D&D General "I'm glad to be back playing D&D."

[DarkCrisis]

I need to compromise, because my wife doesn't like the TSR editions and their relatives. So I use a version of 5e that works more like how I want.

Which is?

 

[ezo]

Which is?

Level Up or A5E or whatever you want to call it. (I'm guessing...)

 

[Micah Sweet]

Which is?

Level Up with personal homebrew mods. I can send you a copy of the Micahnomicon if you'd like.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Level Up with personal homebrew mods. I can send you a copy of the Micahnomicon if you'd like.

Sure that would be interesting

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

This is also true, but in the example given my guess is the players THOUGHT they were making LotR characters and not Spongebob characters because those definitions exist in someone's own head. If the GM wanted serious, traditional fantasy only characters with an elf, a dwarf, a ranger and a couple hobbits, they should have said that. Making your players guess what you mean is a fast track to disappointment.

But my point still stands: your players are telling you what they want to do by what their characters look like.

There's nothing inherently more serious about a traditional Tolkein party than one with a warforged and a tabaxi. It's how you play the character and the tone.

 

[overgeeked]

I mean, yes? 5e is, at its core, a neotrad game; its focus is on the performative display of character concept. Its core conceit isn’t on being overly hard, rather, it wants to give characters a stage to show off what they can do.

Exactly. To me, that’s bad. That’s the polar opposite of what I want out of a game.

 

[TwoSix]

Exactly. To me, that’s bad. That’s the polar opposite of what I want out of a game.

And that's totally fine! My only point is that it isn't a flaw of 5e if it doesn't provide the experience you (or anyone else) wants. No game can be all things to all people. Building and showing off novel characters, with large dollops of thespianism and a sprinkle of crunch, is just a very popular configuration for TTRPGs.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And that's totally fine! My only point is that it isn't a flaw of 5e if it doesn't provide the experience you (or anyone else) wants. No game can be all things to all people. Building and showing off novel characters, with large dollops of thespianism and a sprinkle of crunch, is just a very popular configuration for TTRPGs.

D&D is a commercial product, it's always going to develop in a way that is appealing to the greatest number of players.

 

[Distracted DM]

Level Up with personal homebrew mods. I can send you a copy of the Micahnomicon if you'd like.

Oh hey, send it my way as well please! I'm curious if we'll have any overlap, and I'm in the process of writing my own set of alterations/house rules for A5E after a lot of play.

 

[overgeeked]

My only point is that it isn't a flaw of 5e if it doesn't provide the experience you (or anyone else) wants.

That I don’t like it isn’t a design flaw, no. That it’s not cleanly designed to do what it’s meant to is a design flaw.

No game can be all things to all people.

A lot of people seem to disagree with you. Especially when it comes to 5E.

Building and showing off novel characters, with large dollops of thespianism and a sprinkle of crunch, is just a very popular configuration for TTRPGs.

But it’s not much of a game at that point. If this really is the goal, the majority of the rules are pointless. It’s designed to make people think they’re playing one kind of game when they’re not, they’re playing a completely different “game.” Something I wouldn’t even recognize as a game, honestly. You could have all the rules in a pamphlet. “Let the players do cool stuff and always win.” You don’t need three core books at $50 each and 350+ pages each to do that.