[All editions] Frankengame

[paladinn]

Big theorycrafting exercise here. If we were to start with a foundation of B/X (because it is, IMO, the most concise edition of D&D ever produced), what features from other editions would you hang on the chassis? It can be any edition, including clones/simulacra. Please 'splain why and how you would graft it in. Some stuff just wouldn't work, but we can keep an open mind.

Should be fun conjecturing..

[Morphic tide]

5e's Proficiency model for internal bonuses on a scale more like 4e's "treadmill" would probably be a good source of smoothing the system out, since TSR-era D&D had incredibly little mechanical consistency. I'm just talking resolution consistency, with similar bonus progressions between aspects of the game and a predictable range by level, as a lot of the clunk in running B/X comes from the scattering of target numbers and how they're met. Not sure if it should settle on roll-over or roll-under (AC vs. THAC0), but "One Specific Resolution Mechanic, One Clear Set Of Progression Rates" should make it a lot faster and easier to actually run by having steady expectations for players and DMs.

I could see 4e's class design scheme being re-purposed to formalize the TSR-style party roles, so that there's clearer space and signposting for valid substitutions to the original Fighting Man/Thief/Magic-User/Cleric setup. Importantly, B/X means the TSR party role scheme, which means the formal rules entrench it a lot more than WotC ever did, but also that fuzzy-logic for handling the environment is expected instead of requiring a specific ability to try and climb a wall.

...Not super well versed in the details to say much more, general issues with recall and lack of sources on TSR D&D leave me in the dark about very specific details.

[RandomPeasant]

It fundamentally depends on what you're trying to do. Do you want a dungeon crawling engine? Do you care about "name level"? "Epic level" (or the various equivalents like the Immortals rules)? There's a lot of stuff I'd do for a "D&D: Ultimate Edition", but it wouldn't involve starting from B/X.

[paladinn]

It fundamentally depends on what you're trying to do. Do you want a dungeon crawling engine? Do you care about "name level"? "Epic level" (or the various equivalents like the Immortals rules)? There's a lot of stuff I'd do for a "D&D: Ultimate Edition", but it wouldn't involve starting from B/X.

Which begs the question: what would be your starting point?

[RandomPeasant]

Which begs the question: what would be your starting point?

Probably closest to 3e. Centralizing on d20 mechanics was good, and it clears up a lot of the cruft from AD&D like THAC0 and separate XP tables. I think there's an interesting game that uses a completely unified power system like 4e's, but it doesn't fit D&D well IMO. In terms of things I'd take from other editions in that context:

AD&D -- random treasure is better than WBL (but there are tweaks I'd apply), "Name Level" was a good concept to have, HP numbers were saner in these editions than any subsequent ones
4e -- Heroic/Paragon/Epic tier were good ideas (though they needed more to differentiate them), the broad strokes of monster roles were a good idea (though 1 HP minions were dumb), something like Skill Challenges would be good
5e -- archetypes are a good idea

Basically, the model would be 3e except that instead of "people get teleport and the game changes" being a thing that the system tries to ignore, it'd be a first-class part of the design.

[Morphic tide]

Which begs the question: what would be your starting point?
Given I've been thinking in terms of features to include, not divergences from a baseline, I don't think it'd be accurate to say I have a "starting point". If I were to actually get to working on it in full, I think that I'd start from crunching out the resolution mechanic numbers in isolation to hammer out the math ahead of time, then fill in the options that create it. Reason being that having that set up first means knowing the range for target-numbers throughout the progression, so designing the challenges becomes a lot cleaner.