D&D 5E What will 5E D&D be remembered for?

[Kite474]

I really really hope that no one said it was going to be an 'ever-green' edition because those words do not mean what you think they mean.

How so? Ever green is a term that normally applies to plants that do not loose color in the fall and winter. Seems like an apt metaphor for an edition that is supposed to never fade.

 

[Shasarak]

How so? Ever green is a term that normally applies to plants that do not loose color in the fall and winter. Seems like an apt metaphor for an edition that is supposed to never fade.

Yes, just like the last 'ever-green' edition that was supposed to never fade and yet here we are.

 

[Kite474]

Yes, just like the last 'ever-green' edition that was supposed to never fade and yet here we are.

... Yeah you got me there. However it seems like this time by "Ever-Green" its more along the lines of "If we dont touch it it can't technically die!" Compared to last edition where they tried to keep a "living" system. Time will tell to see if it sticks.

 

[Greg Benage]

For me, the most striking thing has been the apparent success of the business model (despite lots of online kvetching). If Wizards demonstrates they can run a very lean RPG shop supported almost entirely by two or three high-volume, high-profit adventure books a year, in-house and/or outsourced, that's a big deal for the future of the game IMO.

 

[Agamon]

I'll always remember it fondly as my current D&D game.

 

[MostlyDm]

The last 3? Going back to 2e, or are you counting Essentials?

I'd assume he's counting 2e.

I definitely consider 2e to have kicked off the player entitlement/empowerment trend. Towards the end of its life cycle, with all the "player option"'books and stuff, it was getting overloaded with kits and doodads for savvy players to utilize.

It didn't bother me that much, though. I mean, my favorite edition until now was basically 3.x, because I attained sufficient system mastery to hack in literally any rule subsystems I was interested in. Players couldn't run amok because I wouldn't let them, and had the confidence to enforce it and make sure everyone had fun.

In 4e I never played it enough to gain that confidence, but the system was largely balanced enough that I didn't have to. So it was still playable, but I definitely felt less empowered as a DM to do stuff that interested me. It worked for running a straightforward high-fantasy D&D game, though.

 

[Irennan]

Just to preface, I don't particularly like FR, so I didn't buy the SCAG; therefore, I only have what others have said about it to go on. However, my understanding is that it only details parts of the sword coast, a rather small part of the FR setting, and that it isn't much of a setting book as it pertains to the whole FR setting. Does it even include a map of the larger FR setting?

It includes an overview of the whole setting and of its various pantheons, to update them to the present time FR. But it only details the Sword Coast.

On topic, I think that 5e will be remembered for WotC's new branding campaign, multiplatform storylines and so on. It will also depend on how well the movie does.

Advantage, streamlined rules, and DM fiats will also be remembered as characteristic of this edition.

 

[slightlyprime]

I will remember it as the game that introduced my friends and I to rpgs.
The influence of the internet and forums will probably affect the legacy that 5e will leave.

 

[Jester David]

I imagine 5e will be remembered for the lite official release scheduled, the re-empowering of the DM, and the DMs Guild.

 

[Manbearcat]

1) For being the modern spiritual successor that AD&D 2e fans were hoping for in 2000 (streamlined chassis, rulings not rules, grand-sweeping metaplots, and GM as lead storyteller).

2) For having just enough 3.x/PF to bring a fair (large?) portion of those players into the fold (a la carte multiclassing, backgrounds and subclasses as "archetypes", wonky saving throw scaling, the return of extremely powerful utility spells and encounter-enders for vancian casters - even while reigning in spellcasters considerably in comparison to 3.x/PF, effectively an Adventure Path focused paradigm).

3) For the end of the splatbook-o-rama model.