D&D 5E D&D is Not RAW: The Importance of Custom, Culture, and Mods in 5e

[J.Quondam]

And that is why now mostly buy RPGs that have a setting included and a specific style of play I want to try with my players. I'm tired of playing around with the D&D 5e toolbox or Fantasy AGE, which also invites a lot of "make your own modifications" to the system to fit your need. It's not only D&D.

I used to be a staunch "system doesn't matter!" person, but I've evolved toward setting-specific systems, too.
The main thing lacking with those RPGs, though, is that they rarely if ever include interested players in the box.

 

[Imaro]

This is simply incorrect. It may be more so that some other RPGs, but any other RPG is patently wrong. I've only played a small subset of all pen and paper RPGs (D&D b/x, 2nd, 3.x, SAGA, archer, pathfinder 1e, a bit of 4e, 5e; warhammer frpg 2nd ed, Hero 5e, Exalted 2nd and 3e, Gurps, Traveler, Advanced Fighting Fantasy, Troika!, the GLOG, others I forget probably) and even that very modest sampling has shown me games with way more rule experimentation than 5e.

Heck, when we were 12 and playing our first rpg ever (Advanced Fighting Fantasy), we were making houserules...

Wouldn't the pure number of 5e D&D players/GM's make comparisons to other games kind of pointless? I mean your anecdotal evidence could be right but the number of those playing and running 5e currently would probably make it highly likely your evidence is wrong.

 

[loverdrive]

I used to be a staunch "system doesn't matter!" person, but I've evolved toward setting-specific systems, too.
The main thing lacking with those RPGs, though, is that they rarely if ever include interested players in the box.

It's hard to not find interested players if you know where they live, you're armed, and they are not...

 

[Marc_C]

I used to be a staunch "system doesn't matter!" person, but I've evolved toward setting-specific systems, too.
The main thing lacking with those RPGs, though, is that they rarely if ever include interested players in the box.

I've had that problem too but now I have a group that is anything but D&D!

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

C. Those who think the particular thing you are looking for is awkward in the D&D frame, and you'd actually have more fun if you did it in a different ruleset.

You can believe in a "Big Tent" while still realizing that the tent is large, but still a tent, and that the person's stated needs would be better filled by a room at the local B&B than the tent.

I think you missed the point of why I used that quote.

Instead of Snarf-splaining it to you again, and causing a cycle of Umbran-response, I will simply pull out the most relevant portion which was why I found it interesting, and why it is unrelated to what you responded.

But it wouldn't be D&D anymore

 

[Umbran]

I think you missed the point of why I used that quote.

...
But it wouldn't be D&D anymore
[/QUOTE]

No, I got the point quite well, thank you. I am in no way, shape, or form a purist. It is not for sake of it "not being D&D anymore" that I'd make such a recommendation. I don't care if a ruleset is or is not D&D - that's gatekeeping nonsense, as far as I am concerned.

I care if a ruleset operates well and elegantly at whatever it is doing. That's what will have impact on the play experience. The question is not " is it still D&D". The question is "does it achieve the goal with a goodly level of mechanical aplomb".

To prove the point - historically, a lot of D&D doesn't operate well or elegantly, and these days I'd not recommend, say, 1e or 2e except as curiosities, though they are very much D&D, without question in my mind.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

No, I got the point quite well, thank you.

Great!

Then ... what, what are you doing?

 

[Ancalagon]

Wouldn't the pure number of 5e D&D players/GM's make comparisons to other games kind of pointless? I mean your anecdotal evidence could be right but the number of those playing and running 5e currently would probably make it highly likely your evidence is wrong.

oooof.

I think you really misunderstood here, or made an error in logic.

The OP said "5e, more than any other RPG". They are the one who brought up 5e vs other games. So if you think comparting 5e to other games is pointless, talk to the OP, not me!

Second, the high number of people playing 5e is not fundamentally linked to 5e being more, or less, hackable than other rule systems. It's like if I had said "Elephants are the biggest land mammal" and you answered "but there are way more rats than elephants on earth, therefore you are probably wrong". It's a non sequitur. Maybe I'm wrong about elephants being the biggest, but the number of rats is not a valid argument.

It doesn't matter if 5e has 1000 times the amount of players than the GLOG, the GLOG gaming culture is all about rule hacking.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

The closest thing you will ever get to playing RAW 5E D&D is Adventurer's League, and even that has some official house rules.

And other concepts work well with 5E, just not with RAW 5E. 5E OGL games like Esper Genesis and Adventures in Middle-Earth prove that you can take RAW 5E, "house rule" it, and turn it into a new RAW set of rules. Another doing this, that I am very much looking forward to, is the 5E OGL version of the Victoriana setting and system.

So who knows, maybe that oddball idea someone has, and is told it is not D&D, may already exist out there in an OGL rules set.

 

[Imaro]

oooof.

I think you really misunderstood here, or made an error in logic.

The OP said "5e, more than any other RPG". They are the one who brought up 5e vs other games. So if you think comparting 5e to other games is pointless, talk to the OP, not me!

Second, the high number of people playing 5e is not fundamentally linked to 5e being more, or less, hackable than other rule systems. It's like if I had said "Elephants are the biggest land mammal" and you answered "but there are way more rats than elephants on earth, therefore you are probably wrong". It's a non sequitur. Maybe I'm wrong about elephants being the biggest, but the number of rats is not a valid argument.

It doesn't matter if 5e has 1000 times the amount of players than the GLOG, the GLOG gaming culture is all about rule hacking.

He didn't say it was more or less hackable he said it invites a departure from RAW more than any other game... I took that to mean it has more people departing from RAW than any other game (Whether it is more or less hackable than game X is irrelevant)... this means the more people playing a game the more departures from RAW it tends to have, and D&D has multitudes more playing (and hacking) it's rules than any other game.