Dungeons & Warcraft

D&W: Cards of Fate (5th Edition D&D?)

Welcome!

Most of you coming here were likely linked here from dnd5.com. If you have not seen that site yet, please check it out now! The rest of this will make more sense if you do…

Would you believe people have been talking about 5th Edition since 2009? There seems to be a lot of talk about it now in 2011, but there was a lot back then. It was in November that I mocked up a fake wotc page screenshot foretelling the coming of 5th Edition. In the screenshot it suggests visiting dnd5.com for more info. If you went there (back then) I had simply put up a page/graphic stating “5e Dungeons and Dragons Coming Soon!”

Well, I decided to take that joke a step farther now 2 years later by building out a page for a parody version of what 5th Edition could look like. I also decided it would be best to coincide the release with April 1st (for obvious reasons).

Cards of Fate

I decided to have two prominent themes with this project.

The first was the idea of using cards ONLY – no more dice, or even decision making for that matter – the cards determined your fate for you. The reason for this being that we are seeing the slow introduction of cards into the game right now, and there is a debate (isn’t there always?) about whether this is good for the game or not.

The second theme I went for was the merging of D&D with another popular RPG brand, “Warcraft”. This was an idea I had once played with when I put together a fictional “Azeroth Campaign Setting” D&D book cover.

Getting Others Involved

From the beginning, I knew I wanted to get others involved in the project to various degrees. I also knew I did not want them all (whoever was involved) to know about each other. I wanted it to be a surprise to them all, but I also wanted to keep this a secret as best I could and I didn’t want a large number of people to feel comfortable talking with each other about it.

One of the first steps I took was to contact people individually via Direct Message in Twitter asking if they would simply be interested in learning more about an April Fools project. Those who were interested received follow-up emails from me with more information. My general idea was to get people to write reviews of this new product. They would then post them on their sites on April 1st and promote/link to them via Twitter, Facebook etc. What I asked was simply that a link to dnd5.com be included (which would make sense as it was a review of that product).

Credits

Participants!

  • @TheAngryDM
    I had sent a DM via Twitter to Scott early in the process, but he never got back to me (granted, I have had weird DM issues lately). I tried again a few days ago (very last minute), and he was very interested. I told him that I had this idea of him writing a pissed off “angry” response to the game. The idea was that we would pretend he had seen it and experienced it (the angle others were taking), but Scott decided to play it as though he had been duped into believing that D&W was a real thing and he was simply speculating (angrily) at the intentions. In fact, during an exchange of emails that followed, he seemed to have more ideas the more we talked about it. It may have contributed to a little lack of sleep for him over the last few days… was he more Angry? I couldn’t tell… Check out his post Its the End of D&D as We Know It, And I Feel Sick
  • @ThadeousC
    Like many others, I contacted Thadeous via Twitter. He was interested in being involved and after reading my email decided that he would make up some cards, even printing them out and showing them “in use”. His idea of calling DM’s “Deck Masters” was a hilarious last minute addition… Check out his post here!
  • @SarahDarkmagic
    I contacted Tracy via Facebook chat one night and told her about the dnd5.com project. She mentioned she had been wanting to do a “Candyland D&D” parody, so this might be the perfect time. There wasn’t enough time to do a full blown project, but there was time for a monster perhaps and a brief write-up. I began to work up a section on the site and came up with the “CanD&Dland” logo which she got a kick out of… See her CanD&Dland write-up here.
  • @wexogo
    Chris and I chat it up on IM from time to time, so I tossed the idea out there one night and he was interested in participating as well… Check out his post here!
  • @TheSecretDM
    The Secret DM and I were chatting on Facebook one night when I filled him in about my upcoming April Fools project. I asked him to write a testimonial about having played Dungeons and Warcraft, and he did! His testimonial was included on dnd5.com. Be sure you check out his April Fools prank “Magecrammer” (partly inspired by a Spelljammer 4e cover I made some time ago).
  • More coming as they go live!

Not involved but got to see/hear about it early and kept it secret!

Here are some places you can see/discuss this further

17 comments

    1. I have had so much feedback similar to this it’s crazy. There’s something about this that make people want to play it, which I did not expect. I wonder though, would it be a “play it once for fun thing”? I don’t know… and I’m too tired to think beyond that right now, haha

      Thanks for dropping in!

  1. What are you idiots smoking? Not only do you have no idea what the community wants you go ahead and make a fracking card game??
    If you haven’t guessed I will not buy this any more than I did 4.5; what you call essentials.
    Today is 4/1/11 isn’t it?

  2. Obvious April Fools gag. Everyone knows that the 5th Ed. of D&D will be a family board game with and rules written under the box lid and the dice in a Pop-O-Matic bubble.

  3. I want a deck of those ‘movement cards’ for my players. I can use them as a threat whenever they’re being indecisive. “Make up your minds in 30 seconds, or the cards choose for you!”

  4. It is entirely possible Mr. The Weem contacted me previously and I missed the DM, so I’ll take the full blame for not being more involved or being involved sooner. As an accountant, this is my very busy season and I’ve missed a few opportunities as a result. That’s also why I went for the easy way out: angry reaction as if duped. I really wish I had had the time to be involved from the beginning because the project itself and the blog entires by Tracy, Thadeous, Chris, and The Secret DM were all wonderful reads.

    1. Hey, no blame needing to be taken – I should have tried you again sooner! Thanks for participating despite the last minute inclusion, and especially for such a large article – not sure how you found time to do it, haha!

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