Everyone has been writing about Mike Mearls series of articles discussing the design philosophy of D&D Next. His latest was about the ‘one hour’ D&D game, including character creation, which Mearls argues is supported by B/X D&D-style rules. While I don’t agree with much of the design philosophy that is leaking through from Mearls’ articles, and can’t see myself playing D&D Next (I’ve got various D&Ds and retro-clones, I’ve got WFRP, I’ve got RuneQuests and OpenQuests and Stormbringers, what do I need Next for?), I do have some sympathy for a game designed with shorter, episodic games in mind.
Back in the day, when we were carefree teenagers, we would play for whole evenings, whole days even at the weekend. But we’re not carefree anymore. We’ve got kids, and worse, jobs! We’ve even got to do our own washing and cook our own food. Oh, the humanity! And so we can’t play for 8 hours a day, or 5 hours in an evening. We play for about 2 and half to 3 hours in a single sitting, punctuated by cups of tea we brew ourselves, rather than jug after jug of Kool-Aid mixed up by Carlos’ mum.
Back in the day, when we were carefree teenagers, we would play for whole evenings, whole days even at the weekend. But we’re not carefree anymore. We’ve got kids, and worse, jobs! We’ve even got to do our own washing and cook our own food. Oh, the humanity! And so we can’t play for 8 hours a day, or 5 hours in an evening. We play for about 2 and half to 3 hours in a single sitting, punctuated by cups of tea we brew ourselves, rather than jug after jug of Kool-Aid mixed up by Carlos’ mum.
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