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

[Parmandur]

"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.

This: ice cream isn't the proper analogy for food, I'd say.

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.

Try Dungeon Crawl Classics: oodles of good old time flavor. Most OSR stuff I've seen, though, is pretty fun, though not 5E levels of zaniness usually.

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

DCC and Goodman great.

And frankly, Kobold Press produces better stuff than Wizards. Their monster books alone should keep me busy until the end of time, and the Midgard Player's Handbook, Deep Magic and Warlock add enough options to keep my players busy.

Matt Colville's Strongholds and Followers KICKS --- and adds a whole new dimension of player options to the game.

Cubicle 7's Middle Earth materials are extraordinary; I don't know if I'll ever get around to actually running it, but what great reads.

 

[robus]

My main “meh” is directed at the Forgotten Realms, a well trodden setting, inspiring, unsurprisingly, mostly retreads of famous adventures. There’s way to much inside the box thinking for my taste.

And I also wish that the quality of the adventures was higher (Dragon Heist was particularly poor IMHO) And in this age of fantastic fantasy story telling (in film, on TV and in video games), the published adventures seem quite pedestrian by comparison.)

 

[Parmandur]

DCC and Goodman great.

And frankly, Kobold Press produces better stuff than Wizards. Their monster books alone should keep me busy until the end of time, and the Midgard Player's Handbook, Deep Magic and Warlock add enough options to keep my players busy.

Matt Colville's Strongholds and Followers KICKS --- and adds a whole new dimension of player options to the game.

Cubicle 7's Middle Earth materials are extraordinary; I don't know if I'll ever get around to actually running it, but what great reads.

Kobold Press is at least as good as old TSR stuff and better playtested than that was (Wolfgang Baur knows what he is doing), but have the brand freedom to make much weirder and niche material than WotC.

 

[Vael]

TBH, I don't like 3rd Party player material, because, first, I'm hesitant to ask a DM if I can use it. I've gotten enough hemming and hawing over using UA playtest material, that I don't really want to try with non-WOTC stuff. Second, I just haven't been that impressed with the (admittedly limited) stuff that I've read.

Now, if I'm DMing a 3rd Party adventure, that's a different beast, 'cause it's the game I'm running.

That's why I'm hungrier for Player content. Where's Psionics? Where's the wackier stuff, like when 3.5 had Tome of Battle, or Tome of Magic, or Magic of Incarnum? Even 4e had gotten more adventurous in its class design by this time in it's lifespan.

 

[Parmandur]

TBH, I don't like 3rd Party player material, because, first, I'm hesitant to ask a DM if I can use it. I've gotten enough hemming and hawing over using UA playtest material, that I don't really want to try with non-WOTC stuff. Second, I just haven't been that impressed with the (admittedly limited) stuff that I've read.

Now, if I'm DMing a 3rd Party adventure, that's a different beast, 'cause it's the game I'm running.

That's why I'm hungrier for Player content. Where's Psionics? Where's the wackier stuff, like when 3.5 had Tome of Battle, or Tome of Magic, or Magic of Incarnum? Even 4e had gotten more adventurous in its class design by this time in it's lifespan.

At this time in 4E's lifespan, the D&D Next playtest had begun and there were no new 4E books ever again. At this point in 3E and 3.5's lifespan, the next edition was already released and there were no new books. 5E is monumentally more healthy, and the difference here in release strategy is certainly part of that.

They just put out two new wacky Subclasses in UA this month, and if it is in UA it is meant for an intended product. Harrum-haroooom, no need to be hasty.

 

[JeffB]

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.

I would agree that all of those rulebooks are bland. The source/adventure material people are creating however is far more interesting than anything Wizards has done. The A series for C&C- any number of projects for S&W or AS&SH, I don't own any LL specific products.

Go check out some 13A supplements too- Things like the Book of Ages, or their Bestiary series. Servants of the CInder Queen for DW. Wizards just keeps re-hashing the same tired old fantasy for 5E.

 

[Bitbrain]

Reply to OP.

I’m not feeling “meh” at all about recent 5e releases.

I was excited for Volo’s Guide to Monsters, Storm King’s thunder, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, and Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage. I am also really excited for Eberron: Rising from the Last War.

Are there 5e products I’ve no interest in? Yes, absolutely.

I’ve currently no interest in Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, except for some of those war machines they leaked, which will apparently allow you to drive around the wasteland like Mad Max: Fury Road.

 

[ccs]

That's why I'm hungrier for Player content. Where's Psionics? Where's the wackier stuff, like when 3.5 had Tome of Battle, or Tome of Magic, or Magic of Incarnum?

Near the bottom of the list of things that'll make WoTC enough $ I'd suspect.
So don't hold your breath waiting on them.

Even 4e had gotten more adventurous in its class design by this time in it's lifespan.

Didn't seem to help it much.

 

[Vael]

Near the bottom of the list of things that'll make WoTC enough $ I'd suspect.
So don't hold your breath waiting on them.

Oooh, I know, better yet, let's publish yet another Forgotten Realms adventure. Everyone loves more Realms. Let's stay in that box. After all, Baldur's Gate is practically a whole different setting from Waterdeep. After we printed an Adventure called with the word "heist" in it, but that is not an actual heist.

Nevermind that there are all these other campaign settings that haven't seen any support, heck, they're finally going to print an Eberron book, only because Keith Baker noticed the demand and made his own.

Given that my play group has mentioned that they are quote "Bored with 5e", and are debating switching to Pathfinder 2e, there is a danger in being overly conservative.

I'd rather give my money to get a 5e product that I'd actually use.