Suppose you somehow gain a massive fortune, buy D&D off WotC and have free reign to do 5e exactly the way you want it. (And, of course, ignoring, as this is a theoretical question, all of what else might be done with such a fortune)

So: What's your D&D? Be as brief or as lengthy as you wish.

Mine? Well, I've gamed a lot less than I'd like and without the breadth of D&D experience of many of you, but what I'm thinking right now is:
Make the stats more flexible (Body, Mind and Spirit, pick two specializations each?), make the skills more organic and responsible for more of the system ("Longswords" is cheap; "Swords" is expensive; "Melee" is more expensive; maybe...), drop Feats entirely, add in Traits, add in a Stunt system.
Classes would be the basic four (Fighter, Rogue, Cleric and Magic-User), with customizability - A 3e Sorcerer or Wizard or 4e Warlock would be all in the customization. Classes would interact with skills logically and provide non-skill benefits and traits.

Format would be Basic, Advanced and Expert for the basic Player rules, a GM's Handbook and, of course, an Encounters Compendium (Better name than Monster Manual for something that would contain much more than monsters).
The GM's Handbook would contain an extensive section on building "dungeons" and encounter locations in general, with generous tables. This is because, to put it bluntly, not every GM, especially beginning ones (And me) are Leonardo da Vinci with architecture.

Sure, in the end, it's best to make your own. But until you have enough experience to, stuff like that would be very helpful.

And, an Adventure Book. A baker's dozen pre-packaged adventures, going from easy and quick to run to complex and lengthy. However, for a twist, various things would be left blank for the GM to fill in - More and more as they move up.

In other words...A GM training set. Not a kiddie set, but a set of "training weights".

All of this would be in a box set, because box sets just strike me as cool (Everything you need - In one box!). Including a generous selection of dice - From a recent thread, import and package in-house and it'd be cheap.

And the character sheet would easily fit on one side of a single sheet of paper.

The problem with conceptualizing one's ideal D&D is that everyone has different ideas about it, so it stands to reason that MY ideal D&D is one that no one but me would want to play. But, with that in mind, here goes:

For instance, my ideal D&D at the core would look a lot like Star Wars Saga Edition, with a few changes.

Instead of the old 3-18 scale for attributes, I would present them as modifiers, much like True 20 does. So instead of having, say, a DEX of 16, a character would have a DEX of +3 (or +2. I would probably use Castles & Crusades scale for ability modifiers)

I would skew the numbers lower, removing +N magic item enhancements from the game math, and make sure that the bulk of modifiers that characters get would come from level. Magic items would instead just have properties and item powers.

Levels would go from 1 to 30, but would be divided into 3 box sets, called "Heroic," "Paragon" and "Epic" each covering 10 levels of play. The "classic" races and classes would be represented in each, with more exotic choices being available in periphery sourcebooks.

I like more exotic races, so things like Dragonborn and Tieflings stay...they would be core along with Humans, Halflings, Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Eladrin (High Elves). Half-Elves and Half-Orcs however, would be gone (which is painful because Half-Orcs are my favorite race) Instead, humans would have talent paths for nonhuman ancestry.

Classes would remain compartmentalized and focused. The core set would include Clerics, Fighters, Rogues, Wizards, Bards, Druids, Paladins, Rangers and maybe Warlocks or Warlords or Swordmages.

Fighters and other martial characters would get talent paths for things like stances and fighting styles as talent paths, in lieu of powers. The Fighters schtick might be combo attacks that key off of critical hits, while Rogues might have something like gambles that pay off with exploding damage dice.

Spellcasting classes would have a shared pool of consolidated spells, all of which scale with level. These would be divided into "circles" such as elementalism, thaumaturgy, enchantment, etc. Individual classes would have access to specific schools. Spells would remain a daily resource, but each would get weaker abilities that they can use at-will. Also, I like 4E rituals, but feel that they could have been implemented better. To that end, I would bring back the full round action.

Wizards would have the broadest access and their talents would be based around meta-magic. Warlocks would have talent paths based around pacts, similar to what Pathfinder did with Sorcerer bloodlines. Bards might have songs that bolster allies or hinder foes.

The Cleric's schtick would be domains...which grant them access to certain magic circles, and alter their spells to be more thematic for their patron deity. Paladin's would have access to maybe a single domain, have a lay on hands, or a wounding touch if they are evil (yes...there would be evil Paladins) as a class feature. With talent paths for things like divine challenge and foe smiting.

Rangers would be the skirmishing commandos they always were, but would have animal companions as a class feature, with talent paths for favored terrain, uber-damage, and spellcasting. Druids would be based around shapeshifting, spellcasting, summoning, etc.

I would replace hit points with some sort of vitality/wounds system. Healing abilities from classes such as Clerics, Bards, Warlords, etc. would restore vitality, but not wounds, which would only be restored by rest or magical rituals.

I would keep action points, but they would be used to fuel things like the fighters combo maneuvers, the wizard's meta-magic abilities, or the Bards songs. I would probably change the name to something more thematic, like "heroism" or whatever. One of my more nitpicky complaints about 4E is the nomenclature.

Alignment would be for monsters, so that DM's will have a general idea of behavior and level of hostility, but not players. Likewise, monsters and NPC's will have hit points as opposed to wounds and vitality, to make bookkeeping easier.

Lastly, I would release this as an online document before I put it in stores for the purposes of playtesting...and I mean ACTUAL playtesting...with players treating it is a QA project and stress testing the system to find holes. I want it as airtight as possible before I release a printed version.

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;366891So: What's your D&D? Be as brief or as lengthy as you wish.

I'd end up with a different D&D for every campaign universe I had -- just as I do by houseruling TSR editions of D&D now.  In other words, I don't think there is a perfect D&D, any edition needs changing to fit the needs of a specific campaign and the players in the group.

That said, I'm working on a different version of Microlite74 (Microlite75 is the working tile) based on 0e with all the supplements but modified with M20 versions of house rules I've used over the years and a few new ideas others have suggested.  I'll probably then use this as the base for most of my future fantasy "D&D" games.

Quote from: RandallS;366922I'd end up with a different D&D for every campaign universe I had -- just as I do by houseruling TSR editions of D&D now.  In other words, I don't think there is a perfect D&D, any edition needs changing to fit the needs of a specific campaign and the players in the group.

This. I would thus keep the core game very tight and simple (think OD&D re-written in plain English today, maybe with a 4th booklet presenting some options of customizations and advising DMs on how to customize the rules for their own Campaign, with practical examples, maybe even a 5th booklet with one possible campaign setting, and so on).

Then, the particulars of each Campaign supplement would be included with their designated booklet apart from the core boxed set, plugging themselves onto the core to make up a different play experience from the next.

That'd be my ideal D&D. It actually sort of exists in the (embryo) form of Swords & Wizardry, though supplements published for it by third-party publishers are not following an overarching marketing and design pattern. The money available to a division of Hasbro vs. the money of Mythmere Games and/or Brave Halfling Publishing would also make an obviously huge difference.

That's a tough question.  I definitely love the feel of AD&D 1e, but I think 3.x/Pathfinder is a really good meeting ground/lingua franca for the hobby.

I like Benoist's idea, though--keep the basics simple but complete enough where you don't need 8 books to have the game you want, encourage GM creativity, and add a metric ton of supplements as desired.  With an open license.

Quote from: Zachary The First;366936With an open license.

Yes. Absolutely.

The overall PC-vs.-monster balance, adventure pacing, magic handling, and relative board-optional tactics of Basic/1e/2e + some of the character/ creature customization & multiclassing options of 3e + options for quick-and-dirty monster & NPC handling taken from 4e. This is my problem with D&D today, I want all of this.

Shazbot's game sounds pretty nice though. I am not a big fan of hard class definition and dragon-people but the rest of it sounds good enough that I'd overlook that preference.

I'd make it mini-less and as different as possible from all extant editions to give me a genuine choice when choosing between it and earlier editions.

Why mini-less? 3rd and 4th have taken the implementation of minis as far as it can get, have pumped as solid a design into the effort as is possible, so I'd rather have a solidly designed mini-less D&D for a change.

And by saying "as different as possible" I mean 'stay within the traditions of D&D' (and give me a completely new game). Would be happy to see a return to core flavour material, mostly.

Mine would most resemble Arcana Unearthed/Evolved combined with Iron Heroes.

3.x/Pathfinder and a Basic Game reminiscant of B/X.

I think you need both because the Basic Game can be for those who are casual gamers and do not have time or willingness to deal with the complexity of the 3.x/Pathfinder type rules, which can then act as the gateway for RPGs.

Quote from: RandallS;366922I'd end up with a different D&D for every campaign universe I had -- just as I do by houseruling TSR editions of D&D now.  In other words, I don't think there is a perfect D&D, any edition needs changing to fit the needs of a specific campaign and the players in the group.

Vreeg's First Law of setting design..." Be very careful deciding what system to use in your setting, making sure that the system matches the game and setting you are trying to create.  Because eventually, the setting and the game WILL reflect the system."

Vreeg's seldom mentioned corrollary..."Every idiosyncrasy could feasibly require a houserule or rule change.  Vreeg's first Law taken to its logical extreme necessitates a new system for every game"

Warning: Long post.

• Streamlined, not necessarily unified, mechanics, allowing for both freedom of action and niche protection. Your Fighter may try to find and disarm traps, but the Thief is still the best at this. 1d20, 3d6, 1d100, roll high, roll under, anything's good by me. If it can yield degress of success as well, all the better.


• Races and classes kept separate. No level limits, but humans should get cut some slack (perhaps, being a short-lived race, they get a %XP bonus... "the brightest flame" etc.).


• No multiclassing, but maybe demihumans (and exceptionally, humans) mat opt for a "hybrid" class; e.g. the Elf Sword-Mage (fighter/magic-user) or the Halfling Scout (fighter/thief).


• The non-racial classes from D&D RC, the iconic four (Fighter, Magic-User, Priest and Thief, or whatever you choose to call them), possibly with options for eventual specialization (e.g. upon reaching level X, the Fighter may remain a straight-laced Fighter, or opt become a Paladin, or a Ranger, or a Cavalier, or whatever). Kind of like a Prestige Class, but closer to the D&D RC or Spellcraft & Swordplay implementation.
  
  
• Speaking of which, there should be an option for "specialty" Priests, a la AD&D 2e. Nothing game-breaking, but just adding a couple different class features which may cancel each other out (e.g. clerics of Tyr may detect lies at will with a Wisdom check, but may never lie themselves).
  
  
• Thieves are good fighters. Not necessarily goddamn Cuisinart ninja, but they can hold their own in combat, by using trickery and deceit. The Thief from Iron Heroes would be a good inspiration.


• A Weapon Mastery system, like the one from the D&D RC, revised and expanded, as the one way to enforce the difference in the fighting ability of different classes. Your Magic-User can pick up a morningstar and defend himself, but he'll suck next to the Fighter or Thief.
  
  
• A Secondary Skills system which allows for a small degree character variation, without infringing upon class niches.


• Stronghold building, domain management and mass combat rules from the D&D RC; revised and expanded.


• The spell lists from Swords & Wizardry.
  
  
• The monsters from the AD&D 2e Monster Manual.
  
  
• Single-axis (Law/Chaos) alignment system, conforming to the Rients Threefold Apocalyptic Test.


• A big honkin' Appendix N which should essentially be a brief syllabus on pulp fantasy literature. It may include movies, music, video games, and even other role-playing games, but never, ever, any gaming novels.


• Decent layout. This cannot be stressed enough.


• A thorough index. See above.


• Big, beautiful color cover. Awesome, classy, edgy B&W art inside (Peter Bradley and Kev Crossley spring to mind). Everything about the art should scream "Sword & Sorcery" and bring to mind Lankhmar, and the Hyborian Age, and the Dying Earth, and the mythic Earth of Three Hearts and Three Lions, and... well, you get the idea.
  

OGL Pathfinder with a core psionics system and all of the 3.5 classes as viable options. Do a 'pathfinderization' of the entire 3.5 system. And make it all open content. Fuel the RPG hobby for eternity.

Quote from: Imp;366945The overall PC-vs.-monster balance, adventure pacing, magic handling, and relative board-optional tactics of Basic/1e/2e + some of the character/ creature customization & multiclassing options of 3e + options for quick-and-dirty monster & NPC handling taken from 4e. This is my problem with D&D today, I want all of this.

Shazbot's game sounds pretty nice though. I am not a big fan of hard class definition and dragon-people but the rest of it sounds good enough that I'd overlook that preference.

Thank you.

But alas, it will never be : (

I'm not a designer...I wouldn't even know where to start.

Well, I'll jump off my usual buy Rolemaster and re-name it idea for a change.

Let's stick to D&D being D&D shall we?

Well, except Hitdice will now be a fixed number of points.  For instance Orcs are now a 4 hit point monster not a 1 Hit Dice monster.

Damage bonuses will increment the die type used for the weapon instead of
being additve.

Combat will use a 1d20 weapon verses armour type table with classes providing a bonus to hit every few levels.  Fighters get to add their level.

While armour will make a character harder to hit you can always opt to hit 10 + Dex bonus and treat the AC bonus as DR.  Armour cancels out the Dex bonus and is not cumulative with it.  Defending gives an AC bonus equal to your class to hit bonus.

Classes will be strictly limited to providing heroic abilities beyond those of normal men.  They will let you do things others cannot.

I think percentile skills will be back, based on a stat + 5 points per level I thing.  Class specific stuff will be stat + 20 + 5 per level.  Somehow unified mechanics never quite feel like D&D to me.

Magic will be fire and forget but characters will have a few rotes that they can swap another spell for at will.  Much like clerics can do with healing in D&D but you'll get to pick.  Spells per day will be increased significantly at low levels.

One point stat increase per level.

Saving throws are made on 1d20 against stat + level - attack level