D&D is going to have a new edition. Or maybe a revision of an existing division extensive enough to be a new edition. It's not necessarily clear at this point what will happen or what the company intends to happen.
But what counts as an edition?
Looking at GURPS, it's had a few iterations:
Man-to-Man
1st edition
2nd edition
3rd edition
3rd edition, revised
3rd edition, revised, plus Compendium I and II
4th edition
Officially four editions. But two were so close to each other as to be difficult to easily distinguish (1st and 2nd), or so close that it was just relatively minor changes (3rd, 3rd revised). Or a new but compatible edition in reality but not in same - 3rd revised plus compendia. Others might disagree with how I count - and I wouldn't have counted the compendia as a new edition at the time, but they seem so in retrospect. And I clean missed out on 2nd, so GURPS Update rolled around and I found weirdness that didn't quite line my games up with 3rd edition, since I was still on 1st.
D&D has some of the same issues with counting editions. So does Traveller, to the point that I don't even quite know where I'd begin.
I'm mostly curious if the new D&D is compatiblew with the exiting 5e stuff - there is so much out there. We'll see I guess . . . but to me it doesn't seem clear what's what.
RuneQuest 1e and 2e were nearly identical. Errata was incorporated into the text and typos cleaned up.
ReplyDeleteI think it's likely that Wizards has a bit of "edition change trauma" by now, and it's purposefully trying to avoid calling this project a "new edition".
ReplyDeleteFrom what I can remember, every D&D edition change starting with AD&D 2nd -> D&D 3.0 generated a large amount of edition wars between people who liked the new rules and people who thought they ruined the game forever.
3.0 -> 3.5 was a little less fraught, but any change where the new version was incompatible with the previous one generate huge amounts if Internet rage. There are people even today claiming that D&D 4 was a "total failure" because they didn't like it.
My guess is that the changes here will be more or less about as drastic as the 3.0 -> 3.5 changes were, and that they'll do whatever they can not to call this a new edition or assign it a number.
You are confused by Traveller editions? I'm surprised: although there are so many they are each major changes to the core mechanics.
ReplyDeleteThe original 1977 is 2d6, consult rules for each skill for adjustments based on skill level and ability levels. Characters have very few skills.
MegaTraveller is 2d6 with a standardized set of abiltiy and skill modifiers and damage reduction for armor rather than armor being more difficult to hit the target. Characters have three times as many skills as the original game.
Traveller New Era is a single d20 rolled under (skill + attribute) * difficulty.
Traveller 4 and 5 use difficulty number of d6s rolled under skill + attribute.
You know GURPS and HERO Traveller use 3d6 roll under skill, and d20 Traveller uses d20 + skill + ability modifier roll over difficulty.
Mongoose (1st edition) Traveller duplicates MegaTraveller and their 2nd edition sucks in the "advantage/disadvantage" mechanic craze of D&D 5E, which they call Boon/Bane but works the same by giving an extra die and requiring the roller to keep the best two or worst two of the three. This follows along the lines of Stars Without Number which beat them to it in both copying MegaTraveller in their first edition and adding D&D 5E's advantage/disadvantage in their second edition.
Here's a helpful cheatsheet (though I made my own years before I found this): https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Rules
It's not that I can't tell one edition from another, it's that there is a whole mess of different editions. As you well note. And when I asked about 4e GURPS Traveller, I got pointed to two different things - a conversion, and a different timeline (or different point in the timeline) version. It's a lot to keep track of if you're an outsider.
Delete"But what counts as an edition?
ReplyDeleteLooking at GURPS, it's had a few iterations:"
And even worse for me, the in Edition books with their own edition numbers... Like GURPS Magic (First Edition) is in GURPS Second Edition, Magic Second Edition is in GURPS Third Edition... at least GURPS Fourth Edition Magic doesn't give itself it's own edition number.
The weirdness here is that the technically true 1st edition of GURPS Magic is in GURPS Fantasy First Edition (just called GURPS Fantasy - Magic System And Game World).
But even worse is that the first 'three' editions of GURPS Magic are largely simple reprints, with very little changes (some spells added, I think). Even Magic for Fourth Edition is largely the same as 3e.
Of course this is actually GURPS greatest strength and weakness, strength in back-and-forth compatibility between editions, weakness in that it doesn't give SJG a lot of "easy to make must buys" with new editions.
As the co-author of two books with identical names to ones in previous editions . . . I feel like I contributed to that.
DeleteAt least all the GURPS Fourth Edition books say "Fourth Edition" on the cover... I have a feeling we have Sean Punch to thank for that.
DeleteUnlike the GURPS 3rd Ed Martial Arts book that says "Second Edition", which if memory serves is a revision of the GURPS 3e Martial Arts (First Edition)...
Mostly 1st, 2nd, and 3rd eds are a bit of a confusing mess, which only matters to collectoholics like myself.