D&D 5E Anyone else feeling "meh" about recent 5e releases?

[The Glen]

I would love more variety in the settings. I was hoping Greyhawk would open up with Saltmarsh like Ravenloft did with Strahd, I'm quite tired of the FR. We get Ravnica instead of the superior Planescape which would have also tied in with the new adventure fantastically. Even if they aren't planning on doing things for the older settings, at least open them up in the Guild so the people that do want to return to them can.

 

[Parmandur]

Saltmarsh, Ravnica, and Mordekainen's are 5E's best books to date.

I know how cheezy it sounds, and I know they are all flawed in ways...but I haven't been let down on a personal level by any WotC 5E products, and they are only getting bolder and more creative over time.

 

[MockingBird]

I dunno, I've been pretty pleased with what's come out for the most part. Still in the process of collecting all the adventures. When ToA was announced I brushed it off. I bought it anyways and was pleasantly surprised with it. We are halfway through it and it's been a blast (slightly modified of course). TftYP is decent but they really stepped it up with Saltmarsh, definitely worth the price considering what you get in the book. CoS has been a pleasure to read, cant wait to run it at some point. Xanathars, Volos, and Tome of Foes IMO are really great. Still have Dragon Heist l, DoMM, SKT, PoTA, and the Elemental Evil books are still on my list. I'll probably pass on Eberron and Ravnica. Definitely pass on AcqInc. IMO I feel wizards has done a great job. I agree with the sentiment that the next compilation book will be even better than the last two.

 

[Zardnaar]

Might be AP fatigue. Samething happened with Pathfinder.

By that I mean the adventure for the most part are fairly decent 3.5/5 or 4/5 efforts.

Then you realise you're probably not completing most of them and/ you complete one a year.

New ones are fine but they're not 5/5 or 4.5/5 exciting.

And if you've been doing it for 5 years or even 17 if it over laps with the old Paizo ones.

I stopped DMing for a year or so, there was other stuff going on as well so maybe 3 to 6 months is an idea.

Another option is to look away from WoTC stuff and look for shorter adventures in the 8/16/32 page type range.

IDK how many it took for me but probably 5 or 6 APs to get sick of them.

AP fatigue may not apply to you.

 

[Mercurius]

Here's another explanation or factor:

Should be self-explanatory, but that's the release schedule of all 5E books and box sets, categorized by basic type of product. We can quibble with details, but I did this quickly because I thought it was relevant: the rate at which different types of products are being published.

The main thing to note, that is relevant to the OP's sentiment, is that there hasn't been much by the way of new DM, Players and Monsters books - those would be the traditional "splats" - since Mordenkainen's came out, over 15 months ago in May, 2018 (Even though I categorized the two box sets as DM products, they aren't offering anything new so don't really count). The focus has been on, and will continue to be on through the end of the year, Adventures and Setting books.

Presumably this means that there won't be a new splat until the 1st quarter of 2020 at the earliest; given the fact that Curse of Strahd is the only 1st quarter release in six years, it is more likely 2nd quarter - which means about two years between splat books.

So it may be that the OP either consciously or subconsciously is being influenced by this.

I'm not making a judgement either way--whether towards the OP or WotC--but I do think this is worthy of mention. I think it also implies that, given that WotC is very conscious of the frequency of types of products they publish, we'll almost certainly see a significant splat book come 2nd quarter of 2020.

 

[Parmandur]

Here's another explanation or factor:

View attachment 113587

Should be self-explanatory, but that's the release schedule of all 5E books and box sets, categorized by basic type of product. We can quibble with details, but I did this quickly because I thought it was relevant: the rate at which different types of products are being published.

The main thing to note, that is relevant to the OP's sentiment, is that there hasn't been much by the way of new DM, Players and Monsters books - those would be the traditional "splats" - since Mordenkainen's came out, over 15 months ago in May, 2018 (Even though I categorized the two box sets as DM products, they aren't offering anything new so don't really count). The focus has been on, and will continue to be on through the end of the year, Adventures and Setting books.

Presumably this means that there won't be a new splat until the 1st quarter of 2020 at the earliest; given the fact that Curse of Strahd is the only 1st quarter release in six years, it is more likely 2nd quarter - which means about two years between splat books.

So it may be that the OP either consciously or subconsciously is being influenced by this.

I'm not making a judgement either way--whether towards the OP or WotC--but I do think this is worthy of mention. I think it also implies that, given that WotC is very conscious of the frequency of types of products they publish, we'll almost certainly see a significant splat book come 2nd quarter of 2020.

Interesting table, bit I will quible with the premise that Ravnica and Eberron are essentially different from Volo's & Mordenkainen's: Ravnica had just about as many Monster stat blocks as MToF, and Eberron has the first new Class (and likely a boat load of monsters).

A more hypothetical quible, I think WotC is moving towards 4 hardcovers a year, per Nate Stewart saying they felt four was a good number but needed to work on the spacing (at the time he waffles about whether to say there would be a fourth book this year, in retrospect it seems he was facilitating on catagorizing Acq Inc as a "fourth book" for 2019).

The most logical spacing would be quarterly releases: of they do have a Q1 release, a Volo's/Mordenkainen's style book seems plausible, which discounting the Setting books would be a similar gap between the MM and Volo's.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Interesting table, bit I will quible with the premise that Ravnica and Eberron are essentially different from Volo's & Mordenkainen's

Yes, I was thinking this. The Ravnica, Eberron and Sword Coast books contain pretty much the same kind of content as Xanathar's: new subclasses, player races etc.

And Dragonheist and ToA are as much setting books as they are adventures. GoS is a proto-Greyhawk book.

I don't start from the premise that I am going to buy everything though. Even if I had the money, I don't have the time to make use of much of the stuff that is put out.

 

[Mercurius]

Interesting table, bit I will quible with the premise that Ravnica and Eberron are essentially different from Volo's & Mordenkainen's: Ravnica had just about as many Monster stat blocks as MToF, and Eberron has the first new Class (and likely a boat load of monsters).

A more hypothetical quible, I think WotC is moving towards 4 hardcovers a year, per Nate Stewart saying they felt four was a good number but needed to work on the spacing (at the time he waffles about whether to say there would be a fourth book this year, in retrospect it seems he was facilitating on catagorizing Acq Inc as a "fourth book" for 2019).

The most logical spacing would be quarterly releases: of they do have a Q1 release, a Volo's/Mordenkainen's style book seems plausible, which discounting the Setting books would be a similar gap between the MM and Volo's.

Yeah, many of the books are hybrids; I categorized them based on their primary purpose - Volo's and Mordenkainen's were primarily bestiaries, secondarily fluff setting books; Ravnica (and presumably Eberron) are primarily setting books, secondarily splats/monster books. But one of the design goals of 5E has been pretty consistent: no book is just one thing.

That spacing makes sense. On one hand it would make sense to do two Adventure books, split by a splat and a setting book on either side (so Adv-Splat-Adv-Setting), but I'm not sure it will be so formulaic and more specific to the actual releases. We might see no book until April, then one two months later in June, again in August, and the fourth in November, making the release schedule within a nine-month span of the 12 months. So it is almost like in sports, there is an "offseason."

But who knows.

 

[Jer]

I dunno- everything about 5e has been for lack of a better word "meh" for me since it was released. It's a very unexciting "back to basics" edition with little to get angry about but also little to get very excited about. It very much is a game for me where the excitement comes only from playing it at the table with the right mix of people and not really from the products or the game itself away from the table - makes it hard to DM for me because 5e requires 2e levels of prep for me to run but often feels like a chore to do that prep instead of fun.

 

[Retreater]

What I'm concerned about is 2020 will be entering the 7th year of product for 5e. There are still notable gaps in content (psionics, high level adventures, to name two).
Granted WotC's publishing schedule is different this time around, but by 7 years 4e was done, 3.x was almost done, and 2e was in its twilight years.
If the game is supposedly stronger now than ever, why the glacial pace?