D&D (2024) Is the 5E player base going to split?

[Reynard]

Idle curiosity about how folks feel. I don't really have a dog in the race and haven't been paying super close attention to things, but it appears that we are in the early stages of a "renovation" of the 5E rules, and we know we have revised core books coming.

So what I am curious about is how folks feel. Do you think that "5.5" is going to split the 5E player base such that there are 2 camps of 5E players -- 5.0 and 5.5? I know that some people felt that way about 4E essentials, and some folks stuck with 3.0 rather than go to 3.5.

What do you think?

Also, be nice.

EDITED for grammar.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I am saying this then going back to lurking so it doesn't start a fight.

yes it will split, nothing can stop it, we already see it with tasha's and Monsters of the Multiverse. there is no way to avoid it. The question of how bad it is comes down to if you side with the majority or not.

 

[Maxperson]

Idle curiosity about how folks feel. i don't really have a dog in the race and haven't been paying super close attention to things, but it appears that we are in the early stages of a "renovation" of the 5E rules, and we know we have revised core books coming.
So what I am curious about is how folks feel. Do you think that "5.5" is going to split the 5E player base such that there are 2 camps of 5E players -- 5.0 and 5.5? Iknow that some people felt that way about 4E essentials, and some folks stuck with 3.0 rather than go to 3.5.

What do you think?

Also, be nice.

I think probably not a split. There wasn't really a split when 3e went to 3.5. The reason for that was the changes, despite being incorrectly billed as compatible, were significant enough to warrant buying the new core books.

WotC has told yet again that 5e to 5.5e will be compatible, but they know that if the changes are so minor that compatibility exists, huge number of people won't fork over the money for new core books. That means that very likely 5.5e changes will be significant and no true compatibility will be possible. You could play them together, but there will be balance issues like there were with 3e and 3.5e.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Going? That implies a fanbase that isn't as perpetually fractured as an egg in a blender.

 

[Oofta]

Be nice? Bah humbug! This is the internet, no fancy pancy nice here! Why back in my day we didn't even have an internet to yell at each other, we were still heard by the neighbors and the neighbors were a mile away!* So to heck with your nice and get off my lawn!

*True story. Our croquet games could get quite rambunctious.

 

[billd91]

It's not going to be an edition split like 3e/4e. I expect it's going to be more like a 1e UA/non-UA kind of split. Some people aren't going to use the updated racial abilities/monsters in Multiverse because they don't like the changes or because they don't own the resource.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think probably not a split. There wasn't really a split when 3e went to 3.5. The reason for that was the changes, despite being incorrectly billed as compatible, were significant enough to warrant buying the new core books.

WotC has told yet again that 5e to 5.5e will be compatible, but they know that if the changes are so minor that compatibility exists, huge number of people won't fork over the money for new core books. That means that very likely 5.5e changes will be significant and no true compatibility will be possible. You could play them together, but there will be balance issues like there were with 3e and 3.5e.

Yeah, I expect something similar to the 3.0 to 3.5 shift. As was said above, they have to make the changes significant enough to warrant buying new books, which means they're significant enough to have players taking sides.

I have already decided that my D&D gaming is going to be Level Up plus my giant homebrew document (referred to by my group as the Micahnomicon), so I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

 

[Oofta]

I don't think it's going to fracture more than it already has. When the new books come out, I'll discuss it with the home group. Since we run everything off DDB, we'll probably migrate. It's not like there hasn't been edition changes before that were less controversial than the switch to 4E and I doubt they'll rush a radical change* like that again.

*according to the 4E team pushed out well before it was ready, they wanted something like Essentials on release.

 

[Jer]

The 5e playing base is already split. You don't get an edition of D&D that lasts for nearly a decade without the playing base splintering off into folks who allow this rule but not that rule, or these races but not those races, or nerf an entire class, or whatever. It's been that way since 1e AD&D came into existence and people noped out to keep playing OD&D instead.

Now will it be a significant split along the lines of the 2e/3e split or the 3e/4e split? If Wizards is smart and handles it well then it shouldn't. The core rules of the game don't need major changes the way that both 2e and 3e needed major updates to get current and to simplify things down respectively, and the current rules are overwhelmingly more popular that any edition has previously been.

There are a lot of ways they could screw it up and shoot the golden goose they have right now in the back of the head so I'm not going to vote either way. There doesn't have to be a major split with this anniversary release, but Wizards can always screw it up.

 

[LordEntrails]

Sure, at least a dozen folks will for whatever reason "split". Regardless of how you define such.

But, regardless of how you define split, and (almost) no matter what the changes in 5.5 are, the vast majority of folks will just go along and adopt. Sure some waters might be muddied. But other than those of us who pay attention and feel a dog in one fight or another, everyone else will just play whatever is put on their table. Not because they are indifferent, but because spending time with their friends (or making new ones) is more important than if a gnome has a set of ability score modifiers or if they can pick and chose their abilities bonuses (or any other rule that may change).