5e and ideas for characters

I primarily played AD&D 1e growing up. We flirted with 3e for a time. We had some really really fun times in HS, college and even the start of grad school. Memorable stories we still laugh about and many more we cannot even recall...

One thing I am really happy about with 5e is its propensity to inspire me to come up with new ideas.

I can hear the argument...you can do anything with any edition!

You can but for me 5e has been most successfuly in getting me to think about new ways of playing. I feel there are more routes to certain playstyles. But the background system along with optional rules has helped me to envision more variety than I thought possible before.

The idea that rules are not your imagination is a valid point but they have served as useful prompts for come up with interconnected stories about history, class and race that tell a new story.

It is much rarer for me now to feel stuck or uninspired. This is purely opinion and personal experience, but the way the game is structured has shaken out the last of the writer's block I dealt with...

Warpiglet said:

I primarily played AD&D 1e growing up. We flirted with 3e for a time. We had some really really fun times in HS, college and even the start of grad school. Memorable stories we still laugh about and many more we cannot even recall...

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So you've played 1e, glanced at 3e, and are now playing 5e? Any other games? 2e at all?

One thing I am really happy about with 5e is its propensity to inspire me to come up with new ideas.
I can hear the argument...you can do anything with any edition!

Click to expand...

Well, you can do a lot more with 3.x/PF or 4e than with any TSR edition, there was just a lot more to 'em. There's other systems out there that make any version of D&D seem starkly limited by contrast, though, FWIW.

You can but for me 5e has been most successfuly in getting me to think about new ways of playing. I feel there are more routes to certain playstyles. But the background system along with optional rules has helped me to envision more variety than I thought possible before.

Click to expand...

So I take it you skipped 2e, which had 'kits' that were rather like backgrounds, and all sorts of optional rules later in the edition? (Not that 1e wasn't full of optional rules, it's what 5e is harkening back too with all that DM Empowerment, afterall).

I think this is a great post to read. I feel the same. I didn’t play editions Between AD&D and 5e, so my frame of reference is simply what I knew then and what I experience now, and I, too, love this edition. I barely have time to play so checking out previous editions isn’t on my radar - it’s just nice to step back and think, cool. This is FUN. Our hobby really is awesome. As Mr F. Bueller said, if you don’t stop and smell the roses...
Thank you for your post!

(Yeah I know the quote is wrong, don’t judge me, I am old and forgetful)

I also agree with these comments, I got into D&D with AD&D and loved it and RPGs and games in general. The world got in the way I playing didn't happen for a long time, I did however keep getting the various additions (though never have tried Pathfinder).

With the release of 5e I thought I have to give this a go again. This lead me to get back in contact with my gaming friends some I had only had passing contact with for decades. I too love the way the characters build and the concepts you can create - a reason I also ended up here reading a lot of enlightening posts.

It's easy to make stuff for 5e. I whipped up a new player race of little rock trolls in a rather short space of time. Adding feats and magic items is pretty painless too. I think that's a strength.

Tony Vargas said:

So you've played 1e, glanced at 3e, and are now playing 5e? Any other games? 2e at all?

Well, you can do a lot more with 3.x/PF or 4e than with any TSR edition, there was just a lot more to 'em. There's other systems out there that make any version of D&D seem starkly limited by contrast, though, FWIW.

So I take it you skipped 2e, which had 'kits' that were rather like backgrounds, and all sorts of optional rules later in the edition? (Not that 1e wasn't full of optional rules, it's what 5e is harkening back too with all that DM Empowerment, afterall).

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We did skip 2e. It was our little rebellion at the time. We felt the kits were too prescriptive (but it was more about the 2nd edition ion vibe as a whole).

We did play some 3 for a year or two. It was fine I suppose but also not as inspiring of new ideas. We were giddy about half orc paladins for a while but that got ordinary.

What I like about 5e from the standpoint of inspiration, is the layering of class race and background and the ambiguity and space for flavor baked in as needed. Ymmv, but I have come up with loads of different things which felt inspired. Part of this is the number of choices within classes and some is the background system.

Whatever the active ingredient really is works for me like no other set did (for inspiration of new and varied ideas).

Warpiglet said:

What I like about 5e from the standpoint of inspiration, is the layering of class race and background and the ambiguity and space for flavor baked in as needed.

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Yeah, they didn't completely erase those aspects in getting back to the traditional D&D feel after 4e (which went pretty far afield with Backgrounds, Themes, Paragon Paths & Epic Destinies on top of Class, build, sub-class, & powers and flavor-text being explicitly re-skinnable.

If you recall 3e, you were given freedom to describe how your character & gear looked, so race, equipment, and magic items (at least, those you made/bought) were essentially reskinnable. 4e expanded that to class abilities, as well, so virtually everything about your character ('source' being one exception, for instance, you couldn't re-skin an arcane class to be martial or vice-versa) could be re-imagined to paint the picture you wanted of your character. 5e backed off of that, some, returning spells & class abilities to more tightly-coupled flavor-to-mechanics. But, compared to 2e, it's gotta big step forward.

Part of this is the number of choices within classes...

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You missed it in 2e, but the 'Priest' (Cleric & Druid initially, in the PH) got a tremendous amount of choice in it's 'complete' book - or, rather, the DM did to create myriad priesthoods, and the player could always buck for one of a sort he wanted. It really stood out at the time, and I'm not sure any subsequent ed has taken variation w/in a single class quite that far.

Just in case you're interested in the perspective of the intervening editions.

Tony Vargas said:

Yeah, they didn't completely erase those aspects in getting back to the traditional D&D feel after 4e (which went pretty far afield with Backgrounds, Themes, Paragon Paths & Epic Destinies on top of Class, build, sub-class, & powers and flavor-text being explicitly re-skinnable.

If you recall 3e, you were given freedom to describe how your character & gear looked, so race, equipment, and magic items (at least, those you made/bought) were essentially reskinnable. 4e expanded that to class abilities, as well, so virtually everything about your character ('source' being one exception, for instance, you couldn't re-skin an arcane class to be martial or vice-versa) could be re-imagined to paint the picture you wanted of your character. 5e backed off of that, some, returning spells & class abilities to more tightly-coupled flavor-to-mechanics. But, compared to 2e, it's gotta big step forward.

You missed it in 2e, but the 'Priest' (Cleric & Druid initially, in the PH) got a tremendous amount of choice in it's 'complete' book - or, rather, the DM did to create myriad priesthoods, and the player could always buck for one of a sort he wanted. It really stood out at the time, and I'm not sure any subsequent ed has taken variation w/in a single class quite that far.

Just in case you're interested in the perspective of the intervening editions.

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Yeah, it got broader with some of the extra splat books. i did not peruse them to any degree.

I think the thing about 3 e saying make it look like you want, pick what you want---is fine. For inspiration, 5e has been more evocative (for me). I write a lot about characters now some don't and won't get used. It is the right amount of ideas to grow from and space to create for me. Whatever it is...