I got to playtest 5E or D&D Next, or whatever they are calling it, today and it was pretty fun. It felt more like older versions of D&D with some of the good ideas of recent editions included. I don't have a handle on the entirety of the rules (as they are right now), but overall I'm cautiously optimistic. I played the wizard and he felt pretty bad-ass, especially for first level but he was still very squishy and needed to stay out of harm's way most of the time. I'm interested to play it more and see how it develops before I form a more final opinion.
What does this have to do with miniatures or old-school miniatures? Well, not much really but the group I played with did not use miniatures at all and I missed them. They were perfectly happy to play without them and it worked well. On the other hand, as a lover of miniatures and a hater of arguments about who is where in relation to a monster I missed them. I think it would be even better with them, at least during some combat situations. Regardless of my opinion, it seems they are planning to make the rules work with or without miniatures or a grid.
