D&D General Richard Whitters poll on twitter, "Will you be buying the newest edition of D&D?"

[KYRON45]

I think that one of us is looking for an unnecessary heated argument. (Hint: it's not me.)

Ok.

 

[Parmandur]

See, I don't think any of that is a burden on the GM. That stuff is player responsibility, and if they can't be bothered to learn it, they get clobbered.

Now, one can feel one way or another about the changes, such as theybare, but this recent silly meme of "this is making the game harder for the DM!" is just silly clickbait nonsense. A weapon mastery doesn't make the game any harder than a centripetal. Theh made a dumb off-hand joke in an article about a player getting cool new options, and ot gets spun and catastrophized for clicks. Gross.

 

[mamba]

Now, one can feel one way or another about the changes, such as theybare, but this recent silly meme of "this is making the game harder for the DM!" is just silly clickbait nonsense.

I thought that was a quote from Mr. Crawford in their 2024 videos, and not one only made once... granted that was 'your DM will hate it' or something along those lines, but that does not really make it any better

 

[Parmandur]

I thought that was a quote from Mr. Crawford in their 2024 videos, and not one only made once... granted that was 'your DM will hate it' or something along those lines, but that does not really make it any better

It was a wink at the camera off-hand joke. It won't make a real difference at the table, it is nonsense being blown out of proportion and reason to feed the negative attention algorithm.

 

[Reynard]

It will be a burden when your monster is knocked prone with every attack and all characters gang up on it, attacking with advantage and you never get the ability to move it or threaten a single character because everything that's been added to the game completely favors the players and their characters (since they're the ones buying the largest number of books).
And as someone who has been running 4E D&D and PF2 for a couple years now, it does tax the DM's brain (at least it does to me.)
And then you have to figure out - do you let other weapons do a similar effect? Can you let someone with a longsword do extra bleeding damage - since that's the purview of axes? (I don't actually know what maneuver features go with what weapon group - but you get the idea.)
Can non-martials use weapons creatively at all?
If the creatures get saves against maneuvers, are you ready to roll saves all the time?
Are you ready to remember to track conditions on every opponent? (Orc A is stunned; Orc B has persistent bleed damage; Orc C is prone; etc.) Because I've been doing that junk in PF2 and 4E for the past 2 years, and I'm sick of it.

Again, the PCs' abilities are the responsibility of the players. Of course some abilities may present a bigger PITA at the table, but that's a hardship on everyone that makes the game more tedious all around. It isn't exclusively a GM problem.

As GM I don't need to know all the PC fiddly bits, and I don't mind being surprised at the table. What I think is a problem for GMs are players that won't learn the rules and how their specific characters work.

 

[DEFCON 1]

It will be a burden when your monster is knocked prone with every attack and all characters gang up on it, attacking with advantage and you never get the ability to move it or threaten a single character because everything that's been added to the game completely favors the players and their characters (since they're the ones buying the largest number of books).
And as someone who has been running 4E D&D and PF2 for a couple years now, it does tax the DM's brain (at least it does to me.)
And then you have to figure out - do you let other weapons do a similar effect? Can you let someone with a longsword do extra bleeding damage - since that's the purview of axes? (I don't actually know what maneuver features go with what weapon group - but you get the idea.)
Can non-martials use weapons creatively at all?
If the creatures get saves against maneuvers, are you ready to roll saves all the time?
Are you ready to remember to track conditions on every opponent? (Orc A is stunned; Orc B has persistent bleed damage; Orc C is prone; etc.) Because I've been doing that junk in PF2 and 4E for the past 2 years, and I'm sick of it.

This may be true... but if your intention was truly to switch over to Level Up - Advanced 5E... you might not find that game all the easy to DM in comparison either. It IS "advanced" after all.

There ain't nothing wrong with switching to Level Up rather than 5E24 D&D if that's what someone chooses... but if having a game that is easier to DM is the focus... caveat emptor and all that.

 

[Umbran]

Regardless of whether the D&D brand takes up the lion's share of conversation, this is not a brand specific conversation space.

So, this thread is specifically in the "General Tabletop Discussion> Dungeons & Dragons" sub-forum. That's brand specific, and clearly labelled as such.

We have a separate sub-forum for non-brand-specific discussion.

Getting that detail wrong, in the middle of positioning yourself as a relative expert by experience...? Maybe don't flex that "You're only from 2019" muscle too much. Wisdom is not directly correlated to join date.

Regardless, I don't think that one should make such malign generalizations about the intentions of nameless people who aren't here. I think that it risks of unfairly strawmanning others.

You say that as if:

1) When it happens here, we don't get information on the motives of such posters to make generalizations.
2) The actions taken in the wider social media sphere do not show us anything upon which to base generalizations, either.

Are they generalizations, and thus of limited practical use in an individual case? Yes. Can you question if they are accurate? Sure. Is moralizing at people over it a great plan? Meh?

You are positioning this as a moral defense of folks who leave a metaphorical flaming bag of poo on the porch. That approach may work well for disproportional responses to the offenses. But for thinking mildly unflattering thoughts, it is probably not terribly persuasive.

 

[mamba]

It was a wink at the camera off-hand joke. It won't make a real difference at the table, it is nonsense being blown out of proportion and reason to feed the negative attention algorithm.

@SlyFlourish is not usually someone using clickbait for his videos. If Crawford just wants to say 'I think this is something that comes in handy for the characters and the players will like', then maybe he should say that instead.

If you tell the players 'your DM will hate this skill' and the DMs 'your players will hate this monster' then you are imo focusing on the wrong thing or at least expressing it in a questionable way

 

[mamba]

Again, the PCs' abilities are the responsibility of the players. Of course some abilities may present a bigger PITA at the table, but that's a hardship on everyone that makes the game more tedious all around. It isn't exclusively a GM problem.

I am sorry, but a skill that gives the BBEG disadvantage on all his attacks for a round is not a PITA for players, but it is for the DM

 

[Retreater]

This may be true... but if your intention was truly to switch over to Level Up - Advanced 5E... you might not find that game all the easy to DM in comparison either. It IS "advanced" after all.

There ain't nothing wrong with switching to Level Up rather than 5E24 D&D if that's what someone chooses... but if having a game that is easier to DM is the focus... caveat emptor and all that.

Things just seem so "messy" right now - which is kinda typical during an edition change. There are so many variants of "D&D" (not to mention countless other systems): 2014, 2024, Level Up, Tales of the Valiant - and I'm sure there are others.
I need more tools than what's in 2014. I'd like better monster design. I'm aware that comes with some degree of added complexity, but hopefully I can find the right ratio between fun and complexity for our group.
Currently, I'm needing to recharge and going to less complex systems (leaning to Dragonbane for a short campaign).