D&D General What version of D&D are you playing?

[Lanefan]

ENWorld may only represent a tiny percent of D&D players, but it tends to be a "hard core" group of players.

So the fact that only 45% are playing 2024 should be very telling.

As the 3e to 3.5e jump was fairly similar, I wonder what the % was of people playing 3.5e just a year after its release?

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I'm not sure that's as true about 2024. Certainly the art team doesn't show any signs of worrying about that.

Oh well on that front, certainly not. The horrifically creepy halfling art from early 5.0 was testament to that!

 

[Zardnaar]

And I'm very much of the opinion that 5e bends over backwards to placate old-school fans at every turn. Not always, but IMO very often, to its detriment.

It doesn't. If you play old school D&D you'll notice the difference immediately.

Its plays D&Ds greatest hits on a superficial level.

I've run OSR recently and a 1E adventure. Rejecting 4E had multiple reasons.

 

[Zardnaar]

As the 3e to 3.5e jump was fairly similar, I wonder what the % was of people playing 3.5e just a year after its release?

Not sure but iirc it sold around half or just over of 3.0.

1E to 2E at Gen Con it took 3 years to displace 1E to very minority status. 50% near release to 80- 90% year 3.

It sold around 2/3rd phb iirc.

I'm not expecting 5.5 to outsell 5.0. They might be able to milk it for more money via Beyond idk.

Basic line had diminishing returns as well.

 

[AlViking]

As the 3e to 3.5e jump was fairly similar, I wonder what the % was of people playing 3.5e just a year after its release?

Heck if I know. But that was a bit different, 3e had only been out a couple of years and felt like a cash grab. On the other hand we had a decade before a major change to the core rules with 5e. Meanwhile a lot of people on this forum are older than the norm (I would assume most) and most companies don't really care as much about old geezers like us as a sales demographic. They care more about the kids who are picking up the product for the first time. The real question as far as WOTC is concerned is likely going to be what percentage of those newbies are using the 2024 rules. I would assume that it is much, much higher.

 

[Zardnaar]

Heck if I know. But that was a bit different, 3e had only been out a couple of years and felt like a cash grab. On the other hand we had a decade before a major change to the core rules with 5e. Meanwhile a lot of people on this forum are older than the norm (I would assume most) and most companies don't really care as much about old geezers like us as a sales demographic. They care more about the kids who are picking up the product for the first time. The real question as far as WOTC is concerned is likely going to be what percentage of those newbies are using the 2024 rules. I would assume that it is much, much higher.

I suspect a lit of 5.5 will be old geezer and hard core.

I suspect a lot of the 5.0 players wont stick around long term or already bailed before 5.5 landed.

5.5 is less newbie friendly imho.

 

[Lanefan]

Heck if I know. But that was a bit different, 3e had only been out a couple of years and felt like a cash grab.

For me 3.5e felt more like a massive errata dump, after seeing four years of people managing to break 3e in so many different and unexpected ways. Never really saw it as a cash grab as such.

On the other hand we had a decade before a major change to the core rules with 5e. Meanwhile a lot of people on this forum are older than the norm (I would assume most) and most companies don't really care as much about old geezers like us as a sales demographic. They care more about the kids who are picking up the product for the first time. The real question as far as WOTC is concerned is likely going to be what percentage of those newbies are using the 2024 rules. I would assume that it is much, much higher.

Exactly - they're relying on two things:

1 - that the player base will continue to turn over like it has for the last decade, and
2 - that new players coming in will start with the 2024 / 5.5e version and thus the proportion of 5.5e players will slowly but steadily grow as time goes along.

The continuing turnover of the player base is a very open question. That new players will usually start with 5.5e as long as it's the current edition is a fairly safe bet.

 

[kermit4karate]

unified subclass progression across classes, half-caster warlock, druid wild shape templates

When all the good ideas were scrapped and only the nitpicky minor stuff was still in the running, I lost all interest in the UA, and I am not impressed with the end result either

Thanks. Ooh, a half caster warlock sounds interesting!

 

[AlViking]

I suspect a lit of 5.5 will be old geezer and hard core.

I suspect a lot of the 5.0 players wont stick around long term or already bailed before 5.5 landed.

5.5 is less newbie friendly imho.

I think the 2024 version is much more newbie friendly, especially for new DMs. It may not have some of the more advanced topics on customization but that's what blogs, third party and perhaps a new book down the line are for.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think the 2024 version is much more newbie friendly, especially for new DMs. It may not have some of the more advanced topics on customization but that's what blogs, third party and perhaps a new book down the line are for.

Its laid out better but its more complicated to play.

Good luck adapting older adventures if you're a newbie. Power creep.