D&D 5E 5e's underwhelming releases

Retreater · Dec 23, 2014

First off, I am very impressed with the 5e Player's Handbook
and I think the Monster Manual is quite good too. The DMG was a
little hit or miss for me, as it didn't live up to the promises of the
"modular, optional rules to re-create any version of D&D I want"
that the designers touted. Honestly, I'd have been fine with a
download of magic items and the encounter design chart.
The Starter Set adventure was pretty good and got the job done.
But where the problem comes in is the 3rd party releases. I've been
running Horde of the Dragon Queen in D&D Encounters, and I can
honestly say it is one of the worst adventures I've ever used, and
I've been DMing for 25 years. I'd rank it lower than Keep on the
Shadowfell; seriously, it's not even functional.
The DM Screen has abysmal ratings. The Morningstar BETA wasn't
even satisfactory as an alpha release and it looks DOA like Gleemax
back in the 4e era. Judging from my area, the minis and Attack Wing
aren't selling either.
It's almost as if after the release of the Core Rules, D&D is going to
flounder. Your thoughts?

JesterOC · Dec 23, 2014

If they get the OGL out there it can't fail. If they don't it will still do OK, but considering that they have mentioned they will be releasing less material than ever before, I suspect they plan on having the OGL intact to ensure interest in the core books.

Agglomérante · Dec 23, 2014

I bought HotDQ and disliked it, and have been scrambling for adventures ever since. We need another MM and more adventures.

Gundark · Dec 24, 2014

JesterOC said:
If they get the OGL out there it can't fail. If they don't it will still do OK, but considering that they have mentioned they will be releasing less material than ever before, I suspect they plan on having the OGL intact to ensure interest in the core books.

This

Zardnaar · Dec 24, 2014

HotDQ is really really bad.

techno · Dec 24, 2014

Even though I believe D&D 5e is the better system, Pathfinder is still cranking out the best adventures and this is where D&D ultimately needs to be able to compete.

Mistwell · Dec 24, 2014

Retreater said:
First off, I am very impressed with the 5e Player's Handbook
and I think the Monster Manual is quite good too. The DMG was a
little hit or miss for me, as it didn't live up to the promises of the
"modular, optional rules to re-create any version of D&D I want"
that the designers touted. Honestly, I'd have been fine with a
download of magic items and the encounter design chart.
The Starter Set adventure was pretty good and got the job done.
But where the problem comes in is the 3rd party releases. I've been
running Horde of the Dragon Queen in D&D Encounters, and I can
honestly say it is one of the worst adventures I've ever used, and
I've been DMing for 25 years. I'd rank it lower than Keep on the
Shadowfell; seriously, it's not even functional.
The DM Screen has abysmal ratings. The Morningstar BETA wasn't
even satisfactory as an alpha release and it looks DOA like Gleemax
back in the 4e era. Judging from my area, the minis and Attack Wing
aren't selling either.
It's almost as if after the release of the Core Rules, D&D is going to
flounder. Your thoughts?

I like how you gave it less than a month after the core books are released to draw conclusions about the future of support.

Mistwell · Dec 24, 2014

Agglomérante said:
I bought HotDQ and disliked it, and have been scrambling for adventures ever since. We need another MM and more adventures.

The MM came out 2.5 months ago, and you're complaining we need a second one already?

Damn, people are seriously impatient.

Morrus · Dec 24, 2014

Retreater said:
First off, I am very impressed with the 5e Player's Handbook
and I think the Monster Manual is quite good too. The DMG was a
little hit or miss for me, as it didn't live up to the promises of the
"modular, optional rules to re-create any version of D&D I want"
that the designers touted. Honestly, I'd have been fine with a
download of magic items and the encounter design chart.
The Starter Set adventure was pretty good and got the job done.
But where the problem comes in is the 3rd party releases. I've been
running Horde of the Dragon Queen in D&D Encounters, and I can
honestly say it is one of the worst adventures I've ever used, and
I've been DMing for 25 years. I'd rank it lower than Keep on the
Shadowfell; seriously, it's not even functional.
The DM Screen has abysmal ratings. The Morningstar BETA wasn't
even satisfactory as an alpha release and it looks DOA like Gleemax
back in the 4e era. Judging from my area, the minis and Attack Wing
aren't selling either.
It's almost as if after the release of the Core Rules, D&D is going to
flounder. Your thoughts?

Just a quick formatting note. You're hitting return/enter every 10-12 words or so for some reason. The forum has its own word wrap ability. You don't need to do that - you just end up with that weird column of words which is really tough to parse. You can trust the forum to wrap text for you. Just hit return when you want a new paragraph. It's a WYSIWYG editor - What You See Is What You You Get.

Shadowdweller00 · Dec 24, 2014

I don't personally judge a system based on 3rd party releases. I'm not...sure...that HotDQ is that terrible, but it's not that great either. I think the adventure was seriously hampered by the fact that the system was in flux at the time of its writing. It seems like there was a heavy push to release the adventure before it was properly finished so as to have SOMETHING out around the release date of the PHB. The Lost Mine of Phandelver in contrast is pretty decent. The 3rd party DM screen well and truly deserves its abysmal rating. The DMG in contrast probably qualifies as one of my favorite roleplaying books of all time. And yeah, I've been gaming about 25 years myself as well. Will see how future adventures turn out. (@Techno - seconded).

My personal major gripe regarding 5e is the two-dimensional, uninspired and uninspiring factions in organized play. The sheer banality is...nauseating, really. On top of which, some of the factions are not only diametrically opposed in basic goals...but were actually formed to combat each other (Lords' Alliance vs Zhentarim, for example). Making it so that co-operative efforts between members strains credibility to say the least.

D&D 5E 5e's underwhelming releases

Retreater

Legend

JesterOC

Explorer

Agglomérante

First Post

Gundark

Explorer

Zardnaar

Legend

techno

Explorer

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Shadowdweller00

Adventurer

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