Unpopular opinions go here

[Thomas Shey]

What you wish you were getting from 5e or the next version of 5e, is something you're already getting from elsewhere in the market?

Note that Micah is at least in part one of those folks who's problems with 5e is not so much that it does things different than he wants as that it vacuums up all the player base he can reach with it.

 

[billd91]

I was able to keep running my game when my health was so bad, I couldn't have gotten to an in-person game, even if they're wasn't a quarantine on. So I'm pretty impressed with how much VTTs can facilitate running a TTRPG.

I'm not knocking VTTs. With the pandemic, they helped one of my games keep going and facilitated the start of another one. But if you're not going full theater of the mind and want to use maps, you're not decreasing the amount of effort very much - and may be increasing it a little until you achieve a substantial amount of proficiency with the tools.
Now, I will acknowledge that if you buy your game materials like the adapted modules available for D&D and some other games, then you can save a lot of prep time - because like with a CRPG, you're paying someone else to do it for you. And some of those materials are very good. But if you're adapting an older module not given a VTT package or writing your own - it's quite a bit of work.

 

[payn]

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I will not stand for any further besmirching of Bacon.

Bacon is, and always will be, The Best!

 

[Tony Vargas]

If this was true there'd be very, very few other fantasy games, and they'd all wear their politics on their sleeves. But there were nontrivial groups moving away from D&D as early as 1977.

Edit: To make it clear, by "nontrivial" I mean when viewed as total number of people, not in comparison to D&D once it got rolling. I do not believe is is actually possible to separate the various factors that made modern D&D the juggernaut it is in any fashion useful for discussion.

One of the eariliest immitators of D&D, Tunnels & Trolls, was predicated on the idea that D&D was too complicated. SCAers apalled by D&D's unrealistic handling of armor & shields were involved in designing RuneQuest ('78). The diatribes against hps must have been something, for EGG to write the extensive defense of them he did in the 1979 1e DMG... yeah, dissatisfaction with D&D's mechanics is as old as D&D.

And, yeah, the last bit is a marketing question, and marketing is not an exact science...

 

[Aldarc]

Well, and I say this as someone who doesn't entirely disagree with you, it also turns on the fact that to some people the differences between most genres is trivial. To those who think there are more important elements that require some work, at least for some of them, that can be kind of eye-roll producing, but its not disingenuous as such.

I think that for me, telling me what genres a system can do, doesn't really tell me anything substantial about the system in terms of how the mechanics go about emulating the fiction. It's kinda meaningless and superficial of a claim without anything else to show for it because slapping a coat of genre paint on a system is ridiculously easy.

We saw it all the time during the d20 system craze and we see it now in the 5e craze. It's why for so many systems you can find games, supplements, or rules for running X genre with Y system. Neither of us have to agree or disagree that these were good games or if the d20 system was appropriate for emulating the particular genre for the game, what matters is that it happened. And we see this for so many other systems too, in no small part because some companies want to create an eco-system for their house system so that you don't to go to another game system to play a given genre.

Simply saying, for example, that Champions, GURPs, SWADE, Cypher System, 5e, PbtA, or Fate (and many more) can do superheroes doesn't really give me any insight into how they do so or why I should pick one game system for a superhero TTRPG over another.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I was able to keep running my game when my health was so bad, I couldn't have gotten to an in-person game, even if they're wasn't a quarantine on. So I'm pretty impressed with how much VTTs can facilitate running a TTRPG.

I will not stand for any further besmirching of Bacon.

Bacon is, and always will be, The Best!

To be clear I want attacking bacon. I love bacon and don’t like to see it abused by wrapping it around steaks and asparagus

 

[billd91]

To be clear I want attacking bacon. I love bacon and don’t like to see it abused by wrapping it around steaks and asparagus

That's not abusing bacon. That's elevating certain cuts of steak that are far too expensive and urine perfumes.

 

[Aldarc]

PDO Black Forest Ham (Schwarzwälder Schinken) > Bacon.

There are so many cured meats in Europe that have absolutely wrecked any idea that I may have held that bacon reigns supreme.

 

[billd91]

To be fair, I have cooked up bacon-wrapped salmon before and it was a hit, particularly with my younger daughter. I think her love of fish can be traced back to that early and extremely positive experience.