D&D General I’m Trying to Love D&D Again—and I’ve Got Some Complaints. Young Grognard posting.

Mecheon · 2026-04-14T01:59:57+0100

KnightofCaliban said:
Why can't the little wargame that started everything stay as such?

Times change. (the day I stop using this Garrosh quote will be a sad day)

But, yeah, the game changed because big exciting adventures turned out more fun and interesting than just simple dungeon delving. Dragonlance isn't ground zero of that, but Dragonlance was a sign of the times. Add in other stuff like how, over in Japan, there was an entire market based around people writing up how their adventures went and those tales being published, which lead to you-may-have-heard-of-it anime Record of Lodoss War. Those things got people more inspired for their own big dramatic adventures.

In addition, much of the work the original D&D is based on is considered old and dated in this day and age. LotR is obviously itself and eternally known, though the Hobbit took a beating with how its movie went, but outside of that? Conan's the only one with some lasting effect and most of it is being a joke. The remaining stuff in the culture zeitgeist of the modern day is probably just Disney trying to do a John Carter of Mars movie and it flopping

More people in this day and age are going to think of Sephiroth or Arthas than are going to think of anyone from Amber (I don't even know any characters from Amber, just a lot of people liked it back in the day)

zakael19 · 2026-04-14T02:18:10+0100

But like, also, the entire OSR movement is "let's do mostly low-powered old-school vibes D&D in dungeons" so, you know, there's an entire community for that! When I threw a LFG post out to run Dolmenwood (OSR warped fairy tale woods in an old-school D&D system), I had plenty of players apply.

Belen · 2026-04-14T03:15:18+0100

Mecheon said:
Times change. (the day I stop using this Garrosh quote will be a sad day)

But, yeah, the game changed because big exciting adventures turned out more fun and interesting than just simple dungeon delving. Dragonlance isn't ground zero of that, but Dragonlance was a sign of the times. Add in other stuff like how, over in Japan, there was an entire market based around people writing up how their adventures went and those tales being published, which lead to you-may-have-heard-of-it anime Record of Lodoss War. Those things got people more inspired for their own big dramatic adventures.

In addition, much of the work the original D&D is based on is considered old and dated in this day and age. LotR is obviously itself and eternally known, though the Hobbit took a beating with how its movie went, but outside of that? Conan's the only one with some lasting effect and most of it is being a joke. The remaining stuff in the culture zeitgeist of the modern day is probably just Disney trying to do a John Carter of Mars movie and it flopping

More people in this day and age are going to think of Sephiroth or Arthas than are going to think of anyone from Amber (I don't even know any characters from Amber, just a lot of people liked it back in the day)

I never read Chronicles of Amber, but I just picked up the series on ebook to try it out.

I have been looking to read books from my childhood although Amber predates me.

I just finished The Starwolves trilogy. I am feeling nostalgic and finding it hard to find new books since I no longer buy from Amazon.

Whizbang Dustyboots · 2026-04-14T03:45:23+0100

zakael19 said:
When I threw a LFG post out to run Dolmenwood (OSR warped fairy tale woods in an old-school D&D system), I had plenty of players apply.

Yeah, I have to imagine that filled up pretty quickly.

zakael19 · 2026-04-14T03:50:58+0100

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Yeah, I have to imagine that filled up pretty quickly.

Most were total newbies to the OSR scene wanting to give it a dip and enthused by the setting!

Whizbang Dustyboots · 2026-04-14T03:56:40+0100

zakael19 said:
Most were total newbies to the OSR scene wanting to give it a dip and enthused by the setting!

The setting is super-compelling. I'm strongly considering getting the players book next time I have some spare cash, just so I can jump in to a pick-up game some time.

Lanefan · 2026-04-14T05:01:31+0100

KnightofCaliban said:
Also I wanted to ask again on something that I didn't see anyone touch about the 3pp. If WotC is putting out content that is looked at as broken in it's own light why is 3pp not having a more favorable view.

Since the dawn of D&D, "official" TSR or WotC has carried a cachet that 3rd-party material just doesn't, even when that official material is objectively worse than what the 3rd-party lot are doing at the same time.

That said, there's a finite amount of official material for any edition (though 2e stretches this!) which makes it more practical to vet and either adopt or reject each piece or elements thereof. There's a nigh-infinite amount of 3rd-party material, however, and you can't vet it all.

Clint_L · 2026-04-14T06:35:26+0100

KnightofCaliban said:
Also I wanted to ask again on something that I didn't see anyone touch about the 3pp. If WotC is putting out content that is looked at as broken in it's own light why is 3pp not having a more favorable view.

I’m going to address this as a forever DM: if a player I don’t know wants to bring in their favourite 3PP, I’m going to be a polite “no thanks.” I’ve got enough work to do preparing all the sessions without having to buy and learn all of their preferred 3PP, especially considering that it usually isn't very balanced and they picked it to make their OP character fantasy happen.

If 3PP is a priority for you, you should DM.

AnotherGuy · 2026-04-14T10:39:33+0100

Mecheon said:
But, yeah, the game changed because big exciting adventures turned out more fun and interesting than just simple dungeon delving. Dragonlance isn't ground zero of that, but Dragonlance was a sign of the times. Add in other stuff like how, over in Japan, there was an entire market based around people writing up how their adventures went and those tales being published, which lead to you-may-have-heard-of-it anime Record of Lodoss War.

That is pretty cool, I did not know.

James Gasik · 2026-04-14T10:48:37+0100

KnightofCaliban said:
On third party. I do get what everyone's saying that it's more or less a force multiplier on both social and game strain. With more solid groups and solid 3pp content making an easier transition. It's just... that I feel duped and rug pulled on thinking the OGL and original creators mattered at all. I thought I was doing a good thing, getting a lot of cool things out of it, and then finding I just lit money in a fire. It has been really interesting hearing about history from 1-3E from you guys. I do have to find some of those and pop them open some time.

The OGL situation did have effects. But not in the way you are thinking. Instead of making people who play 5e more open to things that aren't first-party, it caused more Balkanization of the player base. Now you have people who play original 5e, 5.5e, Tales of the Valiant, etc. etc.. If you liked 5e but lost faith in WotC, you have more options. My group chose Tales of the Valiant, which has a fairly devoted fanbase active on Discord. And with deep pockets too- when their offering for Megadungeon Month (Hastening Doom) went live on Backerkit for funding, by the time my pledge cleared, it was fully funded, and in 17 days nearly 1.5 million dollars of the 10k goal has been earned- basically, before they can even announce new stretch goals, they've been surpassed already.

I'm sure the other 5e alternative games are in a similar position.

And that's not even getting into the stuff that was already around before the OGL kerfluffle, like LevelUp.

Sure, I get your frustration. I bought Adventures in Rokugan, and while it isn't perfect, it's design seemed vastly more fun and interesting than what WotC was churning out. Sadly, I'll never get to play it, because my group only has two L5R fans. But sometimes people need to see things in action before they can make qualified judgments about how good/bad/balanced they are, and this is why there's really only one solution if you want to acclimatize people to your favorite 3pp- you have to bite the bullet and run a game.

Now that's not always easy, depending on where you live. I love ToV, but our ToV group consists of four people, one of whom is one of two GM's. Someone has to play two characters in order to cover all bases. We'd love to get more people, but people in our area are interested in other games.

Sure, there's VTT's, but I'm an old dinosaur myself, and nothing can beat in person gaming. And I balk at learning how to use the VTT tools to try and run a game using one! But one could say that's a me problem.