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Maybe I am smarter than the average bear but I pretty much as a teenager started DMing with 1e. I played briefly in a basic set campaign for all of two or three sessions max. Then someone told me about AD&D and I was playing that game. I remember being out of money and still needing the...

There are many third party options. I find you need 10 books though to get 1 book of really useful stuff.

Some interesting ideas. I'm anti-surges in general but here is an idea I've been toying with... At each level assign a healing HD (or HDs plural), this number will go up as people level up. Then have cure light wounds heal 1 x the HD of the PC being healed. Have cure serious wounds heal 2 x...

But your examples are just wrong. I play D&D. 5e is a VERSION of D&D. I've played D&D for a very long time. And the retroclones and lookalikes are also a form of D&D. So I'm very much in the middle of roleplaying in the D&D way. So D&D is like the NFL. 5e 2024 is like the new kickoff...

Maybe what we need are two books. One can be about table management and getting new DMs started. The second would be about serious world building, weather, city design, npc design, tons of random tables, etc etc etc. There is probably a market for both.

I think the real analogy would be a person who is a long term NFL fan from the 70's who is asked what he thinks of the new kickoff rules. He's not seen them "in play" but he might still have an opinion having just read the rule. That is what is happening here. Edit: And that is a real world...

Well I agree that criticisms should be focused. I think a one of comment saying "I wouldn't use that" is no big deal. I think we've already beaten this horse badly in my opinion. And I do think when I criticize 5e, when I do, I do target something specific. I don't know that I criticize it...

But when it comes to D&D and the DMG, don't you think you can look at some things and just say no? I've read many DMG's over the years picking and choosing what I liked without trying every suggestion. Some just seemed bad to me.

I liked the structural approach of 4e's monster manual. I may not have liked the choices within that system but a system is a good idea. I have not seen the 5e monster manual. I liked the rechargeable powers where you diced to determine if they are back or not. I do though like monsters...

I'm sure I'm one of the three probably. I do like to discuss game design. So when a new edition comes out of ANYTHING not just D&D, I find it interesting to discuss the pros and cons of various design decisions. I'm definitely not trying to keep anyone from playing 5e or any edition of D&D...

I think we are mostly arguing meanings of words here so I don't see carrying this line of discussion further. I would have argued that ad hoc means you can do anything you want not that you have to do anything you want. So ad hoc and some pre-canned reusable ideas. I got it. To me, this was...

I don't know how this thread even got started or what the real argument is about but I do not think it is a herculean task to balance a game as DM that is not balanced at the beginning. I guess if you make the imbalance far greater than any edition of D&D has ever had then yeah you can take it...

It's a strange world were you have to pay for something before having an opinion about it. If you read a bunch of reviews, can you have an opinion. There have been videos on here where people talk about the book and what is in it. To be honest, I think most DMs don't need any DM's guide...

I haven't read it either but I think from the vast number of threads we could at least infer a lot of information about it. Do we really have to buy it to make any comment about it? Should he have said, "based on what I've heard and read, I don't believe it will be a book I will use very...

I think I need to write a book for DMs that teaches them the old ways of running games and how to adapt various versions of D&D to that approach.

It hurts my soul to agree with NeonChameleon but I have ran a lot of campaigns with pantheons vs individual gods. Clerics still favor one deity but they are welcome and considered priests of the pantheon. Unlike say ancient Rome or Greece, I don't have as wide a spread of alignments in a...

I didn't watch the cartoon either. Watching people play D&D isn't my thing. I'm not against it and maybe if I wanted to learn a new game it would be worth a watch. My time is more precious at the moment due to non-game related duties so there is that too.

I'm a B2 fan because it was my first and it's a sandbox.

It's not preprogramming. The players can do anything and the DM adjudicates it. He can though have a sandbox, with lots of prepared random encounters that add to the story of the sandbox. He can have a variety of adventures and subplots going on in the world. If you have a rich sandbox, with...

You obviously don't know me. I am a very long running DM from the 80's who many successful campaigns of my playstyle under my belt. I could run as many games as my tired mind could run if I wanted. I'm not talking about minor improvisations within a a structure. We are talking about a DM...