Twitter was afire yesterday with the announcement Mike Mearls made stating that Monte Cook was brought on board at Wizards of the Coast to work with R&D in “making D&D the greatest RPG the world has seen”. In addition he will also be taking over the Legends and Lore column that Mike has been writing weekly for the past eight months.

There appear to be several different camps and a lot of speculation about what this means for D&D. Some camps I agree with, some of the speculation out there makes sense and some not so much!

My thoughts? I am actually excited to see what Monte will bring to D&D. I was not a big fan of 4e as it just did not seem to match what I feel D&D should be for me. Because of that I spent most of my time playing 3.5 or Pathfinder and only paid cursory attention to what was going on in the D&D world. Don’t get me wrong though, I fully understand that many people do enjoy 4e and I don’t begrudge them that one bit. I am sure the game I prefer might not match the game they prefer.

But with this announcement? I plan to at least become a regular reader of the Legends and Lore column. Now my curiosity is piqued! What is in store for D&D? Will 4e just be modified with changes Monte might bring to the table? Or is this the beginning of a new edition? For someone that hasn’t followed D&D in its 4e iteration very closely, Wizards seems to have succeeded in at least getting some of former customer to pay closer attention again.

I am still not sure D&D can pull me back in just yet, but for the first time in a long time that possibility is there. I have been quite happy with my Pathfinder and other systems and the entertainment they have provided me. It would take some major changes to draw me back to the D&D brand.

My hopes with this addition of Monte Cook to the R&D staff? It is hard to put my finger on exactly what I want to see, but I hope that he helps bring back some of the 3e feel to the game again while retaining the ease of DMing the 4e system that every lauds. Maybe something with newer mechanics but retains the “old school feel”.

Regardless of how this plays out, it does indeed seem that there are exciting times ahead for D&D! I am looking forward to watching things unfold in the coming months ahead.