When new users first arrive at the refreshed website, what they'll find is a home page with very clear links to their most fundamental questions: What is D&D? How do I play? What do I need to get started? And where can I find a game? The answers to these questions should then lead them more intuitively deeper into the website.

Returning users will find a home page that clearly presents the programs, events, and products that are most relevant at any given time. We want you to know what's taking place in the game in a more immediate and compelling way. Here's where you'll find the big, splashy announcements for the next D&D Encounters season. Or, you'll discover news on the latest book, board game, or video game release. Or, you can find information on what's taking place at PAX, Comic Con, or Gen Con.

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For those of you who attended D&D XP, we thoroughly hope you enjoyed your first look at the next iteration of Dungeons & Dragons! As part of the convention, we provided ongoing chats from the seminars; plus, the latest Joining the Party rounds up quite a bit more convention coverage.

With the refresh to the website coming later this month, we'll also have a dedicated hub that helps collect website articles (such as Legends & Lore and Prismatic Spray) and community blog posts discussing the D&D Next playtest—and of course, will host access to the sign-up page as well. Just look for the appropriately named "Playtest" option in the top navigation.

If you're looking to get involved with the playtest, be sure to sign up right here. In addition, the D&D Next community group page provides the latest information, as well as offers R&D blogs, polls, and community discussions regarding the playtest.

For this to work, there needs to be a basic core to the game upon which you layer these options. That's where distilling D&D down to its essence comes in. What are the things that you'd expect to overhear at a table of people playing D&D if you didn't know which version they were playing?

That's something that we're working on right now. But some of the answers are obvious. Six ability scores ranging from 3 to 18. Fighters, clerics, wizards, and rogues. (Or, if you prefer, fighting-men, clerics, magic-users, and thieves.) Character levels. Experience points. Rolling a d20 to attack. Magic missiles. Fireballs. Hold person. And so on.

In effect, what you end up with is a fully playable game with its own style. Think of it this way: It would be wrong to say that there is no inherent D&D style that carries across the nearly forty-year lifespan of the game. What you really end up with, in this approach, is a game that ends up looking—not coincidentally—like original D&D. Not entirely, of course, and not precisely, but close. It's a game that captures the feel of OD&D.

From there, with that excellent foundation, we can build upward and outward.

To be clear, we're not talking about creating a bridge so that you can play 1E and 4E at the same time. Instead, we're allowing you to play a 1E-style game or a 4E-style game with the same rules. Also, players at the table can choose the style of character they want to play.

Thanks for finding and highlighting these articles. I really don't have the time to keep up over there right now. Ok, now off to actually read them!

Hmm, I don't read it quite that way Dave.



The last sentence adds confusion to the intent. I interpret it to mean that even in a very simple game you might have characters with defined "powers" that the player can select from. How exactly that could work seems pretty ill-defined.

I think it is a pretty good article and honest about how they have good intentions they don't know how to work out. I found the questions at the end to be pretty useless though.

Some choices then-such as whether a character has a long list of skills and feats; or skills, feats, and powers; or just ability scores, hit points, Armor Class, and an attack bonus-are up to the player. Some choices are up to the DM.