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

[teitan]

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.

I disagree, it will be adopted but it won't be fast. It will be a steady clip of people moving to it though. People will get over Tasha's and MotM by then and we will have more experience with them. MotM is more how it was handled than anything actually wrong with the material IN the book outside of what was removed from the front of Volo's and ToF.

 

[CleverNickName]

I imagine it will be a split, but nothing like the Great Fracture of 2008.

I probably won't even notice, because 5th Edition is going to be the "evergreen edition," as far as we're concerned. Our group is in too deep with 5E at this point to switch to any other edition. We've spent the last few years acquiring all of the 5E books on Roll20 now, and at no small expense, so it will be a hard "no" for me and my group to start that process all over again.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

We've spent the last few years acquiring all of the 5E books on Roll20 now, and at no small expense, so it will be a hard "no" for me and my group to start that process all over again.

yeah some people have already double (or tipple) bought these books, when the 'updated' books come out that can cause some friction.

The split will come down to if you need the new book to play in new games... there were and are people playing every single previous edition because they went back or they jumped off the edition treadmill when that one came out.

 

[Vaalingrade]

If 5.5 is good, I might actually buy 5e for the first time that's not for the Eberron cover variant.

 

[Shiroiken]

Really depends on how much they change. If it's nothing more than what we've seen applied to the core rules, I don't think it's going to be a big deal. With every edition there's some who refuse to switch, and this won't be any different. The biggest split was between 3.5E and 4E, but my group took years before we accepted 2E (although we actually mashed up both AD&D rules to use what we liked). I'm personally hesitant on the new direction, so I'll see how it goes.

 

[James Gasik]

The thing to keep in mind with edition updates and changes is, they may not be designed with you and your table in mind. You may be running the game just fine, while some guy a state over is constantly killing his party while properly using the encounter building system, because he doesn't understand when/how/why to allow, say, short rests.

While another wonders why the game is so easy because players short rest whenever they care to.

This seems to be something 5.25, 25e, Super Ultra Deluxe Special Edition Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition Exclusive, or whatever they choose to call the next iteration is leading towards. Standardization so people can't mess this up.

Your game might be one where you think some races being better (or even worse) at certain traits than others is perfectly acceptable and you never really questioned why female Drow are actually shoddy Clerics.

But in pursuit of the almighty dollar, WotC responds to what they thing the largest segments of their fanbase wants- and the rest of us are along for the ride.

Same as it ever was.

So to riot about it seems a bit much, as long as they don't take the game you are playing away.

They did that when I was playing 4e, and I'm still a bit sore about it, but it's not like the current iteration of 5e only exists on the internet so we do what we always do. Take what we want, and ignore the rest.

I mean look at 2e. Did every table use every book? Hell no! Did the existence of Players Option: Skills & Powers mean you had to add all these tweaks to your game? Certainly not!

The player base has always been fractured, because we all play differently. There is no "enforced standard of play" for all tables. And if you play in AL and don't like the changes, time to start up a home game!

This has all happened before, and it will all happen again.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

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.

Just as with 4E and 3.XE, there will be no meaningful split.

Most people will just slowly change over.

Some people will be very eager to show how they've adopted the new edition.

A tiny number of people will be weird hold-outs or say they are, and like, if you check back in a year or three they will probably not be hold-outs anymore.

 

[payn]

Just as with 4E and 3.XE, there will be no meaningful split.

Most people will just slowly change over.

Some people will be very eager to show how they've adopted the new edition.

A tiny number of people will be weird hold-outs or say they are, and like, if you check back in a year or three they will probably not be hold-outs anymore.

Right, maybe like the 3E holdouts that never moved beyond to 3.5/4E/5E. It doesn't seem like it should be a thing, but there are a number of folks out there.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Right, maybe like the 3E holdouts that never moved beyond to 3.5/4E/5E. It doesn't seem like it should be a thing, but there are a number of folks out there.

I tend to imagine them as like those poor Japanese soldiers who never found out WW2 was over.

 

[ersatzphil]

I tend to imagine them as like those poor Japanese soldiers who never found out WW2 was over.

Eh, my group stayed with 3e for awhile, and graduated to White Wolf and WEG’s Star Wars instead of 3.5. I didn’t come back to D&D until several years into 5e.