D&D General Has 5e become noise?

So I was listening to a SlyFlourish podcast from a few weeks back about what was the “Best 5e version”, and what it was about was which 5e version/variant had the best PHB, DMG, and MM, in his opinion. And ultimately the answer was that each version had strengths and weaknesses but because of compatibility, the best 5e version was the one that you cobbled together from 2014, 2024, Tales of the Valiant, and LevelUp.

For me, I would find that really…draining. Flipping back and forth across rules from multiple different books that are all mostly similar but with various nuances and then having to communicate all of that out to a table of players - I feel like that’s having to be a very particular type of GM who really likes that level of fine tuning to make that work. And I think that overall is why I’m happy ignoring the 5e space for the time being.

Swanosaurus said:

I'm looking at it from an outsider perspective, and while for some time, a lot of the third party settings (Redsky, Beowulf) made me want to check out 5e, by now, it's just so much that it seems easier to say: "5e again? I'm not playing that, anyway, so I'll just ignore it."

Click to expand...

Well, yeah. If you aren't using the material, there's not a whole lot of reason to care about it. But that has little to do with there being a lot of the content, and more with just not having a use for it.

TiQuinn said:

So I was listening to a SlyFlourish podcast from a few weeks back about what was the “Best 5e version”, and what it was about was which 5e version/variant had the best PHB, DMG, and MM, in his opinion. And ultimately the answer was that each version had strengths and weaknesses but because of compatibility, the best 5e version was the one that you cobbled together from 2014, 2024, Tales of the Valiant, and LevelUp.

For me, I would find that really…draining. Flipping back and forth across rules from multiple different books that are all mostly similar but with various nuances and then having to communicate all of that out to a table of players - I feel like that’s having to be a very particular type of GM who really likes that level of fine tuning to make that work. And I think that overall is why I’m happy ignoring the 5e space for the time being.

Click to expand...

For a long time now, I've wondered a great deal if all that fine tuning really matters. I mean, like, statistically, how often do the differences make a significant impact on play?

Like, take a straight 5e encounter, and a conversion of that to any of the variants, or to someone's cobbled-together system. Play them out in largely the same manner, and see if, statistically, the rules differences impact the overall outcome more than the randomness of the dice do.

Swanosaurus said:

Disclaimer: I've never played 5e, and I've hardly played any other edition of D&D. Still, a lot of 5e products got my attention for a long time: Interesting settings that I thought might make me give 5e a try or that would be good for conversion.

But lately, I feel that there's such a constant barrage of 5e compatible products that they have turned into the background noise of rpg marketing. Yes, all this stuff is there, and a lot of it is probably great ... but it's so much that my brain stops caring as soon as it sees the 5e label. I'm not ranting, just wondering: how attractive will 5e compatibility be in a few more months, when more and more people start to feel like this? Have we passed peak 5e? Or is it just me? How do the people feel about it who are actually into 5e or some variant? Have you found your niché and ignore the rest? Or do you still try to follow what comes out?

EDIT: I'm talking about 5e compatible products here, not about the official WotC books.

Click to expand...

Most people who play 5e don't follow any news of any 3pp coming out - they're extremely unplugged to the RPG scene outside of (maybe) new WotC products, sometimes. The bulk of the 5e audience plays the game without buying much of anything.

Also, its kind of irrelevant if there's tons of 5e products - if you're not interested, just don't buy them. You have more choice for and access to other systems than there has ever been.

Swanosaurus said:

it's so much that my brain stops caring as soon as it sees the 5e label

Click to expand...

you never cared for 5e to begin with, so not sure how much of a change that is…

Swanosaurus said:

just wondering: how attractive will 5e compatibility be in a few more months, when more and more people start to feel like this? Have we passed peak 5e? Or is it just me?

Click to expand...

we will only know that we are past the peak once we are well past it. I think we might be around peak, but I am not expecting a steep decline anytime soon, so a few months will not make a difference.

As to 5e products, I see them like English, they provide an easy baseline to translate into a game I might actually play that is not 5e-ish (and what I am interested in is mostly in that ballpark of fantasy, so it does translate over), on top of working for the 5e-ish ones anyway.
I almost see 5e products as generic products. Both will need some adaptation to a specific system (that is not 5e).

There are still products coming out that I am interested in, but over time the accumulated products make it harder to get interested in new ones / find ones that are not just a slight variation on the same theme so I think the number of 3pp products I am buying is slowly declining.

At the same time it does not really matter what one individual does, there are constantly people entering and leaving D&D, what matters is the aggregate.

I feel ya. I've got more stuff than I can actually use. I forget what's in all the books. When I add extra resources, it just confuses things and slows the game.
Nothing against the system, but Level Up broke 5e for me. Just too much.
The only way the hobby survives for me is to ignore all the supplemental stuff coming out.

mamba said:

you never cared for 5e to begin with, so not sure how much of a change that is…

Click to expand...

Not a big one. Mainly it's that a few years ago, I was still interested in and at times buying 5e settings (Redsky, Eberron), and I had the thought that, since I'm not a big fan of doing conversions, I might just start playing some 5e to try these settings out. I kept looking at 5e stuff and considering it.

Now, I just kind of feel exhausted when another 5e thing comes out. Though it might have more to do with the disappointment that nothing ever came from my plans to try out this or that 5e setting.

Basically, I was just wondering how 5e players feel about the abuncance of 3rd party material out there - and since most answers are positive about it, I guess that's the answer, in general; most people are still happy to have a lot of options and do not feel overwhelmed.

Umbran said:

For a long time now, I've wondered a great deal if all that fine tuning really matters. I mean, like, statistically, how often do the differences make a significant impact on play?

Like, take a straight 5e encounter, and a conversion of that to any of the variants, or to someone's cobbled-together system. Play them out in largely the same manner, and see if, statistically, the rules differences impact the overall outcome more than the randomness of the dice do.

Click to expand...

Yeah, for me, it’s so much easier to just start from one ruleset and then when a pain point actually occurs at the table, then you make the adjustment. It’s much easier for me to engage with those kinds of changes than try to decide in advance that I’m going to use the PHB from System A and then some of these rules from System B, and then some of these monsters from System C. Anticipating problems before they’re really problems that bother people at the table tends not to work for me - far better to just play the game.

Honesty I filter out all players option class/subsclass/feat stuff and only look at bestiaries and campaigns. That actually makes it manageable. There are some amazing 3pp campaigns out there that are definitely worth considering.

I don’t need players option stuff there is plenty in official. Unless I’m considering something very themed like Darksun etc.

For me, it kinda has. When the new edition came out, I decided it wasn't for me, and that I would not be playing or running D&D anymore. And I noticed that with Kickstarters and with walking the vendors hall at Origins, just how much suddenly was getting filtered out.