D&D 5E Should D&D be easier to learn? If so, how would you do it?

[MNblockhead]

I don't find it to be too hard to help players out. You can take 95% of the rules players need and summarize them on a few sheets of paper. You can also develop character sheets for new players that provide short tips on how things work. I played in a demo game of Pathfinder 2e run by the Pathfinder Society at a convention a few years ago and the pregens had tips for various mechanics. They were very well-designed and extremely helpful for new players.

As others have pointed out, it is very different for the DM. The books need to be better designed for (1) picking up the essential rules quickly and (2) making cross-referencing easier (and using callouts to avoid page flipping where practical).

I think that this is where DnD Beyond is much better than the print books. There is only so much you can do with the print books. With digital, you can cross reference much easier with hover-over popups meaning you don't even have to navigate to the other page. You can also make a variety of reference articles and provide multiple ways of presenting the rules. DDB is already a great tool for a DM, but there are three things I would like to see that would make it even more useful as a DM:

1. Quickstarts and walkthroughs. Since you are not limited by page restrictions, throughout the rules section it would be great to have sidebars with "more information" links that give written and video examples and walktroughs and incorporate sage advice, FAQs, etc.

2. Make the search more friendly for simple rule look ups. They now allow you to set filters, to avoid results from adventures, etc. That's great, but still more fiddly than it needs to be. Organizing and displaying search results better, putting results from core books at top would be a lot more convenient. The search algorithm has gotten much better, but I'm still finding myself having to scroll through results to look up basic rules.

3. Digital DM screens. Preferably customizable. I would love to be able to bookmark/favorite certain sections (or even highlight and save snippits) and have them saved to a "DMs screen". There is a community-developed module I use for foundry vtt that allows me to do this with basically any content in the VTT. Would be nice if DDB had similar functionality.

 

[Stormonu]

Game needs to be more complicated, not less.

More options for starting class features, skills, armor categories, cantrips, etc...
subclasses at 1st level,
more feat slots, over levels,
combat maneuvers for all characters, class depending on amount and type.

I don't mind additional books like the old Player's Options books that would give more levels of customization for those that want it, but I'm mostly satisfied with the level of complexity in the current game - I certainly don't want to go back to 3E's level of complexity, and the PF2/GURPs level would drive me insane.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I crave even more complexity personally. All the fun of making a character has been sucked out.

I don't think you need to make the core all that complex; that's why gos gave us the precious miracle of power creep, and feature creep after all.

On the other hand, I don't think there's a path in making the game so simple it's not worth learning either. D&D's culture of flaunting system mastery and assuming newbies are too dumb to 'get it' when it comes to literally any lever in the game more complicated then rolling two dice is quite frankly obnoxious and a turn off.

New players are coming in with the promise of 'you cna play anything you can imagine' and then get forced into playing the most boring thing, that can't even do it's thing in an exciting way.

No. A new player should be able to and in fact be encourage to come in and pick up any base archetype and have it be reasonable for them to start with without the DM shouting at them that they should learn these thirty pages of spell rules, or the other players braying that they're doing it wrong and will get the party killed.

They should be able to easily look up what they need in the book (like say, by using the tool most game designers seem to be allergic to A GLOSSARY) or on their sheet and know what they can do without having to work their way through an arcane riddle of flowery, vague language only to be told it's a secret only the DM knows.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I crave even more complexity personally. All the fun of making a character has been sucked out.

I don't think you need to make the core all that complex; that's why gos gave us the precious miracle of power creep, and feature creep after all.

On the other hand, I don't think there's a path in making the game so simple it's not worth learning either. D&D's culture of flaunting system mastery and assuming newbies are too dumb to 'get it' when it comes to literally any lever in the game more complicated then rolling two dice is quite frankly obnoxious and a turn off.

New players are coming in with the promise of 'you cna play anything you can imagine' and then get forced into playing the most boring thing, that can't even do it's thing in an exciting way.

No. A new player should be able to and in fact be encourage to come in and pick up any base archetype and have it be reasonable for them to start with without the DM shouting at them that they should learn these thirty pages of spell rules, or the other players braying that they're doing it wrong and will get the party killed.

They should be able to easily look up what they need in the book (like say, by using the tool most game designers seem to be allergic to A GLOSSARY) or on their sheet and know what they can do without having to work their way through an arcane riddle of flowery, vague language only to be told it's a secret only the DM knows.

This is really hard to accomplish in a basic game, but I see where you're going with it. It's one of my complaints about 5e basic, the official version. They kept all the rules (all the complexity) while stripping PC options down to 4 classes and 4 races. I tried to flip that design philosophy with B&B, giving player options at CHARGEN, while making the rules simple. Of course, there are always limitations when you're creating a Basic version, streamlined as possible. Archetypes need to be in broad groups (3 classes), but have options within those for customization (backgrounds)

 

[Reynard]

This is really hard to accomplish in a basic game, but I see where you're going with it. It's one of my complaints about 5e basic, the official version. They kept all the rules (all the complexity) while stripping PC options down to 4 classes and 4 races. I tried to flip that design philosophy with B&B, giving player options at CHARGEN, while making the rules simple. Of course, there are always limitations when you're creating a Basic version, streamlined as possible. Archetypes need to be in broad groups (3 classes), but have options within those for customization (backgrounds)

I think the game worked pretty well -- better, even -- when there was effectively one choice at character generation: class.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I think the game worked pretty well -- better, even -- when there was effectively one choice at character generation: class.

Not for me. And not for a lot of people. Lack of choice is the biggest complaints I hear.

If I came to this game back in the day when there were no meaningful character choices, I would have turned right around and never looked back.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Not for me. And not for a lot of people. Lack of choice is the biggest complaints I hear.

If I came to this game back in the day when there were no meaningful character choices, I would have turned right around and never looked back.

It might not be the game for you. Have you tried other systems with more choices?

 

[Vaalingrade]

It might not be the game for you. Have you tried other systems with more choices?

I built one. I'm playtesting it.

Some of my friends still want to run official modules though.

 

[Voadam]

I think the game worked pretty well -- better, even -- when there was effectively one choice at character generation: class.

Do you know how many choices there are in spending 120 gold when the equipment list includes things like wineskins and iron spikes?

I remember fiddling around with things like how many belt pouches to buy? Do I need belladona or wolfsbane? Iron rations versus non iron rations.

 

[MichaelSomething]

There is nothing wrong with hiring a GM but if you are hiring a GM to teach the game that needs to be very clear. Otherwise you might as well save your money and watch actual plays on YT.

You're right! WOTC doesn't need to worry about making the game more learnable. The last time they tried that they made 4th Edition!

A person can learn how D&D works by watching Matt Mercer!