How many people do you know who haven't switched to 5e, and why haven't they?

[Sword of Spirit]

As far as I'm concerned, 5e is the best thing to happen since the d20. While I prefered the flavor of AD&D, the rules were lacking for me. I thought the rules of 3.x made more sense (and thought it was great when I first started playing it), but eventually got sick of all the crunch-bloat and complexity. Pathfinder seemed like a cool alternative version of 3.5 that was fun for a bit, but had the same basic problems. (4e felt like a different game to me, so I can't compare it effectively.) 5e to me is an amalgamation of almost the best of every D&D edition (both lore and crunch), with some innovations that improve the game. 5e requires me to make the fewest house-rules and lore repairs.

I'm trying to figure out what the primary factors are preventing people from trying out or switching over to 5e. (When I say "switching", I don't mean that you never play another edition, just that it becomes either your edition of choice, or tied for it.)

From what I see online, as well as my own experience, 5e seems to appeal most to:
1) Those who liked AD&D/pre-3e D&D
2) Those who are fans of D&D in general

The ones who seem most resistant to even giving 5e a chance seem to fall into a few categories:
1) Those who hate WotC and won't look at anything with their logo on it
2) Those who have found their edition already, and aren't really interested in anything new
3) Those who don't want to buy new books

What have your experiences been?

 

[Oznogon]

Everything has strengths and weaknesses. Everything depends on everyone at the table being on board, ready to have a good time. 5e is perfect for some tables, limited for others. 3e is crunchy for some tables, perfect for others. I love running FATE more than Shadowrun, but I love how much gleeful fun my Shadowrun tables have. I love running Redemption more than FFG Star Wars, but when I don't have time to sell the setting I can still have fun with Star Wars. Every indie game I've played has impressed me on some level, and I steal ideas from them to bring back to my mainstream tables.

Who cares why people do or don't favor 5e over or equal to anything else? Who does that when there are so many awesome games of all stripes out there? 5e's just another tool in the toolbox. It's a great tool, but so's 4e, and Pathfinder, and 3e, and 2e, and 1e, and Fantasy AGE, and GURPS, and Earthdawn, and everything else.

What's my experience been? It's another game, just like all the other ones. It's fun, just like all the other ones. It's easy to run for some tables and a pain in the ass to run for others, just like all the other ones.

 

[fjw70]

For those that I know that play Pathfinder primarily it is due to the crunch. For them 5e just doesn't have enough.

 

[GrahamWills]

Like a lot of people in my area, we didn't find 5e bad, just ... there didn't seem to be any reason to choose it over several other choices. A lot of us had tried out 13th Age, and the use of backgrounds instead of skills, the way each class felt completely different, the better balance between magic-users / fighters, especially in terms of the options available, the One Unique Thing, the one reference book instead of three, and the overall fun of it really won us over.

When we tried 5e, it was like "hmmm. yeah. they got rid of some problems and made stuff simpler. What was new and exciting?" and there was a long pause. It's hard to look at it and say "this is cool". So we went off to play stuff that was cool.

 

[GrahamWills]

Forgot to answer the original question. Of the maybe 50-60 people in my area who I played any form of D&D with, I don't think any of them are playing much 5e. The local cons are all PF, with a few 5e thrown in, but nearly all intro stuff.

 

[phil62]

I'm in your third category. They are expensive and represent a new investment.
(This isn't a dig at WotC's pricing -- most similar hardback volumes are similarly pricey.)

 

[Jan van Leyden]

My group and I haven't changed to 5e and probably won't in the foreseeable future.

I run a 4e campaign which will end sometime next year. A friend will continue her 4e campaign after that. So it may be two or three years until I start a new camapign and select an edition or different game system.

Would I have to decide today and rule out non-D&D games, I'd select 2e with a healthy dose ouf house rules. 10 years of experience make it easy to run and judge for me. I have yet to find a compelling argument to buy the 5e books and run it instead.

 

[J. L. Duncan]

The gamers I played (back in the day to current) with have stuck to OD&D-2nd Edition, OSR or HackMaster. Surprisingly not even one that I know of has converted to 5E or ever even played DW, Savage or Pathfinder...

We switched to "other games" at D&D 3rd Edition. Though in general this was a drop from all old school fantasy, playing Palladium Books RPGs and a number of smaller publishers...

I have recently read through and kept up on the newer itineration's of D&D and I have to say that 5th is looking pretty appealing. Based on your guess its pretty accurate for me.

 

[S'mon]

I think some of my 4e group really likes 4e, in particular the combat, and they may not wish to switch when the campaign ends in a bit under a year (most likely), going from 30th level 4e PCs to 1st level 5e PCs will be quite a jump. I think they like the crunchy tactical combat and the cinematic elements, which are a bit cursory in 5e.

 

[delericho]

I know of three ongoing Pathfinder campaigns (though they overlap heavily - and two have the same GM).

In the case of the two campaigns with the same DM, the mechanical weight of the system is considered a plus - he just likes the huge range of available options.

In the case of the other campaign, it's because they're playing "Rise of the Runelords", and the (newbie) DM didn't want to bother with a conversion.

Besides, nobody in our group has much experience with 5e yet, while many people have years of experience with PF. So the net gain of switching is smaller than might otherwise be the case.