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

[Oofta]

At least part of the issue is I memorized tons of rules from AD&D 1e and 3/3.5e.

For 5e, I get it enough to play, but not to DM it accurately without having to look things up. And 5.24 throws in doubt what I know of 5e. New editions = new cognitive load from a changed UI.

Edition changes typically annoy me - feels like a waste of my time to learn yet another variant, and another sundering of the D&D community. Oddly, I was enthusiastic for 4e - I went to the launch party - but it’s now my least favorite variant.

Maybe WotC going to a subscription digital model could get them off reprinting “new and improved” rule sets. 5e is probably good enough to be a forever edition.

I like 5E, it's my favorite edition so far with 3.5 a close second even if I still have my S&P inspired barbarian from 2E. But 3.5 is second because it just stopped working after about level 14 or so. If there was an optimized caster running around, they just annihilated everything. For that matter, up until 14th level or so my martial characters tended to be far more effective than most even though I didn't really set out to make them that way.

Having said that though 5E could use a tune-up, after 10 years a lot of lessons have been learned. It's time for a refresh. But, as you said, a steady stream of income from DDB, VTT, or whatever could ease the pressure off of making another release for a long time.

 

[Micah Sweet]

No age group has monolithic preferences. If you happen to feel left out, I can sympathize but it's not like they don't care. You personally just don't happen to be the target audience even if other Gen Xers are.

I have to admit that I'm never sure what the issue really is, 5E is fairly flexible and with a few tweaks and restrictions can give quite a different play experience. On the other hand no game can work for everyone, fortunately there are a lot of options out there or get some 3PP supplement for 5E that moves it more in your direction.

To be fair, if you leave an age group out of a survey, you don't care about that age group, no matter what their personalities are.

 

[tetrasodium]

The future is digital. Been looking that way more and more more with each passing year. From books to music to movies etc.

Not to mention what ends up being more cost effective. If physical books makes them more money they will keep printing them, but I think that is finite. Cheaper to make and sale a digital good then a dead tree version. I’d be happy to be wrong.

sure is....

Spoiler: of course...

Amazon will brick all Halo health trackers on August 1

The Halo Rise sleep tracker only came out 5 months ago.

arstechnica.com

“Unacceptable”: Spotify bricking Car Thing devices in Dec. without refunds

Spotify stopped making Car Things in July 2022 but kept selling them.

arstechnica.com

RIP to Dropcams, Nest Secure: Google is shutting down servers next year

Sales ended years ago, but they'll turn into bricks when the servers shut down.

arstechnica.com

SmartDry’s useful laundry sensor to be cloud-bricked next month

Sensor for already dry clothes relied on smartphone app, servers to work.

arstechnica.com

Oral-B bricking Alexa toothbrush is cautionary tale against buzzy tech

Oral-B discontinued Alexa toothbrush in 2022, now sells $400 "AI" toothbrush.

arstechnica.com

That all digital thing never went bad for users... I'm sure it's nothing, How is your DDI subscription going these days?

 

[mamba]

To be fair, if you leave an age group out of a survey, you don't care about that age group, no matter what their personalities are.

they did not leave any group out however, they mislabeled the results

 

[Remathilis]

People who say “it will never happen” are not looking at the long game.

Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof.

Right now, I can walk into my local Target and buy a vinyl record of Taylor Swift's latest album, a Blu-ray of the last Marvel movie, the brand new John Grishham novel in hardcover, a collector pack of the last MTG set, and the latest D&D hardback rulebook. Digital distribution has had 10+ years to convince me to listen to Taylor's album on Spotify, watch the Marvel movie on Disney+, read the Grishham novel on Kindle, play MTG on Arena, and buy the game book on D&D Beyond. And yet each of those items persist in my local Target. You can't possibly convince me that Taylor, Disney and Amazon have not cracked the secret to digital only products but Hasbro has.

The only industry that has been majorly disrupted by digital distribution is video games and software, which is because both are digital to begin with. But D&D, like other media, doesn't need digital hardware to run. Turntables need electricity, books don't even need that. Which again is why TT gaming is different from video gaming and can't be compared.

Can this all change? Anything is possible. But I wager you will no longer find Marvel Blu-rays, vinyl lps and hardback novels on the shelf of Target before Harbro pulls is $60 game books and $50 Commander decks.

 

[Malmuria]

One of these bonus effects is called Taunting Step, and it forces creatures within 5 feet of the space the warlock teleported away from to have to make a Wisdom save. On a failure, they have disadvantage on attacks against anyone but the warlock, but only until the start of the warlock’s next turn.

It's not that this is so overpowered, but now a misty step means the player has to choose from a menu of options, and then the DM has to make a bunch of saving throws and keep track of who failed. It adds tactical complexity but also adds to the stack of things to keep track of. So in the aggregate, when all classes add to the stack in this way, such changes do make life harder for DMs. Now, again, whether this is a deal breaker is an individual preference.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Not sure why it's only on the DM to "keep track" of any of these things. IME the whole table can get involved in "keeping track". 5e is still a LONG way off of many other editions in things that you gotta track.

 

[haakon1]

The future is digital.

Yes and … digital subscriptions, not sales, I think.

MBA’s love their recurring revenue and DLC’s.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Yes and … digital subscriptions, not sales, I think.

MBA’s love their recurring revenue and DLC’s.

I guess most people like recurring income.

 

[Ibrandul]

I’ve been running the Yawning Portal version of Against the Giants for a four-PC party of characters at the level suggested by the module, and I have tried as hard as I possibly can to kill them without changing the module or pulling shenanigans, which was the deal from the get-go (the players wanted a more challenging and more deadly campaign than our last one)—and they have consistently stomped enormous battles way beyond what CR says they should be able to handle. And it’s not because I’m playing the monsters poorly (many of them are 5e sack-of-HP-witha-stick giants).

I used to love running and playing 5e until this experience made me realize that all the battle tactics and carefully planned turns ultimately boil down to the DM deciding whether the players win or lose—because unless the DM puts a thumb on the scale, the players will always win. I fear 5.5e exacerbates that “feature” of the game (though I still hold out a fool’s hope that the new MM will boost the monsters all around to match the undeniable player power creep). If so, I plan to start searching for groups that want to play a different game, because as a player I want to believe my tactical choices matter, and frankly I don’t anymore.