D&D 5E Anyone else feeling "meh" about recent 5e releases?

[TheSword]

I feel pretty meh about this thread, and the lack of constructive criticism.

The campaigns for 5e are excellent quality and streets ahead of most 3pp equivalents.

 

[Nebulous]

I've been more than "meh" about the crappy black and white maps ever since Dragon Heist. I think they look so horrible in an otherwise great looking full color book. I imagine Avernus will be the same. No awesome looking representations of Hell, just black and white squares of the Demon Lord abode.

 

[Retreater]

I feel pretty meh about this thread, and the lack of constructive criticism.

The campaigns for 5e are excellent quality and streets ahead of most 3pp equivalents.

What kind of constructive criticism would you like? I could make a wish list of material I'd like? I could ask others what they'd want me to write and publish? I could ask for 3pp resource suggestions?

 

[Nebulous]

Here's another explanation or factor:



I'm not making a judgement either way--whether towards the OP or WotC--but I do think this is worthy of mention. I think it also implies that, given that WotC is very conscious of the frequency of types of products they publish, we'll almost certainly see a significant splat book come 2nd quarter of 2020.

Oh, a DM splatbook of optional rules would be a dream come true!!!

 

[Parmandur]

What I'm concerned about is 2020 will be entering the 7th year of product for 5e. There are still notable gaps in content (psionics, high level adventures, to name two).
Granted WotC's publishing schedule is different this time around, but by 7 years 4e was done, 3.x was almost done, and 2e was in its twilight years.
If the game is supposedly stronger now than ever, why the glacial pace?

The breakneck pace of a book every few months, you mean? The game is strong right now in large part because they don't flood the market, but release things at an appropriate rate. The idea is for this to be an Evergreen edition, lasting more than 5-7 years.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, many of the books are hybrids; I categorized them based on their primary purpose - Volo's and Mordenkainen's were primarily bestiaries, secondarily fluff setting books; Ravnica (and presumably Eberron) are primarily setting books, secondarily splats/monster books. But one of the design goals of 5E has been pretty consistent: no book is just one thing.

That spacing makes sense. On one hand it would make sense to do two Adventure books, split by a splat and a setting book on either side (so Adv-Splat-Adv-Setting), but I'm not sure it will be so formulaic and more specific to the actual releases. We might see no book until April, then one two months later in June, again in August, and the fourth in November, making the release schedule within a nine-month span of the 12 months. So it is almost like in sports, there is an "offseason."

But who knows.

If WotC has demonstrated one thing in the past five years, it is a willingness to mix things up and not be overly constrained in their scheduling. In 2016-2017, we had within 12 months the release of a G-series inspired adventure, a compilation with the G-series and Tomb of Horrors, and a Tomb of Horrors inspired adventure.

An evergreen product like a Volo's or Mordenainen's might be perfect for Q1: the hardcore will buy it, buzz will build, and people will get it eventually.

 

[Parmandur]

View attachment 113587

Thinking more about your chart here: I think it would be more helpful to collapse the "Players" and "Monsters" into one "Supplement" category (Xanathar's is really marketed to DMs, whom WotC seems to have determined are the folks who buy things from them, and has a ton of DM material), while at the same time creating a new column for "Classic Redone" and putting Strahd, Tales, Mad Mage, and Saltmarsh there instead.

 

[JeffB]

I dunno- everything about 5e has been for lack of a better word "meh" for me since it was released. It's a very unexciting "back to basics" edition with little to get angry about but also little to get very excited about. It very much is a game for me where the excitement comes only from playing it at the table with the right mix of people and not really from the products or the game itself away from the table - makes it hard to DM for me because 5e requires 2e levels of prep for me to run but often feels like a chore to do that prep instead of fun.

Thank you for describing exactly how I feel about 5E. A good set of table rules with absolutely nothing that makes me inspired to create for it, or products that make me excited to purchase and use. I want to get excited for it-because it is doing so well and is popular- but after living and playing through OD&D,1E, B/X,2E,3E/PF, and bunch of clones/inspired by versions- 5E seems like store brand vanilla ice cream.

 

[Retreater]

Thank you for describing exactly how I feel about 5E. A good set of table rules with absolutely nothing that makes me inspired to create for it, or products that make me excited to purchase and use. I want to get excited for it-because it is doing so well and is popular- but after living and playing through OD&D,1E, B/X,2E,3E/PF, and bunch of clones/inspired by versions- 5E seems like store brand vanilla ice cream.

Man, the OSR stuff is the most bland RPG material yet created: Labyrinth Lord, Swords and Wizardry, and Castles and Crusades. The rulebooks are just the most generic, bland stuff I've read.
The characters are boring, identical, and powerless.

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

"Thank you for describing exactly how I feel about 5E. A good set of table rules with absolutely nothing that makes me inspired to create for it, or products that make me excited to purchase and use. I want to get excited for it-because it is doing so well and is popular- but after living and playing through OD&D,1E, B/X,2E,3E/PF, and bunch of clones/inspired by versions- 5E seems like store brand vanilla ice cream. "

Yeah, but that's the point... YOU ADD YOUR FLAVOR!

And if you want flavor packages... there's more third party stuff that's been released or is on kickstarter than I can use in a lifetime.

Seriously, I don't need Wizards to fill the pipeline at all.