D&D’s next iteration needs to keep things simple, too

polygon.com:

0One of the main reasons that players stick with Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition is because publisher Wizards of the Coast is always trying new things — new locations and new kinds of adventures, to be sure, but also new character classes, spells, and magical items. Along with that evolution comes a natural growth in the game’s complexity. Characters of the Artificer class, for instance, released in 2019, can craft their own magic items pretty much overnight. In addition to being able to hold their own in combat, they can also cast spells, make magical hand grenades, and design small mechanical creatures to do their bidding. That makes the Artificer a lot more challenging to run than the stock Fighter in the original Player’s Handbook (2014).

As the wildly popular tabletop role-playing game eases into its 50th anniversary next year, game design architect Jeremy Crawford and his team are neck-deep in a revised version of the 5th edition rules. Part of the challenge, he told Polygon, is knowing when to lean into that complexity. But it’s equally important to know when to hold back.

“I love intricate character options when I’m playing,” said Crawford in an interview with Polygon at this year’s Gen Con in Indianapolis. “But sometimes when I play, I’m like, You know what, I just want to swing a sword today. One of the beauties of D&D — going all the way back to the 1970s — is that it provides not only different narrative options through its various character classes, but different gameplay options.”

That mixture of simple and complex options is important to maintain, Crawford said, especially when creating Player’s Handbook (2024), which will become the single most widely read entry point into the wider world of D&D for its