D&D 5E 5E Survivor - 5th Edition Survives! [+]

[TheSword]

A pity that 5E won, or even ranked high.
It removed pretty much anything not hack&slash related in its quest to become as accessible as possible after 4E nearly killed D&D, meaning that D&D will for the foreseeable future remain a RPG only focused on murdering things (see recent threads about killing in D&D) instead evolving into something more.

I’m interested in what people think. Can it be more?

D&D 5E - [+] How can 5e best handle role playing outside of combat?

The title is pretty self explanatory. [edit: Not that self explanatory so I’ve added in ‘best’ to direct us to find ways to handle roleplaying outside combat.] The thread is prompted by a poster in the Survivor Edition Thread who said it couldn’t handle situations outside of tactical combat. I...

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[Islayre d'Argolh]

In my perfect scenario, the final would have been between BD&D (B/X) and 5e.
The best of TSR vs the best of WotC.

 

[Lycurgon]

A pity that 5E won, or even ranked high.
It removed pretty much anything not hack&slash related in its quest to become as accessible as possible after 4E nearly killed D&D, meaning that D&D will for the foreseeable future remain a RPG only focused on murdering things (see recent threads about killing in D&D) instead evolving into something more.

Please let me know what elements were removed that are needed for anything other than Hack & Slash that are present in other editions but not in 5e? I don't understand why anyone thinks 5e is incapable of any other style. What makes it only good for murdering things?

 

[Echohawk]

It removed pretty much anything not hack&slash related in its quest to become as accessible as possible after 4E nearly killed D&D, meaning that D&D will for the foreseeable future remain a RPG only focused on murdering things (see recent threads about killing in D&D) instead evolving into something more.

Didn't we just get a 5e adventure (Witchlight) that can be played through without combat? Doesn't that represent an evolution not just for 5e, but for D&D as a whole? Offhand, I can't think of any adventures from earlier editions for which it was feasible to play through without combat.

 

[CleverNickName]

I know the "contest" is officially over, but don't forget that this is still a positive-only thread. Don't take this thread to dark places.

 

[Cadence]

I loved the simplicity of B/X, how easy I found it to make up new things (class tweaks, new races, spell lists, etc...) to world build in 2e, the options for character customization in PF, and that 5e feels like it's trying to capture what D&D has been in a big tent way

 

[Ixal]

Sorry, I was too negative in my post. Still, not really a fan that 5E is seen as "the best" D&D version as I see it as a regression instead of a evolution (which continues to devolve by removing ASI etc.). Why is explained in the thread TheSword opened.

 

[ccooke]

Sorry, I was too negative in my post. Still, not really a fan that 5E is seen as "the best" D&D version as I see it as a regression instead of a evolution (which continues to devolve by removing ASI etc.). Why is explained in the thread TheSword opened.

Look, you can't take the result of this thread as any sort of endorsement about anything. This is a bit of fun with a group of people who have different opinions. The winner is determined by chance (when people are online, how many of them vote for amusement and how many for tactics, etc) as much as anything else. What's more, it is all about what people prefer Subjectively.

5e is my favourite edition and I will happily argue that it deserves a good reputation. But it is not without faults, and many of them were obvious from day one. In my very subjective opinion, the good far outweighs the bad but there is no world in which that would be true for everyone.

Honestly, I don't think we can even have a good discussion about what is the objectively best D&D. There is no such thing without a massive set of caveats to decide what "objective best" actually means, and I don't believe that any statistically significant sample of this or pretty much any other fan community would ever be able to agree on such a thing. Even if we could, it would be very difficult to have such a discussion and keep it positive. There are a lot of (quite reasonable) sore spots and triggers that would make such a thing very difficult. Frankly I'm very pleasantly surprised with how this thread has gone.

 

[Musing Mage]

Le Sigh... I'd hoped that one of the Old School systems would emerge on top.

But still, I do have to give props to 5th Edition for a few things that I truly appreciate.

It has revolutionized and mainstreamed the main hobby that has been my favourite since I was 13. As an awkward teen, and later an awkward 20-something I basically kept my involvement largely under wraps except from fellows who also played. Meeting a woman for a date, and biting my tongue when she asked what I liked to do for fun... (oh boy, would I like to knock some sense into my younger self...). But now, it's almost the opposite. I talk to people about it and they're like 'oh wow, I've always wanted to try it....'

While I do prefer 1st Edition as a system overall, that's a taste that comes from both experience and the patience to mine through the mess of the rules to find the veins of gold within... but 5e has a largely intuitive presentation that is very easy to grasp. It's not perfect of course, but no system is. 5th Edition is very accessible and that is an extremely worthy accomplishment.

So, thanks @CleverNickName for a fun little dip into the Edition War!

 

[Maxperson]

A pity that 5E won, or even ranked high.
It removed pretty much anything not hack&slash related in its quest to become as accessible as possible after 4E nearly killed D&D, meaning that D&D will for the foreseeable future remain a RPG only focused on murdering things (see recent threads about killing in D&D) instead evolving into something more.

I suppose by that you mean that 5e is the edition that most supports roleplaying. The merit, bond, flaw, etc. system and inspiration system support roleplaying, where 1e-3e failed to support it at all. Not that you couldn't roleplay in those editions. It's really easy to roleplay in any edition of D&D, but 5e is the first edition that I know of(didn't play 4e) that actively supports roleplaying.