Tabletop Spotlight: D&D Next

Break out that dusty d20 and order some pizza… That’s right, this week’s tabletop spotlight will have to be bright. We are going to talk about the dark and scary world of the greatest (and oldest) RPG out there: Dungeons & Dragons. To be specific, we will talk about the newest edition of the game, dubbed D&D Next.

Now, I have had the simultaneous pain and pleasure of being involved with a few different D&D campaigns, all with different folks at my side and running the show. I will soon be attempting to foray into the world of running a campaign myself. If that sort of thing interests you, hit me up with a comment down below and we can talk about it. Maybe I will even do a segment here on WCR about it, who knows?

Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop based role-playing game (or RPG) throwing players into an imaginary world created by one of their own, the Dungeon Master. While the major mechanics of the game revolve around dice throws, mostly twenty-sided, a lot of the real essence of the game and why it is awesome comes from the players themselves. It’s the simplest form of gaming: you speak for your character, interact with other characters at the table, and get roped into epic melee battles with monsters of all sorts of shapes and sizes.

The players create the atmosphere and story themselves, playing out an intricate version of a “create your own adventure” style skirmish on a large grid with tiny figures. It is at once the best and worst part of playing D&D, the people make it what it is. So why the focus on this newest iteration of the game? D&D Next actually does what the last three revamps (since the 80’s) couldn’t do: make the game accessible.

In older versions of the game, players would create their character using elaborate formulas, have to check with the lorebooks about racial and class skills, and then pray that their DM is merciful when they roll a 1 during combat… SPOILER ALERT: that’s pretty unlikely. In this newest version, the creation process and the gameplay itself is much more intuitive and streamlined. It’s designed to make the game work smoothly and flow better than it ever has before. Trust me, these are some pretty good changes. It used to be SO tedious, and now it’s very simple.

Since D&D Next is still in playtesting, there are a few things in specific I can’t discuss… but the good news is that it’s free to check it out for yourself! The new series of encounters that just came out this month, called Legacy of the Crystal Shard, is really really awesome. (Check it out here at the Wizards of the Coast website!) As I said previously, I’d love to share my experience DM’ing this mess and getting a campaign going with you all here on WCR. Let me know in the comments if you have any further questions or even if you’d be up for joining my maiden voyage! :)