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Giving up a first level feat is a huge opportunity cost. In my examples - Tavern Brawler and Savage Attacker offer literally nothing to the paired classes, in addition to not offering a key ability score boost.

Backgrounds previously were a low-impact RP feature - given that they consisted primarily of Ribbon abilities and could be fully customized as a baseline rule. One or two tool proficiencies and a background feature isn't going to make or break a character. Now they've got baked in optimization...

Starforged is excellent but I'd never play it without my handy spiral-bound reference book

I don't think there's very much overlap between "informed enough about WOTC to want to avoid buying their products", "Specifically wants to play 5th edition d&d", and "has never played a ttrpg before". I'm not saying nobody but WOTC should make starter sets, just that it doesn't make sense for...

I highly doubt anyone is going to get into ToV as their first RPG. It was designed specifically to poach the existing 5e fanbase. Maybe KP is more optimistic about it than I am.

I'm not sure who this product is made for? Starter sets exist to onboard and teach new players+gms your game in a more approachable format. Anyone getting into Tales of the Valiant has played 5e, and ToV is basically the same game.

I don't think LFOSR is taking new orders. Everything on their shop has been marked as "sold out" for a long time. He basically dropped out of contact with everyone he was collabing with. I don't know of any projects in the past 2 years he was involved in.

Errant will have you covered. Can't get much more unreliable than the Zealot, who has a non-trivial chance of either instantly killing themselves they use a spell, or their target if they try to heal them. It wouldn't be a bad choice in Errant to try to heal your enemies and hope they randomly...

Shinobigami was originally slated to come out in 2016. The first volume eventually was released in 2020. However, for those like me who bought the Special Edition, which combines both the core and supplement volumes, we've received nothing. Double painful in my case since I added Tenra Bansho...

The new Hardcover version of Monster of the Week. Cypher System Rulebook Scum and Villainy Some that get close: OSE: Classic Fantasy. Missing some of the guidance + rules additions from the CC zines that make the game actually function (EX: functional encumbrance rules) Electric Bastionland...

Squarehex sells the physical zines.

Me critiquing 5th Edition D&D: "Man, ThAC0 is really confusing and I'm not really a fan of the thief class."

biggest hazards is that giving your PCs more choices to consider means longer turns and sloggier combats.

Natural Language as a design goal is dead in 2024.

Given enough time, any discussion about d&d 2024 will inevitably become about the stealth rules. Can't we just wait for the sage advice/errata to drop? There's no point in arguing which interpretation of the rules is correct until then.

Yep! Originally Shove and Grapple were just two examples of a limitless number of Contests the GM could call for. Now Shove and Grapple are codified actions and Contests are gone.

Other system stuff being redesigned/removed while I'm at it: The new edition removed the rules for contested rolls and improvising contests. Terrible decision.

You could always do this.

Exactly. Group checks as written in 2014 were one of the better designed features of the edition. Not only are group checks now relegated to a random page in the new DMG, but they're redesigned to strip away their entire purpose.

I see this new rule zero definition as part of the general trend of dnd2024 taking power away from GMs and putting more power in "The Rulebook". Rather than indicating that the rules are the GM's to change as they see it, the rules are a far more the expected baseline and changing them is...