times, and I’ve run the game seriously once and casually twice.

On that basis, I think I can say that the direction which D&D Next seems to be going is one I support. As long as we don’t have rules bloat – in which the rules as written attempt to address every possible permutation of play and action – this is a game I’ll buy and I might even run. Given my recent penchant for rules-light games, D&D Next may not seem to be the kind of game I’d play, but D&D has a huge nostalgia hold on me. Also, I think while my crew has been brain-washed into enjoying the freedom of rules-light, I’m pretty certain that my particular style of laissez-faire GMing – don’t ask me if X is in the room, tell me X is in the room, and then proceed to tell how you are using X to do something awesome – can be bolted onto D&D Next for a similar game experience.

So here’s a vote of confidence for what WotC is doing with D&D. I look forward to what they’ll announce at Gen Con 2013.

You can find out more about D&D Next here.

You can find out more about Game Summit here.