Although I haven’t been following the development of the ‘5th edition’ of Dungeons and Dragons very closely (indeed, not at all over the past year), I could not avoid learning that it very likely would start being released this summer. And now it’s official. The core rules will be released from July 20th to November 18th.
I’ll be getting the ‘Basic Set’ – er… the ‘Starter Set’ – for sure. The price is okay, and I would like to see what this version of the game looks like.
I really hope that I like what I see, that it turns out to be the case that the wonderful ‘Old School Renaissance’ did indeed have some impact on the development of 5th edition. I hope this not because I’m dependent on the Wizards of the Coast for my RPG needs. (Quite the contrary. The only WotC products that I’ve purchased in recent years were the reprints of the 1st edition AD&D rules and modules, the reprint of the original (1974) D&D rules, and some PDFs of out-of-print materials.) For ‘D&D-style’ gaming, my copies of 1st edition AD&D, Basic/Expert D&D, 0e D&D, the ‘clones’ like OSRIC and Swords & Wizardry, and the ‘quasi-clone’ Crypts & Things, will continue to meet my needs perfectly well. Nonetheless, I would be delighted to see a broadly ‘old school’ style of play being supported, at least to some extent, by the hobby’s leader (or one of its leaders, if WotC really has been supplanted by Paizo).
The price for the core books, though, certainly is worrisome: 150 USD for the traditional triumvirate!