The MMO shooter Destiny will likely influence the development of Dungeons and Dragons in the future. The lead designer of the fifth edition of the Pen&Paper classic is a fan.
Polygon reports on Mike Mearls, the lead designer of the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons, the cult game with the dice, the pens, the character sheets, and the extensive rules discussions.
Instead of taking place on a computer screen or the home television, the events of D&D today, just like 40 years ago, occur in the imagination of the players. From the roots of this role-playing game, a tree has grown over the decades, and from its countless branches hangs Destiny.
Destiny instead of Porsche
Mearls rationalizes his enthusiasm for Destiny: “I turned 40 this year. That’s my way of dealing with the midlife crisis. Others buy a sports car, I just want to make sure I’m still a decent shooter player. That has always been my genre in video games.”
Mearls is an enthusiastic and quite neat fusion player, and he is also quite proud of it, perhaps too proud, as he tweets himself.
I probably take too much pride in this, but I’m pretty happy that I’ve gotten half decent at Destiny PVP. pic.twitter.com/PWwDngIzct
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 13, 2015
Both a fan and a designer
But beyond mere relaxation from shooting, the MMO shooter inspires and stimulates him in his work on the cult RPG. It makes him think. This way, Mearls can simply adopt the perspective of a fan in Destiny and gain a completely different view of the events. He then asks himself: “How could Bungie make me happy as a fan here?” And next, he asks himself: “How can we transfer this to D&D?“
In any case, Mearls sees numerous parallels between the two franchises. Even in D&D, fans are often upset and passionately discuss individual decisions and versions. For Mearls, the numerous complaints from fans are a sign of how much they care about the game.
The defining weapons have their own story
Mearls says there are two things he wants to steal for Dungeons and Dragons: “The world design is just so colorful and so vibrant. And of course the exotic weapons. When you look at the defining weapons of Destiny, like Red Death or Gjallarhorn – these things feel like artifacts, they have their own story. I would love to try something like that in D&D too.”
In the past, this was already attempted with the Dungeon’s Master Guide: What was typically a +1 sword for D&D suddenly became a sword with a story.
It seems that D&D fans also have Destiny to thank if this happens more often in the future.
