D&D General 5.5 and making the game easier for players and harder for DMs

[mamba]

If you have solved your own problem, what's the point of getting annoyed on behalf of other people?

so you only care about things that affect you, society at large be damned?

 

[mamba]

I’m trying to, but I’m constantly told there is no challenge without PC death.

without the chance, not without the guarantee…

 

[DEFCON 1]

so you only care about things that affect you, society at large be damned?

I would not dare to conflate "society at large" with "a small number of D&D players on a message board".

 

[JohnSnow]

I would probably disagree that complexity is the defining factor in whether someone wants to DM.

I would lean more towards people not wanting to be in charge...
Not wanting the responsibility of other people's happiness...
Fearing they are not creative enough to do a good job...
Not wanting to be unable to take a night off...
Not want to be the one having to tell all their friends 'No' a lot of the time...
Not wanting to play dozens of different characters rather than just one...
Not wanting to feel like they need to learn more of the rules...

So on and so forth. All those are perfectly legitimate reasons why someone chooses not to DM, and proportion-wise... any of those combined would be more than just because the game is "harder to run than before". Because the one thing we probably aren't going to see almost ever are those people who did DM 5E14 happily, but now find 5E24 to be a bridge too far and they're giving up the seat. If you were good with DMing 5E14, still DMing 5E24 is not going to be much of an issue for most DMs (if I had to make a prediction.)

i would submit that just about every single one of those things is compounded by complexity.

Complex games take longer to prep for.
Complex games demand more focus on the mechanical load, limiting the time you have for being creative.
Complex games mean there are more player options you might have to say no to (looking at you 3/3.5e Prestige Classes)

Et cetera, etc.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

they did that because it is not fun for anyone, not because it was hard on the DM.

If one player summons eight critters, everyone waits around for that turn to complete, that is not limited to the DM

Actually I find it is more difficult to run many creatures and remember their positioning than adding a status effect.
I just write them down next to initative.

 

[mamba]

Correction: it’s not fun for anyone but that one player.

I am not even sure it is more fun for that player than one stronger stat block

 

[JohnSnow]

I am not even sure it is more fun for that player than one stronger stat block

To quote Professor DM, “Rolling dice is fun. Sitting around while my friends do MATH is like watching paint dry.”

 

[mamba]

I would not dare to conflate "society at large" with "a small number of D&D players on a message board".

I was talking about the underlying principle of only caring about yourself, I was not implying that ‘society at large’ and ‘D&D DMs’ are identical groups

 

[mamba]

Actually I find it is more difficult to run many creatures and remember their positioning than adding a status effect.
I just write them down next to initative.

I was not comparing it to status effects. The reason WotC changed this is still the wait time, not the complexity

 

[Minigiant]

I feel low level 4e had the best mix of interesting turns, fast turn, lethal combat, meaningful combat, and DM ease.


Levels 1-5 of 4e was magic.

2 at wills.
2 encounter powers.
2 dailies.
Monsters who have simple actions but can once per combat do something interesting or hit like a truck.

If some one could make 30 levels of low level 4e, they'd be rolling in dough like Scrooge McDuck.