I really should travel by train more often. There’s something deeply satisfying about being able to sit back and watch the world fly by, basking in the illusion that you are immobile and the world is shifting to accommodate your desire to be someplace else. You sit, and the world moves.
Thinking about it (as I have, lately) the current D&D Next playtest project is much like a train ride. We began by all hurrying to the station to climb on board the first playtest packet, excited to see where this train would take us and even more eager to get to reach the destination and see the finished product.
Time passed and, as happens, some people got off the train; that’s fine, as no doubt they had other places to be and had decided this particular train ride wasn’t for them. I and my merry group of wayward souls stayed on board, and continue to enjoy the ride – even despite the kids in the seat behind bawling “are we there yet?” at the top of their lungs. You know who you are.
At the same time this is unlike any other trainride as we have the ability to decide which route the train should take. Don’t want to stop at Dual-Class Junction? Tell the driver. Unhappy about the incline up Grindy Combat Hill? You can have a quiet word with the ticket inspector. As the tracks are still being laid up ahead, the route is (quite literally, if you print out the pdfs) in your hands.
Of course, if all the playtesters have a say then the risk is that the D&D Express just ends up going round in circles. Dungeons & Dragons is a huge hobby with players and DMs who all (quite rightly) believe that their particular playstyle is the best – and it is, for them. We have immersive gamers who revel in backstories and subplots alongside harried players who just want to grab a pregen and kill some orcs. We have DMs who weave complex story-driven arcs of their own making and DMs who would much prefer to use published adventures with ready-made battlemats and a stock of minis. We have everything in between and beyond, with many players and DMs being a bit of everything in varying degree. Identifying quite what we want out of a game is a minefield, and I’m pretty sure that driving a train over a minefield is a really bad idea.
This is why of all the ideas mooted for D&D Next, the one I’m most excited about seeing is Modules. Pushing the train analogy a little further, Modules are the carriages that make the train. You get to pick the class of seat, the buffet car and number and type of carriages. Which Modules you pick (or not at all, if you’re happy playing vanilla core D&D) dictate whether your particular D&D Express train is a fast-as-lightning bullet train with ultra quick combat, rapid healing and a cinematic action feel, or a slow-burning heavy stoker loaded up with crunchy game options and detail. D&D becomes your game, according to your particular whims and needs.
This is a Module. Probably.
This is where it’s my turn to be the annoying kid who kicks the seat and says “ARE WE THERE YET??“. I know we have seen some modules in D&D Next already (the various healing rules, Backgrounds, etc) but they’ve not been explicitly called out and standardized in their approach. I want to see a Module as a module with a fixed template and structure so we know it as such. I want Modules by the bucketload with Mass Combat being high on my list. Much as I’m sitting back and enjoying the ride, that is one piece of the journey I’m most eager to see.
So I hope you’re still along for the trainride. If you aren’t, or left the train at an earlier station, grab the latest playtest packet and hop on board. You might just like where we’re going, and how far we have travelled already.
Till next time!
