D&D 5E A Post-Edition World

[Mistwell]

It wasn't until 3e that the editions really emphasized edition anyway (though B/X did make their distinction clear, the rest was all AD&D). And even then, there was little emphasis on 3.5 vs 3 (even though there were compatibility issues).

 

[ad_hoc]

I think it just makes sense.

If I'm interested in D&D and I want to get into it, I don't want to see the "5th edition starter set" and then have to go do research about which edition it is I should be buying.

I just want to buy D&D.

5e wasn't created to be a flavour of D&D. It was created to be D&D.

 

[Azzy]

It wasn't until 3e that the editions really emphasized edition anyway (though B/X did make their distinction clear, the rest was all AD&D). And even then, there was little emphasis on 3.5 vs 3 (even though there were compatibility issues).

 

[Mistwell]

Yes some things had the indicator but many did not.

 

[dave2008]

It wasn't until 3e that the editions really emphasized edition anyway (though B/X did make their distinction clear, the rest was all AD&D). And even then, there was little emphasis on 3.5 vs 3 (even though there were compatibility issues).

Personally I feel like it was 2nd edition that started it. I know it felt like it was front and center to me:

 

[Azzy]

Yes some things had the indicator but many did not.

More like everything up to the change of trade dress that accompanied the revised core books.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I discovered D&D as TTRPG and not only as a cartoon show in the beginning of 90s, near 92-93. Internet age hasn't started yet. I have got a special feeling with 2n Ed, because I like more the system of 3rd Ed but I feel something special when I remember the time I discovered D&D, it was new, and lots of ideas about adventures sourced from my imagination. It is like that retro or vintage videogames you know they are old now, but you still like them because you remember those past fun times.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I'm curious about how this decision to downplay the fact that "this is the fifth edition of this game" was reached by the marketing wonks at WotC.

Well, in one sense, it's a sympathetic-magic/denial way of avoiding edition warring, which went so badly for the last edition. It could be about unifying brand identity. It could signal an unwillingness to ever attempt to improve the game again (also understandable after the edition war). It could be to emphasize D&D as the same game as the fad years, in some sense, as 5e would point out that there were (at least) three editions between it and the historic fad.

Personally I feel like it was 2nd edition that started it. I know it felt like it was front and center to me.

...another factor is that highlighting the fact a product has iterated like that is like saying "new & improved!"
5e certainly is not trying to be either.

 

[Arnwolf666]

One of the benefits call of Cthulhu has it that each edition is similar enough that you can easily use an adventure made in one edition in another.