D&D 5E 5E without WotC [+]

[Oofta]

Sounds awesome!

If someone rolls a 1 you kick them into a pit?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Interesting. I see WotC evolving in similar direction as LevelUp, even if they are getting there a bit differently.

WotC is focusing their attention on designing for new and casual players, eschewing depth in favor of simplicity and vibes. As a veteran and hardcore player who loves depth (lore and mechanics) and can generate their own vibes, WotC has nothing I want (except the IP they own, but they're never going to do what I want with it).

 

[Micah Sweet]

I am unclear if @Reynard is willing to use material from the Guild or not. WotC gets a cut of that, so I am not sure on there stance. Though as someone else mentioned (and so has WotC), you can get all the lore you want about Sigil and Planescape on wikis

Yeah, I don't know. What I do know is that people on the Guild make better stuff than WotC does for what I want to spend money on.

 

[paradisebunny]

I've been thinking about Foundry a lot lately. Both of the games I'm most interested in use it as their favored VTT.

Can anyone recommend it?

its great if: your players love tactical combat, you have time to play with all the bells and whistles, you are comfortable leaving fog exploration to players and you stay within one supported system. The convenience of having stat blocks and spells etc right under your mouse cursor is great. It is not so great if you want to use a monster that is not in there, if you want to tune a spell etc. If you have the time its fun. And a computer that can run it smoothly for everyone. I got annoyed by the graphics card usage and my fan constantly being on even on a static picture. Also not great if your players go of on their own direction, quickly setting up a scene on the fly is not viable. For me the dealbreaker was the fog thing, it basically changes the whole experience into a board game, the pause function only helps you so much, you basically lose the control over the pacing.

 

[Pedantic]

I am quite fond of Chamomile's content for base 5e expansion. He has a variety of new classes, and his "Traveler's Guide to X" series of books packages a list of suggested party compositions, often with new archetypes/classes for a themed campaign around each of the regions he details, in addition to a bunch of setting content, a region appropriate bestiary, assorted elite and boss encounters and any new subsystems appropriate to encounters in the region. Any one of those books would be sufficient to launch a 5e campaign.

 

[dave2008]

Yeah, I don't know. What I do know is that people on the Guild make better stuff than WotC does for what I want to spend money on.

IDK, Guild stuff is very mixed. I have purchased a lot of it, but used very little. There is some good stuff too, but the vast majority of it is very mediocre IMO. I still recommend it to people, but you have to do your homework.

I also had someone steal my work on EnWorld for a Guild product too!

 

[paradisebunny]

This is a layered question with multiple aspects to it that all deserve their own discussions, e.g. how to communicate with players and providing them with the content in a way that can compete with the comfort of dndbeyond will maintaining clear choices; convincing players to try something new, etc.

I think the most important skill in this context is one that the DM can learn and manage behind the screen, without much knowledge of what mechanics are actually changing under the hood. E.g. learn to convert material from other editions or RPGs, it is really not difficult and solves the entire problem of being beholden to WOTC. I've ran DCC modules, adapted Cthulhu adventures etc pp. it is much much easier than you think to do and the players will never know. In terms of mechanics, just provide some sort of campaign sheet where you list all optional rules or homebrew rules that you intend to use, no need to call this Level Up, Black Flag or whatever. It is all just slightly different compilations of rules, doesn't really matter to the players what your starting point is.

I think we are in a very good spot to play this game for a long time without any direct ramifications of what one specific publisher might do.

to add to this earlier statement of mine, I think the big difference to players is the access to different character options and how willing they are to engage a new set of options. I know some players are excited by this, others will be daunted or just to lazy.

 

[dave2008]

WotC is focusing their attention on designing for new and casual players, eschewing depth in favor of simplicity and vibes. As a veteran and hardcore player who loves depth (lore and mechanics) and can generate their own vibes, WotC has nothing I want (except the IP they own, but they're never going to do what I want with it).

Everything I am seeing is them pushing more in depth with lore and mechanics. It might not be as deep or the lore you want. But IMO that is the direction they are evolving.

 

[Micah Sweet]

IDK, Guild stuff is very mixed. I have purchased a lot of it, but used very little. There is some good stuff too, but the vast majority of it is very mediocre IMO. I still recommend it to people, but you have to do your homework.

I also had someone steal my work on EnWorld for Guild product too!

I'm very sorry about that!

You do have to do your homework, but I always do that before I buy something anyway.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Everything I am seeing is them pushing more in depth with lore and mechanics. It might not be as deep or the lore you want. But IMO that is the direction they are evolving.

I really don't see it. LU does much better monsters, all their classes are more interesting to me (especially the martials), they actually have exploration rules that are worth using and not immediately ignorable by PC abilities, and their origin system is miles ahead of anything WotC has ever produced. I could go on and on.