D&D General Does D&D (and RPGs in general) Need Edition Resets?

[payn]

I run 3.5e, so issues like these were resolved by then. (Except runepriest.)

I’m well aware that the mainstream is never going back to anything older.

What I’m basically saying is, you all are already playing 5e. (I’m essentially not.) 5e is by far the most liked edition ever. Don’t go “fixing“ what’s nit broken and screwing it up.

It’s a great version especially for casual players. High time they were catered to no matter how us old hands want more.

 

[Lanefan]

Mine have fairly low turnover.

I've been described as a LN type DM. Don't like it leave.

The reason I do that as I often inherit players from those groups that fall apart.

Usually it's a lack of planning, DMs that aren't that organized, or inmates run the asylum and DM quits or the players are stealing or killing each other and the groups blow apart.

If the bolded were the cause of play stopping I'd have been out within months of beginning.

41 years later, still going...

 

[Lanefan]

Given the digital age we live in, and the fact that the vast majority of current D&D fans are younger than age 30? Yeah, I think it is accurate to say that most players today would prefer to have some amount of digital tools involved in the process. Need to look something up during session? Keyword search your OCR-scanned PDF and boom, instantly you know what you need. Have a player that always forgets their modifiers? A digital tabletop can factor them all in for you. Can't meet for a physical session every week, but can find a time when everyone can at least have a couple hours at a computer? VTT and Discord. Etc.

I think you're responding to the wrong claim.

My "are you sure" was in response to someone claiming most people didn't play with "insular groups", i.e friends, as opposed to people they don't otherwise know e.g. organized play or random internet games. This is a claim I don't believe.

Nothing to do with digital.

It is foolishness in the extreme to think that exclusive reliance on physical pens, paper, and books will continue to support D&D's success over the next however many years. The vast majority of people I know who play 5e play it exclusively through internet connections, usually because one or more of their group members doesn't physically live where they do.

Call me harsh, but if someone moves away that tells me they're leaving their current life - including their current friends - behind.

See ya.

 

[Lanefan]

No I'm not saying new = improved.

I'm saying "There are stuff that D&D fans have always had issues with." "And there are stuff that other games do that D&D fans want or display improvements on D&D idea"

Like 4e's Dragonborn. People have loooooooooooong said "How comes the dragon game has no playable dragon race?"

And the answer should always have been "Because the dragons are thing you're supposed to be fighting against!"

 

[Minigiant]

And the answer should always have been "Because the dragons are thing you're supposed to be fighting against!"

I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid decision, I've elected to ignore it.

I mean who is greedy enough to risk stealing from a dragon?
Dragon people and dwarves.

 

[Lanefan]

Do we really need to constrain ourselves to Tolkien's shadow?

Yes.

Next question, please.

Do we need to constrain ourselves to (say) five narrowly specific save categories that often get used in inscrutable ways,

Maybe not just five - there's room for more - but save categories that are based on the type of effect to be saved against make loads of sense.

or to AC where massive negative values are great and your AC somehow gets more negative when you put on a +4 Elven Chain Shirt?

Sure, why not?

 

[Vaalingrade]

And the answer should always have been "Because the dragons are thing you're supposed to be fighting against!"

I'm pretty sure D&D has like a whole class of designated good guy dragons you're not supposed to be fighting against.

And also a long history of playable dragons since way before dragonborn.

 

[billd91]

The most unquestionably popular D&D thing basically ever, Crticical Role, runs closer to the 4E god layout than AD&D.

Mash up with Golarion back in campaign 1 as well. Pike was a cleric of Sarenrae, initially. They’ve gone more generic since then to insulate from protected IP.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I think you're responding to the wrong claim.

My "are you sure" was in response to someone claiming most people didn't play with "insular groups", i.e friends, as opposed to people they don't otherwise know e.g. organized play or random internet games. This is a claim I don't believe.

That was not my claim. "Insular groups" specifically refers to game groups that do not change participants in campaigns over long periods (as in over multiple years). You can have some rotation and still have it be among friends. At one time I was a member of a group of about 25 people that rotated from group to group across sessions, let alone campaigns, and some people rotated in and out of the group on occasion; but I'd still describe most of them as friends.

 

[Mecheon]

I gave up on Critical Role two episodes into the current season. My wife (not a big gamer) said: “This is unwatchable“ and I realized I had better uses for my time.

I think the “unquestionably most popular D&D thing basically ever” is Lord of the Rings books.

Right now, it’s got to be BG3, right? Which isn’t winning any argument on this thread, but who cares - it’s great! (Thus being the internet no doubt someone disagree.)

LotR and the Hobbit are popular, but they're not D&D, and D&D doesn't try to be them.

BG3 is popular but I think CR may have the sheer weight at the moment just due to age

Yes.

Next question, please.

Look, if we want to be all in Tolkein stuff, D&D is bad at emulating Tolkein and has ever since day 1. Emulating Tolkein is going to mean Wizards are first on the chopping block, after all, and right up next are going to be Clerics. Getting rid of two of the original 4 classes doesn't sound great for emulation.

Other race options outside of the original 5 have been in this game longer than I've been alive. If they weren't popular, they wouldn't keep surviving edition after edition and being highly requested. The forerunners of Dragonborn are Draconians which have been playable since 2E, after all.