The 5 Stages of New Edition Grief

[DarkCrisis]

The 5 stages of New Edition Grief.

• Denial - I don't have to switch. My old books still work just fine. I bet a lot people won't change editions anyways. I'll have no trouble finding a game of my preferred edition
• Anger - How could TSR/WotC/etc do this to me!? Look at all the money I spent on these books that are near worthless now! They aren't getting a dime out of me!
• Bargaining - If I buy more of the current edition books TSR/WotC/etc has to see how popular it is and they will make more books for it! I'll just gift the spare Old Ed book sets to my friends...
• Depression - I can't believe how much I spent on these old books that just collect dust. And everyone is trying to dump their old books so I'll be lucky to get a 4th of their cover price. Why does TSR/WotC/etc hate me?
• Acceptance - I'll keep a few favorites and use the money to buy the new edition core set. But JUST the core, I'm not going to have this happen to me again! Besides maybe the new Ed is fun. Besides, if I don't like it I can also find a group for my preferred edition, right? And I bet I can get some of the old books cheap off Ebay...

 

[Thomas Shey]

Or occasionally, step four being "Well, don't really like much of what I see in this new edition, guess its good I have other games I like."

 

[payn]

Or occasionally, step four being "Well, don't really like much of what I see in this new edition, guess its good I have other games I like."

No kidding. It must be hell being chained to WotC products.

 

[Smackpixi]

That’s great, love it. It’s weird here on the internet where what other people are doing in their game matters, and where I meet people who must suffer what the official rules are.

 

[Sacrosanct]

There are some truths we all should remember, but too many people seem to forget

1. The corporation will do what it thinks will result in increased profit. This has been true of every previous edition since 1e. It doesn't matter what I think, or you think, or what anyone else thinks. Presumably, they are looking at survey data, sales data, and other marketing indicators to come to this decision. They aren't catering to any one demographic, and they aren't out to screw you.
2. The price we spent on those books vs the hours of entertainment we got out of them is still exponentially better than any other form of entertainment, so it always strikes me as a bit odd when someone complains about wasting money on books that we've been using for almost 10 years.

 

[JThursby]

I have to be honest, I like most of the changes in the playtest. The two I really do not like are the crit changes and the name of the game; One D&D is a dumb weasel term for a harebrained marketing campaing trying to tell us the game is "beyond editions", whatever that means. Everyone knows this is a new edition, selling it as anything else is only going to upset more people in the long term. As for crits, it looks like they're overly concerned with low level PCs getting splatted by an unlucky monster crit. Just tune the monster damage down at low levels or give level 1 PCs a bigger HP boost, removing most crits will just make combat more of a predictable slog than it already is.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Re: removing monster crit. They inferred it was because no first level PC wants to be one-shotted from a crit. But if you recall, it was an intentional design choice to make level 1 and 2 be more fragile so those who want zero to hero (like me) had that option, and those who wanted heroic out of the gate should start at level 3.

So this is a solution in search of a problem.

 

[payn]

Re: removing monster crit. They inferred it was because no first level PC wants to be one-shotted from a crit. But if you recall, it was an intentional design choice to make level 1 and 2 be more fragile so those who want zero to hero (like me) had that option, and those who wanted heroic out of the gate should start at level 3.

So this is a solution in search of a problem.

I wouldnt be surprised if they already tested some of these recharge mechanics they talked about. Probably wiped out a few groups with these whammies combined with crits. So, they are just wiping out crits to prevent this so they can keep these new recharge deals alive.

 

[innerdude]

It truly is amazing how much of a difference it makes when you consider "D&D the Product" to be somewhere between 9th and 12th in line of systems you would choose to run or play.

I expend more mental energy choosing which cereal I eat in the morning than worrying about what will or will not happen with D&D 5.5e or 6e.

If I'm the GM, any of the following would hit the table long before D&D:

Ironsworn
Ironsworn: Starforged
Savage Worlds
One Ring 1e or 2e
Genesys/ FFG Star Wars
Swords of the Serpentine
Blades in the Dark
Spellbound Kingdoms
Burning Wheel
Pendragon
Mythras

 

[GMMichael]

• Denial - I don't have to switch. My old books still work just fine. I bet a lot people won't change editions anyways. I'll have no trouble finding a game of my preferred edition
• Anger - How could TSR/WotC/etc do this to me!? Look at all the money I spent on these books that are near worthless now! They aren't getting a dime out of me!

Anger, in my case, led to writing my own game. It's worked out well, except for the people who refuse to play anything other than D&D.