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GunnarGreybeard
May 28th, 2014, 13:04
Since the playtest kit is no longer available, what is the best way to still get a copy of the rules. My being old school, 1e AD&D, and having seen some videos on the new system I think I'm really going to like this version and I want to get a jump on working up material for a campaign.

Trenloe
May 28th, 2014, 13:33
Ghost of Dragonspear Castle (released at GenCon last year) has D&D Next rules from around that date. I'm not sure how much the play test rules changed from what was printed there. Might be worth a look though: https://www.dndclassics.com/product/123270/Ghosts-of-Dragonspear-Castle-DD-Next It includes 140 pages of the adventure and chapters on how to play, magic, equipment, DM guidelines and Bestiary. It doesn't have much on character creation and levels though - only coming with 6 pregens with details of levels 1-10 for each.

GunnarGreybeard
May 28th, 2014, 13:47
Thanks Trenloe. I saw that and wasn't sure how outdated it might be so hesitated on getting it. Might still have enough info to get the ball rolling so may end up getting it anyway.

jshauber
May 28th, 2014, 14:30
It hasn't changed much so if you grab that it will be a good start, any changes were minor and not enough to change what you might work up before you get them.

They never gave much on character development past a certain level anyway.

I have liked everything I have seen and the scaling back of the uber-feated/skilled characters helps balance play as the levels start to mount. That is my main complaint with Pathfinder, after about 10th level characters can get stupidly overpowered especially with guys maxing out builds.

Irondrake
May 28th, 2014, 18:16
The latest incarnation that you can legally get is included in the two Encounters modules Scourge of the Sword Coast and Dead in Thay (Dead in Thay has the most revised Spell List, Scourge of the Sword Coast and Dead in Thay together have a fairly unique and updated beastiary but NOOOOO XP values whatsoever). Its not meant to replace any of the playtest packages and I believe they only go from levels 1 - 10. Dead in Thay has beasties with Legendary Actions, which is fairly exciting and something to look forward to if you are a DM and looking for new ways to punis...err keep things exciting for your players.

OneSidedDie
May 28th, 2014, 23:44
Come August when they release the PHB they will also release a Basic D&D PDF with all the rules to play any published adventure. https://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20140527

"Basic D&D is a PDF that covers the core of the game. It’s the equivalent of the old D&D Rules Cyclopedia, though it doesn’t have quite the same scope (for example, it won’t go into detail on a setting). It runs from levels 1 to 20 and covers the cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard, presenting what we view as the essential subclass for each. It also provides the dwarf, elf, halfling, and human as race options."

Zeus
May 29th, 2014, 09:16
https://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20140529

OGL plans discussed, announcements scheduled for November and release planned for 2015. Looks like no OGL before the core books are released.

Mellock
May 29th, 2014, 14:40
Mearls uses a lot of words to not actually say much. (I'm also guilty of this sometimes). But now that the OGL has been namedropped, and considering the openness that 5e has bathed in so far, I think it doesn't look bad at all. And I'm thinking that the intarweb will remain abuzz with DnD 5e licensing speculation for the next half year :p.

Zeus
May 29th, 2014, 15:15
I wonder if this will go the way of the OGL (as hoped) or whether WotC will cash in with a online D&D Store that 3rd parties can publish content to?

Griogre
May 29th, 2014, 16:46
Might be both, Zeus. I think they do want more 3rd party publishers than they had for 4E, while holding some things closer to their vest than the OGL route.

Their first goal seems to be they are angling to get "everyones first RPG" to be "Basic D&D" again. IE grow market share with free (but copyrighted) products aimed at new and casual players. They want to maintain control here under the lessons learned from people selling the SRD. They likely will prevent distribution for re-sale but allow distribution for free under reasonable rules if I read them right.

Their second goal seems to be sell to the faithful, their own products and third party licensed products. We'll know a lot more when we see WotC releases for next year. Mearls used so many weasel words about up coming 3rd party products they have to be, at least, in discussion with someone.

Irondrake
May 29th, 2014, 23:55
Definitely makes me think they have already begun negotiations and they are really just waiting to see how those pan out before they expose it to the masses.... Oh and even better news, we'll have Basic D&D in July. It releases with the Starter Set, not the PHB :)

OneSidedDie
May 30th, 2014, 02:22
Definitely makes me think they have already begun negotiations and they are really just waiting to see how those pan out before they expose it to the masses.... Oh and even better news, we'll have Basic D&D in July. It releases with the Starter Set, not the PHB :)

It will only have character generation to start though. The starter kit will be needed to play still unless the rules have been relatively unchanged since the October play test.

Griogre
May 30th, 2014, 04:26
The Basic D&D rules will become functional with the release of the PH is what they said, so only a month later than the release of the starter set. Monsters, DM stuff, ect.

Irondrake
May 30th, 2014, 04:50
True, I'm picking up the Starter Set...low price point and it may have a decent adventure in it...that with the PDF should be enough to know what's changed and what has stayed the same. With the PHB we'll have enough for campaigns.

Moon Wizard
May 30th, 2014, 05:01
My group is planning to try out 5E this year too. Probably use the Starter Set to being with, as our face-to-face gaming weekend is the week before Gencon.

Just wish I could get my hands on the Starter Set early to finalize the 5E ruleset.

Cheers,
JPG

jshauber
May 30th, 2014, 14:44
Just wish I could get my hands on the Starter Set early to finalize the 5E ruleset.

Cheers,
JPG

Yeah we all wish the same thing!!!

Eru the One
May 31st, 2014, 19:39
I think I read on WOTC's site that FLGS were going to receive 5e up to 11 days prior to the release date, so maybe you can find it early :).

Mellock
May 31st, 2014, 20:25
I think I read on WOTC's site that FLGS were going to receive 5e up to 11 days prior to the release date, so maybe you can find it early :).

Those in the Wizards' Play Network, at least.

willquestion
June 11th, 2014, 06:08
I'm wondering when WOTC will release the advanced rules and if it's going to be it's own player's handbook. I'm definitely going to be running the Starter Set on FG and look forward to trying it out.

Zeus
June 11th, 2014, 08:47
I'm wondering when WOTC will release the advanced rules and if it's going to be it's own player's handbook. I'm definitely going to be running the Starter Set on FG and look forward to trying it out.

Advanced rules. Do you mean the three core rulebooks? I haven't heard of an Advanced D&D 5th Edition release. The current release schedule is:

6748

VenomousFiligree
June 11th, 2014, 11:14
Some people have likened the PHB, DMG and MM to advanced D&D as the free pdf is Basic D&D (possibly Mike Mearls himself?).

VenomousFiligree
June 11th, 2014, 11:16
Oh, and release dates could be up to two weeks earlier at select WPN stores.

Zeus
June 11th, 2014, 12:02
Some people have likened the PHB, DMG and MM to advanced D&D as the free pdf is Basic D&D (possibly Mike Mearls himself?).

From Mr. Mearls posts on the WotC and WotC Twitter sites, I understood that the three core rulebooks expanded the D&D Starter Set which contains 4 races and 4 classes. The rules of D&D per se do not change in PHB, the races and classes are are simply expanded to offer more options. I understood D&D Basic to be the core mechanics for D&D, given away for free, to encourage more people to start playing D&D. Therefore I do not believe WotC plan to release an Advanced D&D set of rules or at least there does not seem to be any current evidence that points to it.

VenomousFiligree
June 11th, 2014, 12:20
Zeus, I was saying that the PHB, DMG and MM have been likened to an Advanced D&D in that they contained more rules than Basic D&D.

VenomousFiligree
June 11th, 2014, 12:24
From the transcript here (https://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=29787).


MM: No. Keeping simplest expression of the game possible. Full game is like "AD&D" as opposed to the "Basic" D&D.

willquestion
June 11th, 2014, 14:06
I think I misunderstood the Q&A video. I thought they were saying the PHB has basic rules but they were talking about the starter set and I assumed their would be an Advanced book later from that. I got my hopes up I guess.

Irondrake
June 11th, 2014, 18:53
There will be a PDF that is updated with free basic rules released alongside the starter set and three rule books. The first one should come out around July 3rd with character creation from 1-20 for fighter, cleric, wizard, and rogues (only one option for each I think) as well as a background for each class and 4 races.