D&D 5E State of D&D

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

Making 5e backwards-compatible with old editions was the masterstroke, because it means that all the stuff on dndclassics is support for 5e and there's so much of it, that it hardly needs any more.

Agreed. 5E's backward compatibility and the ease with which I can use older material along with a lot less cumbersome math than PF/3X is what sold me on it. And, I really don't like the splat book treadmill of previous editions. 5E's release schedule is perfect for me.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Dnd classics is a shop where you can buy old adventures from red box basic onwards, usually in pdf format.

Also v useful if, like me, you are running an old module and forget to bring the damn thing with you one night! For a few £ bip in my inbox, night saved!

 

[darjr]

I don't want splats, please. Anyway it's doing great around here. I could use two or three new DM's. Shoot I could use five new DM's really.

 

[BoldItalic]

Interesting points all around. Question...what the heck is DnDclassics (beyond the normal reference to classic materials) is someone converting classic modules?

No, it's not conversions, just official pdf scans of many of the old TSR and WotC books. Worth knowing about. http://www.dndclassics.com/

 

[Demetrios1453]

Ongoing support isn't vital. There's no support for Shakespeare; he hasn't published anything new for about four hundred years. But theatres still perform his plays and people still go to see them.

Okay, D&D isn't the same as Shakespeare. He didn't do dragons.

"Come not between the dragon and his wrath."
(1.1.127), King Lear

Ah, the Bard! Even good for advice when it comes to D&D!

 

[Jester David]

Anyhow, forgive me if this has been discussed, but does anyone have any statistics to direct me to or article that tell us how D&D5 is doing? Sales wise, most prominently, I guess. Is it doing well? Is it in trouble? Is it popular? I know the books appearing to be doing well on Amazon, but how is the community as a whole? Are we healthy or dying? I'm hoping we, that is D&D is flourishing.

As you say, they seem to be doing very well on Amazon. That's a good sign. It seems to be doing well in game stores as well.
With fewer releases, the books they do release sell much better.

Maybe it's because they don't want to force books out there that some buyers might think they've bought already? I really don't know. The modules that are out do seem cool (though we've yet to run one). By the supporting books beyond those are just almost non-existent (though I think the Sword Coast book might be a step in the right direction).

The justification given is that they want each book to be dramatic. An event. They don't want to release books just for the sake of releasing books. Content for the sake of content. And point out how much content in the past just ends up on shelves. They want books to be used.

I'd like more content. But I don't want six months of books I want followed by two years of filler.

 

[BoldItalic]

"Come not between the dragon and his wrath."
(1.1.127), King Lear

Ah, the Bard! Even good for advice when it comes to D&D!

 

[Psikerlord#]

I like many aspects of 5e but over time have come to find the damage and hp bloat too much. I very much liked the simplicity of rules however, which in turn caused me to check out the OSR 1st edition style DnD games (I started with 2nd ed, so didnt know what OSR was like). And it has been quite the revelation. I now think OSR is closer to my gaming preferences than 5e is.

 

[ProgBard]

Side note: has anyone had much exposure/experience with Fifth Edition Foes by Frog God Games? Just curious to now if folks think that is a good source of additional monsters (as in "balanced" with the core MM/5e rules).

I am totes the wrong guy to weigh in on "balance," FWIW, but I picked up Fifth Edition Foes at my friendly local's Black Friday event, and my take on it is that it's worth getting on sale. It's got a couple of classic beasties you've probably been missing - but which couple will vary from DM to DM. It's also got a couple of entries that are off-the-wall head-scratchers for my taste, but YMMV. The flavor text is hit-and-miss. Overall it feels a bit less "meaty" than the Tome of Horrors for 3.x, which is a bit of a shame at the price. You can tell it really wants to be the Fiend Folio of 5E, but ultimately kinda misses the mark.

 

[graves3141]

I have similar feelings as the OP. I didn't like 4E for the most part, however, I did buy a few supplements (Menzoberranzan and the Underdark books) in addition to the core rules. When 5E finally came out, I was really excited because I figured it would be supported as well as 4E (or, at least, similarly well). Turns out, that's not the case.