There is a natural tendency in all things towards bloat. Bureaucracies expand inexorably as their members annex ever-greater levels of control. Wealth accrues to the wealthy through interest and investment. As you age your body expands and you have to work harder and harder to fight its natural tendency to resemble Jabba the Hutt. And as sure as eggs are eggs, a new edition of D&D, sooner or later, starts to bulge at the seams with new rules, new classes, new books. Like Japanese knotweed, the process cannot be stopped once it is underway - at least, not without a heck of a lot of toxic chemicals and large-scale mechanised excavation.
I like 5th edition. It works well. But the knotweed is already on the march. There are gaps that must be filled! There are gaps that must be created in order to subsequently be filled! There are genuine needs! The logic of D&D bloat begins in earnest with these observations: it is only a matter of time, you must be acutely aware, before they are trying to sell us books about the anatomy of illithids for £12.99 and yet another Dungeoneer's Survival Guide.
Fair enough: I'm not the target audience for these things, and companies have to generate revenue in order to survive. I can't help but feel, however, that since this sort of thing has been going on since the mid-80s with what could charitably be described as "mixed success", it could be time to think of a better long-term strategy than: let's just get people to buy more and more rules.
At a guess, not enough talented adventure/module writers?
ReplyDeleteMust be easier to produce splatbooks than adventure settings. The latter would seem to be more obviously useful to the long term viability of an adventure game, but hey.
I find that hard to believe, but maybe it really is the case. Or they're just scared to take a risk on something new.
DeleteI see your point, but Bloat has an adaptive aspect. As the system or an organism develops, it must develop complexity to match the complexity of the environment. Think of the development of the neural networks in a gestating fetus. Even the dreaded mission creep in the military has an adaptive purpose when you consider that the military becomes the de facto government of the occupied territory.
ReplyDeleteI understand what you're saying, but in D&D's case it has tended to lead to financial difficulties and near-ruin.
DeleteBloat's been going on since the first addition to the 3 little books.
ReplyDeleteTotally true. I'm definitely not the target audience but If the last ten years have taught me anythinb I see a non backward compatible version coming out sooner than later. I wish WOTC would do what everyone else does and just polish their system every couple of years instead of changing the whole thing.
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ReplyDeleteI'm afraid you are correct - gaming history will repeat itself, yet again. So my first 5e campaign will have (almost) no feats and no multiclassing. Next one there will be feats and multiclassing oooh! Should keep the bloat at bay for a while ;)
ReplyDeleteMy advice: 1) abandon D&D, 2) Make something that's better. D&D is like canned soup, you don't have it because it's good, it's just easy.
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