D&D 3E/3.5 Thoughts of a 3E/4E powergamer on starting to play 5E

[thecasualoblivion]

Find another group/gm to play with. Honestly, this particular table is not for you - I mean give it a chance obviously, but it you are bored to tears consistently, why play?

Not all sessions are like that. This is my third session with this group, and my sixth at the table(the first three I was at the table but didn't play). I'd say 1.5 sessions were like that. The other players seem to enjoy it, so I just stay out of the way and let them have their fun.

 

[ChrisCarlson]

The image of people taking things way too seriously becomes clearer and clearer. It's a game dude, just chill. I've found most people IRL who game don't take it seriously to that level, thank fricking God.

Please read this post and let me know if you think that person is taking things entirely too seriously.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

O_O

Do you think the general attitude you are presenting (especially the bolded above) is a good example to be setting for your stepson*?

I am speaking from a genuine place when I say, perhaps not playing is the better choice...

(*and yes, I have an, at one time, impressionable stepson of my own that I brought into gaming, in case it matters.)

No, I believe staying out of everybody's way while keeping busy with some sort of electronic device to be more or less ideal. These sort of in-game situations actually run more smoothly with a smaller group, so sitting it out speeds up play. As [MENTION=996]Tony Vargas[/MENTION] pointed out above, I'm not the only one who feels this way about those sort of things, and there are far worse ways to deal with it. Most groups are less uptight about it and I've rarely found it to be an issue.

My stepson is 18, so setting an example really isn't an issue anymore.

 

[ChrisCarlson]

No, I believe staying out of everybody's way while keeping busy with some sort of electronic device to be more or less ideal. These sort of in-game situations actually run more smoothly with a smaller group, so sitting it out speeds up play. As [MENTION=996]Tony Vargas[/MENTION] pointed out above, I'm not the only one who feels this way about those sort of things, and there are far worse ways to deal with it. Most groups are less uptight about it and I've rarely found it to be an issue.

This response seems written by an entirely different person that the one I responded to previous.

My stepson is 18, so setting an example really isn't an issue anymore.

Mine is now 26! And you are wrong.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

Please read this post and let me know if you think that person is taking things entirely too seriously.

The example you gave doesn't happen, because I instead space out and spend that time screwing around on my phone/tablet, which effectively solves the issue.

 

[Tony Vargas]

This thread was never about solutions, the things in 5E I don't like aren't particularly fixable, especially in organized play.

Fixing things in 5e is prettymuch a DM-side activity, and sure, organized play does present it's own challenges, even for the DM.

That said, you don't sound like your goal is to convince others to boycott 5e, nerdrage against WtoC for daring to publish it, repeat lies about it until they become the truth of your particular echo chamber or anything all that edition war-like. And you do already seem to have a coping strategy or two.
So player-side 'solutions' (which, yeah, will be more coping or shifting expectations than changing anything about the game, itself, which'd be a DM-side solution) wouldn't seem to be too out of line to suggest, would they?

My aim here was to discuss the dissonance between how I play D&D and the 5E game I've started to participate in.

To what constructive end?

Just providing a data point?

People who can't seem to stand anybody criticizing 5E have taken it upon themselves to try to fix things for me, but that's never been what this has been about.

If not fix it for you, then perhaps for someone else reading your criticism and nodding in agreement - but open to potential solutions?

 

[thecasualoblivion]

Fixing things in 5e is prettymuch a DM-side activity, and sure, organized play does present it's own challenges, even for the DM.

That said, you don't sound like your goal is to convince others to boycott 5e, nerdrage against WtoC for daring to publish it, repeat lies about it until they become the truth of your particular echo chamber or anything all that edition-war-reprisal-like. And you do already seem to have a coping strategy or two.
So player-side 'solutions' (which, yeah, will be more coping or shifting expectations than changing anything about the game, itself, which'd be a DM-side solution) wouldn't seem to be too out of line to suggest, would they?

I suppose, and I imagine it's already happened in this thread, multiple times, and some suggestions I've actually listened to or had already come to that conclusion.

To what constructive end?

Just providing a data point?

Just something I felt like talking about with other people, and I thought it would make for an interesting discussion. And it has.

If not fix it for you, then perhaps for someone else reading your criticism and nodding in agreement - but open to potential solutions?

Maybe, but most of my main complaints are pretty fundamental.

Nor should it. The point (well, a point) of 5e was to broaden the range of play styles under which D&D could be played. If you did have to play to 'someone else's standards' that'd be a failure.

Now that I think about it, "other people's expectations" would have been a better term for it than 'standards'. I've been somewhat surprised how many people in this thread seem to have a problem with me playing 5E in a manner that doesn't meet their expectations. That being said, I haven't really seen it being a problem at the table, and lurking around forums and social media with a younger, less AD&D focused crowd than this places it doesn't seem to be as big a deal in those places either.

 

[Guest 6801328]

The image of people taking things way too seriously becomes clearer and clearer. It's a game dude, just chill. I've found most people IRL who game don't take it seriously to that level, thank fricking God.

That's ironic.

 

[ChrisCarlson]

Now that I think about it, "other people's expectations" would have been a better term for it than 'standards'. I've been somewhat surprised how many people in this thread seem to have a problem with me playing 5E in a manner that doesn't meet their expectations.

Huh. That's weird. Most of the people I've read, who have cautioned you, were more speaking to the fact that your preferred playstyle is likely at odds with the rest of the players at your table. And that is the issue. Not that you shouldn't enjoy playing it however you wish. But that it might cause disruption as it clashes with theirs. You know, since you've repeatedly insisted you refuse to bend or adapt to the rest of the group. And your subsequent posts describing your disruptive behavior only seems to validate their concerns.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Well it's a trade off. I am bored to the point of violence when it comes to spending 15 minutes to search an empty room.

As in your character will try to pick a fight in-game? Or that you personally will get violent in the games shop?

Either I spend those 15 minutes on my phone and disrupt the game in a minor way coming back, or my boredom and unhappiness spills over. I can almost guarantee the latter will be more disruptive to the game.

What is likely to happen? How do you go about disrupting the game?

Think of it this way, I am being nice enough to allow everyone else to waste large portions of my precious table time doing things I have no interest in whatsoever.

Have you stated this to the group? Is this the only group running in the shop with the right timing? There aren't any other games like wargames available at the shop?

I mean I know people who feel the same way when someone wastes their precious time resolving a combat round-by-round that might have been able to have been talked through. They seem to be able to put up with the delay in the game until people have finished rolling attack and damage rolls without taking a swing at the girl next to them.