D&D 5E Reasons Why My Interest in 5e is Waning

Minicol · Mar 15, 2015

Is there not some sort of Living Campaign for 5e ?

Hussar · Mar 15, 2015

Charles Angerstein said:
This is all really good information, even the negative. The problems posted by dmccoy1693 are things that would certainly have driven me up the wall. I feel like dmc just said "I don't like pizza because of these reasons..." and a bunch of people started yelling, "How can you not like pizza? All your reasons for not liking pizza are stupid!"
Everybody likes different things. I have players who love playing on pen and paper but most of my player prefer playing on our touch screen tabletop pc with Maptools or Roll20. All my players prefer to create their characters with the online Character Builder and I extensively use the Compendium and Encounter Builder for research while building an adventure.
I only buy PDF versions of the books and adventures for a number of reasons. One is that during the planning phase of an adventure I use tools like Realm Works or Masterplan to organize and present the content. If I had to use the adventures in the format they're presented the pace of the games would slow down dramatically and a higher workload would be placed on me as DM. When I'm DMing, the less that I have to deal with workload wise, the more creative and involved I can be with the adventure. Also, in PDF format, I can copy out the handouts and maps so I can print them. If this were paper I could only do that once and then I'd have to buy another book. I'm not interested in doing that. Last thing is that when I need to find something in a pdf reference or adventure book I can go to the directory where I store them and use the Windows quick search to search the contents of every single book, similar to the compendium but I get the surrounding context as well and from multiple sources usually.
I don't have an infinate amount of time to prepare adventures and taking away the electronic tools would greatly complicate the process. Scaling encounters, searching for cool monsters that are appropriate, easily creating and more importantly updating characters, these are all things that the online tools get us. I'm old enough to remember playing AD&D before the first software version of the tools came out in the 90's and I really don't want to do that again. Spending two hours just to get a new player started is a major turn off.
That's my 2 cents.

And all of that is totally fair. I don't think anyone was criticising DMMcCoy for his opinion. Others were saying that the things that bother him don't bother them, and that's also fair enough. But, the main part of the argument, put forth by posters like [MENTION=6776331]Sailor Moon[/MENTION] is that WOTC is making a mistake by doing what they are doing. That WOTC's practices are actively hurting the hobby. For me anyway, that's where the crux of the disagreement lies.

BryonD · Mar 15, 2015

Hussar said:
And all of that is totally fair. I don't think anyone was criticising DMMcCoy for his opinion. Others were saying that the things that bother him don't bother them, and that's also fair enough. But, the main part of the argument, put forth by posters like [MENTION=6776331]Sailor Moon[/MENTION] is that WOTC is making a mistake by doing what they are doing. That WOTC's practices are actively hurting the hobby. For me anyway, that's where the crux of the disagreement lies.

I can't speak for SM, but "actively hurting 5E" is not the same as "actively hurting the hobby".

I have not read every one of SM's posts. Maybe that was said. If so I agree with you disagreeing with that.

WackyAnne · Mar 19, 2015

D&D Adventurers League is the organized play campaign for 5E. It incorporated the Starter Set adventure, HotDQ/RoT hardcovers, plus an "Epic" exclusive to a few mega-cons, and a series of shorter adventures for public play tied into the Tyranny of Dragons storyline. A new season is launching this week (or as various groups finish up their last campaigns) centred on Princes of the Apocalypse and the Elemental Evil storyline. You can see more detail on it here: http://dnd.wizards.com/playevents/organized-play
(I've been playing D&D a couple of times a week since July thanks to this, and just DM'd my first public game last night. I, for one, am enjoying 5E very much).

Sunseeker · Mar 19, 2015

BryonD said:
I can't speak for SM, but "actively hurting 5E" is not the same as "actively hurting the hobby".

I don't see how you can separate the two unless you're making huge leaps in logic or making highly personal judgements.
5th Edition, its material and players are 'part of the hobby'. If you do something to damage those, you damage the hobby. The only way this can not be true is if you do not consider 5th, its materials and players to be part of the hobby.

BryonD · Mar 19, 2015

shidaku said:
I don't see how you can separate the two unless you're making huge leaps in logic or making highly personal judgements.
5th Edition, its material and players are 'part of the hobby'. If you do something to damage those, you damage the hobby. The only way this can not be true is if you do not consider 5th, its materials and players to be part of the hobby.

I think you are ultimately wrong.

Look at the mass departures from 4E. The hobby did just fine.

People want to play RPGs. (At least the small niche group of us).
D&D could get pulled from shelves everywhere tomorrow and we would still want to play RPGs.
And the demand would be met.

D&D is part of the hobby. But harming D&D will (ultimately) help some other game (perhaps one that doesn't even exist yet) and the net impact on the hobby will be nothing.

dmccoy1693 · Mar 19, 2015

pemerton said:
If WotC aren't producing stuff, presumably that's because they don't think it will generate sufficient returns to justify the cost of production.

You are looking at it the wrong way. You are seeing, "supplement X does not make a profit so don't produce it." I, as a business owner, see it as, "if supplement X does not make a profit, let me see your costs and figure out how to make a profit off of it." There is always a way to make a profit. It is just a question of where to make changes in the process. Some examples:

Pay less for less experienced freelancers
Use less art work or recycle art
Track how effective your advertising is and cut less effective sources
Find a printer that is closer to your warehouse so you have to pay less in shipping
Print less copies
Reduce the target page count (if a 128 page book can't make a profit, maybe a 64 page book can)
Consider raising prices

If you just give up on an revenue stream because "you can't make a profit," I say you are not trying hard enough.

I will agree not all of the above are pleasant options but all will help make a profit.

Plus there is one point I deliberately left off because it deserves its own point: change the subject matter. If adventures aren't making profits, then write equipment books. Equipment books always sell well, typically they tend to be second only to the core rulebook.

dmccoy1693 · Mar 19, 2015

Hussar said:
I don't think anyone was criticising DMMcCoy for his opinion.

There were a few people that said that my imagination sucks if I need supplements, but I have been called worse as a compatible publisher. You get use to some pretty low name calling, but that is beside the point.

Kramodlog · Mar 19, 2015

dmccoy1693 said:
There were a few people that said that my imagination sucks if I need supplements, but I have been called worse as a compatible publisher. You get use to some pretty low name calling, but that is beside the point.

I must say I do not understand the whole "you have no imagination" critic. First, some people do not have a great imagination. Not their fault and they shouldn't be punished for that. Secondly, time is a finite resource. Thirdly, I find a lot of printed material to fire up my imagination. In the ecology of monsters I often found seeds of adventures or encounters, like I have by reading novels, watching films or playing other games.

The whole argument just sound arrogant. And I should know, I'm an arrogant bastard.

Tony Vargas · Mar 19, 2015

Stereofm said:
Is there not some sort of Living Campaign for 5e ?

Yes, The Adventurers League
http://dnd.wizards.com/playevents/organized-play

D&D 5E Reasons Why My Interest in 5e is Waning

Minicol

Adventurer

Hussar

Legend

BryonD

Hero

WackyAnne

First Post

Sunseeker

Guest

BryonD

Hero

dmccoy1693

Adventurer

dmccoy1693

Adventurer

Kramodlog

Naked and living in a barrel

Tony Vargas

Legend

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