D&D 5E 2024 D&D is 2014 D&D with 4E sprinkled on top

[Scribe]

This is also strange to me because this is also how OSE reads, and OSE gets praised for its presentation. However, the presentation is pretty technical, reading like a manual, with a lot of similarity with 4e D&D IMHO. Likewise even Shadowdark is pretty sparse.

It is sparse, and clean for sure. I dont know if its just where I was in my life, or where I was coming from the 3/3.5/PF1, or if it was the colors vs the gritty/rough looking line art of Shadowdark (this plays a huge part for me honestly) or just all the options for a class and powers and so on vs "your class is one page" of Shadowdark.

I dont know, but even a year or so ago when I last looked at a 4e book, I just recoiled. The way its presented just doesnt jive for me.

 

[Aldarc]

It is sparse, and clean for sure. I dont know if its just where I was in my life, or where I was coming from the 3/3.5/PF1, or if it was the colors vs the gritty/rough looking line art of Shadowdark (this plays a huge part for me honestly) or just all the options for a class and powers and so on vs "your class is one page" of Shadowdark.

I dont know, but even a year or so ago when I last looked at a 4e book, I just recoiled. The way its presented just doesnt jive for me.

If the presentation didn't work for you, then it didn't work for you.

 

[mamba]

Because "make the game appeal to WoW fans who know nothing of D&D" was, quite literally, one of the most common criticisms of 4e, and to this day, people still slander it as "an MMO on paper" and other such nonsense.

ah, I thought you meant it takes cognitive dissonance from the designers

 

[Micah Sweet]

Nah, the look wasn’t the problem, it was something about the text. I just couldn’t understand how the game was intended to be played. A problem I didn’t have with the 1st edition AD&D books when I was 12. I picked them up and saw immediately how the game worked. And that was just plain text with the occasional line drawing.

The presentation was definitely a problem, my biggest issue ultimately wS that I'm just not a fan of games so clearly (to me) designed to be mechanics first. After a year of running that way I had to quit.