D&D 5E D&D and who it's aimed at

[Jahydin]

Exactly! Being grown up means being able to choose for yourself what you want, and allowing others to do likewise without judgement!

Yeah, realized that last line came off as putting down anyone who's enjoying current 5E products... not intended. The comments roasting me for it though have been pretty hilarious and much deserved.

I was more frustrated with those who think the tone of D&D isn't changing at all.

 

[Irlo]

AD&D 1e or 2e?

There's a big difference - 2e was also very much defanged, mostly to appease the Satanic-Panic crowd.

Mostly 1e. The demon-devil renaming -- renaming, not removal -- was hardly defanging.

I'm convinced now though that I have no idea what people mean by defanging. So I'll let this go.

 

[Minigiant]

I was more frustrated with those who think the tone of D&D isn't changing at all.

It's like the tone is changing and more D*D is supporting more tones, themes, and artstyles officially.

The burger joint adds a veggie burger, a chicken sandwich, a fish sandwich, and a pineapple sandwich to attach different customers.
It's still a burger joint.

 

[Jahydin]

The first image is just an adventuring party, the second are classic Spelljammer creatures, the third is a miniature giant space hamster (which has long been a thing), and the fourth is just a parade of some kind (I'm honestly confused why this one in particular screams "kiddy" to you).

Did you like the original Spelljammer at all? The only adventure I have from that setting features stubborn intelligent pegasi that you have to argue with, a living constellation who thanks you for retrieving a lost star, and a ship helmed by a wizard who prefers stage magic shows to actual spells and staffed his crew of rabbits polymorphed into humanoids. Spelljammer is just a silly setting.

The last picture is just painfully silly to me, haha.

No, never checked out Spelljammer. Looking over the art others have posted, I wouldn't have liked it as a kid either. I think at the time the whimsicalness of it would have been a breath of fresh air though compared to the seriousness of the other settings? Kind of like Dragonlance might be a breath of fresh air (hopefully) because of how serious it is compared to the silly settings now, haha.

 

[Hussar]

Paizo era Dungeon some if the adventures were R16 borderline R18 although implied.

One had an orgy in the background (Savage Tide Malcanthets domain).

BoVD had art like angels getting impaled and things like the nymph.

Good grief - Candlekeep's capstone adventure is resolved by the PC's convincing a fairy to KILL HERSELF.

One of the early adventures has a mother murdering her tortured, deformed child thus opening a rift to the Shadowfell where hordes of undead spew forth in a nice Romero inspired horror scenario where the PC's have to defend the house.

One of the adventures has a ghost that drives people so insane, they go on murderous rampages, all the while singing a children's song that drives the listeners insane, which, if left unchecked, would result in thousands of deaths. Oh, and the way the problem was solved the first time was the wall up the living victims and leaving them to die.

How dark do you need?

 

[Zardnaar]

Good grief - Candlekeep's capstone adventure is resolved by the PC's convincing a fairy to KILL HERSELF.

One of the early adventures has a mother murdering her tortured, deformed child thus opening a rift to the Shadowfell where hordes of undead spew forth in a nice Romero inspired horror scenario where the PC's have to defend the house.

One of the adventures has a ghost that drives people so insane, they go on murderous rampages, all the while singing a children's song that drives the listeners insane, which, if left unchecked, would result in thousands of deaths. Oh, and the way the problem was solved the first time was the wall up the living victims and leaving them to die.

How dark do you need?

It's more the vibe you pick up on it straight away.

Looked through some 3E books last week and read Fizbans.

3E had Tharizduns love child in one of the adventures. You'll find elements of it in 5E it's all over the place in 3E.
It's like 1E and 2E. Latter's sanitized and it's noticable. Note I like 2E better than 1E but it's there.

 

[Hussar]

It's funny. Like others, I passed on Spelljammer the first time around because it was too silly. It wasn't what I wanted from the game at the time.

Now? After twenty or thirty years of a steady diet of seriousness? Yeah, gimme some silly. At least it's NEW. It's a new flavor to try out rather than keep whacking away at the same stuff I've been doing for far too long. I miss the early weird days of D&D where you had all sorts of stuff that was just... weird. So, yeah, bring on Spelljammer. We already have SO MUCH material for the Serious Gamer™.

Why is it a problem that other people get some stuff too?

 

[Hussar]

It's more the vibe you pick up on it straight away.

Looked through some 3E books last week and read Fizbans.

3E had Tharizduns love child in one of the adventures. You'll find elements of it in 5E it's all over the place in 3E.
It's like 1E and 2E. Latter's sanitized and it's noticable. Note I like 2E better than 1E but it's there.

I believe it's a vibe that you pick up on. For me? There's all sorts of really, really dark stuff in 5e.

Then again, I have no problems looking beyond WotC. So, maybe I just see it more because I don't think of D&D as just being whatever WotC's book du jour is.

 

[Ogre Mage]

WoTC is trying to broaden the audience for D&D while at the same time keeping the old timers happy. Spelljammer, Ravenloft and Dragonlance are nostalgic attempts to please the old guard. Other releases are aimed at a newer audience. No doubt they have market research on the new audience they are trying to reach.

I think D&D has always appealed to children. I first played at age 11 in 1986. Perhaps the accusation of Disney-fication has to do with discomfort in how D&D is assimilating. It now arguably has broader mainstream cultural appeal than ever before. Whenever something moves into the mainstream certain aspects of the subculture become less emphasized. As a gay man who has observed the mainstreaming of LGBTQ culture over the last 20 years, this is something I have seen in other areas.

 

[Jahydin]

It's like the tone is changing and more D*D is supporting more tones, themes, and artstyles officially.

The burger joint add a veggie burger, a chicken sandwich, a fish sandwich, and a pineapple sandwich to attach different customers.
It's still a burger joint.

Agree the tone is changing, disagree there is variety.