Mike Mearls on his Legends and Lore blog:

http://wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20110920

And Now for Some Exciting News

It's funny to look back and realize that I've written this column once a week for over eight months. Alas, as with all things, it's time for my involvement with this column to end. However, that does not mean that Legends & Lore is going away. We've been very happy with the response to the series, the interest it has created, and the feedback we've received.

Starting next week, I'm turning this column over to acclaimed game designer Monte Cook. Monte should be familiar to D&D fans for his work on the Planescape campaign setting, Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, Arcana Unearthed, the mammoth Ptolus city sourcebook, and, of course, Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition.

I've spent the past several months talking about D&D's past and how that relates to its future. It's now time to focus much more on the future of the game. Monte has an unmatched design pedigree in the RPG field, and for that reason we've brought him on board to work with R&D in making D&D the greatest RPG the world has seen. Over the next few weeks, Monte will use this column to share his thoughts about the game. As we look to chart D&D's future course, this column will continue to be a place where we share our ideas and listen to yours, and we hope you'll keep reading, discussing the contents, and sharing your feedback and thoughts with us and the larger D&D community. That's what makes Legends & Lore a conversation that we can all participate in.


From ENworld's Newsletter:
20th September 2011 - by Morrus  
It's been a popular rumour for ages: Monte Cook working for WotC on D&D 5th Edition. Compounded by his handing over of daily work on dungeonaday.com a year ago with no clear major (public) replacement in his schedule, WotC's seemingly reduced release schedule in terms of 4E D&D rulebooks, various rumours floating around Gen Con about cancelled announcements, the tenor of Mike Mearls' Legends and Lore column over the last few months on DDI, and now:

(*see quote above*)

Still nothing resembling an official confirmation, and Monte's not yet said a word, other than a tweet:
Thanks to everyone for the well-wishes, kind words, and congratulations. Fun and interesting times ahead!

And a Facebook post:
Yes, I am working for Wizards of the Coast again. It's no big deal. They had some wastebaskets that needed emptying, floors that needed sweeping... that kind of thing. We're still haggling over some things in the contract, though. I don't do windows.

So it could be that he's just joined WotC for future 4E development (but he's not written for 4E before to my knowledge, even in a third party capacity) or - he could be working on D&D 5E as the rumours have been suggesting for so long; or it could be something that they decide not to refer to as a "new edition". Our guess is that he's been involved for quite some time - what else could he have been doing for the last year?

Speculation on a potential 5E is generally regarded as nonsense and gossip by many people, which is why I tend to refrain from (publically/publicly/depending where you are) speculating about what's going on. But at this point, we know something's going on. And absent any further information, given this latest development, I think 5E speculation has moved from "conspiracy theory" territory to "a possibility worth speculating about". Maybe it's wrong, but it's sure as hell not a ridiculous theory any more, especially given all the previous "clues" I mentioned at the beginning of this article.

More as, when, and if we hear it!

Is it just my impression of 4E, or has D&D been bumbed down for today's generation? Everything today seems to be spoonfed and simplified and prescriptive, in a way that deters players (and particularly DMs) from being creative or imaginitive. Or is it the case that kids are just getting dimmer these days? Maybe that's just a local thing.

Roll on 5E. Let's see how many more bites they can get out of this rotting apple.

Plaag wrote:D&D 5e The Texting Adventures.
No longer do you need paper and pencil, now just download the app for dice rolling and character sheets from your mobile device.  Play virtually anywhere, though not while you are driving in some states as it is against the law.
Vocabulary not needed, why we even shortened the name of Dungeons & Dragons to D&D, with other easy to text examples including: PHB, DM, d12.  So LOL w yor DM playin in the RPG Addy 2day.

ShaneG.

 Of course, when the guy who actually does this sells his company for twenty million dollars, we'll see who's laughing then.

Phentari wrote:As for fifth edition, I'm puzzled as to why anyone would doubt it's coming; if 4e follows the same arc as third edition, it's due shortly.

Even more so because 4th Edition did not follow the same arc as 3rd Edition.

3rd Edition was a major new phase of the game.

4th Edition has seen WOTC lose control of the market as more than half  their customer base flipped them the bird.

Heh, I guess we'll see what disaster they Cook up next.  3.75, the new 5?  

They lost the old-schoolers when they pulled all of the .pdfs from legal sale for no good reason, and refused to offer print on demand of old titles; they mostly lost the 3.0 and 3.5 crowds to Pathfinder.  The people playing 4.0 are a small mix of grognards, new players and 3.X loyalists who didn't get pissed off at them for some reason.  It's not a bad game, but when your marketing division's idea of a sales pitch is "Old D&D is bad and we're going to make fun of you for playing it," overall brand loyalty tends to decline.

They need to:
* Observe the reaction, both positive and negative, to the Dungeon Crawl Classics game, and consider how to retain old school flavor with new design paradigms.
* Build a bridge where they burnt down their old one to Grognardland, and offer both .pdf and print on demand of Holmes, Moldvay, AD&D1 and AD&D2 releases, while preserving collectability of out of print modules (a nice "Classic Edition" starburst on the new covers for example).
* Analyze Pathfinder and what it brings to 3.X players that 4.X is lacking.
* Mostly abandon 4E; the edition is schizophrenic due to the mid-phase Essentials change of direction.  Retain the good parts of the art and the rules that are universally liked (which should be a small list I'm not familiar with).
* Take a look at Castles & Crusades before you start going crazy with a skill system, and see the reaction that system has caused.
* Create a basic set which has easy exciting rules and classic flavor, not just an Elmore cover on a 4E system.
* Talk to Blizzard and consider a direct tie-in to the World of Warcraft franchise from a D&D perspective.  (Not to my liking, but that's where most of your future customers are.)
* Develop a real MMO.
* Develop a real online virtual tabletop experience for all editions.
* Build 5E in a modular fashion, so that the basic game is practically OD&D, and everything that only some people like (feats, prestige classes, gameboard combat, non-Vancian magic, etc.) is a separate module that you can buy and cleanly add to the system.

Yeah, I don't envy those guys.  Bookmark this post for 2012 lols.  

I guess it depends on who you game with. If it's the same small group of people over the years, you can pick whatever you want. If the group is large & dispersed between various circles of friends, or it's supported by a club or LGS where you often are gaming with people you've just met, a lingua franca is needed to communicate.

The latest edition often becomes the Common Tongue by default. Although it's really up to the DM - a good one should be able to juggle the minor differences between 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder/C&C/D20/4e characters. Recommended first step: ignore 90% of the superpowers your players think they have.

Just buy OSRIC. It is all you will ever need.

I'm sticking with second edition.

The only thing I felt when I heard '5th edition D&D' was old.

I'll stick with 1E.

Hector.