D&D 5E Advanced 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons!

[doctorbadwolf]

I never like to ignore any facts, but everything I recall having seen contradicts that idea. By the end of 4e we were completely out of D&D and the local stores stopped carrying the books entirely. The playtest made some minor waves in the local stores (not for us), but when 5e was released everything changed. Not only are the local game stores carrying the books in prime locations and making money on them, but so are regular book stores.

As to new players, I have seen TONS of completely new-to-ttrpg players come into the game in the last couple years. There are obviously many reasons including new media like Tabletop's Titangrave, Fiasco, and other RPGs but even relatively savvy (for new to the hobby people) are choosing D&D, even if it wasn't what they were first exposed to. On several occasions I have heard from people working with or at Wotc say that demographics have shifted much younger but I have yet to see anything resembling data.

4e had a ton of players, so far as I can tell, compared to anything other than right now, or the "golden years".

Encounters was a big thing, also.

And the whole "nerds are cool" thing has more to do with the rise of DnD than any Edition, imo. That took off during 4e, and has continued, but has rarely had any remote mention of newer DnD products.

Also, not to beat a dead horse, but the DDI sub numbers before the playtest was announced were pretty big, which is a good indicator.

 

[Lanliss]

I thought it was +1d6? How could I have gotten that mixed up with 'Inspiration?'

There is "Bardic Inspiration", and "Inspiration".

Bardic is on page 53 of PHB. Inspiration is on page 125 of PHB.

 

[happyhermit]

4e had a ton of players, so far as I can tell, compared to anything other than right now, or the "golden years".

Encounters was a big thing, also.

And the whole "nerds are cool" thing has more to do with the rise of DnD than any Edition, imo. That took off during 4e, and has continued, but has rarely had any remote mention of newer DnD products.

Also, not to beat a dead horse, but the DDI sub numbers before the playtest was announced were pretty big, which is a good indicator.

I am fairly certain that there were less players of 4e than 3e, though I agree it is hard to measure and don't want to get into unconfirmable hypothesis about DDI subscriber numbers and what they mean. I am sure we can at least agree the books weren't selling amazingly well.

What I was mostly referring to though, was the upward trend you mentioned at the end of 4e, that is counter to what I saw. 4e seemed to be doing fairly well at first, which is part of why I thought I should give Wotc another shot after not being enthralled with 3.x (to say the least). A few years later though and it seemed like nobody was playing it and local stores no longer even had a D&D section. Maybe it was things like DDI replacing stores but the overall result was the fact that D&D 4e seemed almost invisible compared to 3.x, Pathfinder, and especially 5e. A podcast or two that I still listen to were about the only 4e I really saw in the last years and I hung out in the same real and virtual places more or less.

 

[ccs]

Your points about looking things up only work for experienced DMs. You know this edition has tons of new DMs, right?

[/I]

Well, I guess these new DMs can just do it the tried & true way....
1) READ the books to start with. That'll get you the "Yeah, I saw a rule for that in there. It was around _____".
2) Look in the table of contents.
3) Look in the index.

After that (actually probably before any of that): Google it.

And if you've got something you need to keep looking up/find quickly? Along time ago some genius invented these little colored sticky tabs that you can bookmark pages with! Sticks right to the page & can be removed without causing damage.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well, I guess these new DMs can just do it the tried & true way....
1) READ the books to start with. That'll get you the "Yeah, I saw a rule for that in there. It was around _____".
2) Look in the table of contents.
3) Look in the index.

After that (actually probably before any of that): Google it.

And if you've got something you need to keep looking up/find quickly? Along time ago some genius invented these little colored sticky tabs that you can bookmark pages with! Sticks right to the page & can be removed without causing damage.

I mean, sure, there are fixes. That does t change that the books should have been written with better referencing in mind.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I mean, sure, there are fixes. That does t change that the books should have been written with better referencing in mind.

OK how about this: if you can't find the rule, you can't argue about it?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

OK how about this: if you can't find the rule, you can't argue about it?

Yeah...I'm just gonna walk away from that one!

 

[Ath'kethin]

The part I don't want to bother with is handing it out. I'm supposed to remember everyone's specific Bond/Flaw/whatever, when I can't ever remember what they're all called most of the time, and judge their acting based on it? No. Just no. And the alternative is to have players 'helping' by whining for inspiration all the time. No. Just on.

At a local AL game I played in for a while, the guy who ran it just gave everybody one inspiration point each session, use it or lose it. A simple, elegant solution to every issue you cite. It's a single reroll, and it doesn't hurt or break anything.

Since I pilfered my players from that group, we just kept rolling with that idea. Our game is very RP centric anyways, but this way the sense of judgement and "am I a good enough actor" is removed.

 

[evil homer]

I'm thinking of treating inspiration like Savage World bennies, and then expanding the options of what you can do with by cribbing from the original Eberron action points list. I hand out poker chips for inspiration and bennies that way I see them, the player sees them, and then keep a stack on the table in front of me so I remember to hand them out.

 

[Li Shenron]

Since I have already wrote in the other thread my feelings on a 5.5e update, I'd rather focus here on the concept of Advanced 5e D&D, which is supposed to be on top of standard 5e, and not invalidate it.

First of all, I don't think a whole Advanced blanket would be the best, but instead a large set of modular rules addition a-la-carte, so that the transition from playing Standard 5e to Advanced 5e is not blunt. One or two modules, and you can still say you're playing Standard 5e, a few more and it's already your own Advanced 5e of choice, but no need to use every available module. Modular additions anyway are more fitting the spirit of the whole 5e edition.

The you can pretty much put everything you can think of on the menu, except for Psionics because in my opinion that's more like a sideways addition, and as such I would say that you can play Basic + Psionics, Standard + Psionics or Advanced + Psionics. Same goes for character material, it expands the game in a quantitative direction but doesn't exactly make it "advanced".

So on the top of my head, such Advanced D&D 5e could include for example (not counting optional rules already in the DMG, which are also potentially "advanced" modules):

- detailed craft rules (mundane and magic)
- expanded downtime rules
- turn-based exploration rules (like in the playtest)
- social encounter rules
- mass combat rules
- stronghold/domain management rules
- creatures templates
- monster classes
- weapon and spell speeds
- advanced armor rules (e.g. weapon vs armor tables)
- additional environment rules