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

[Parmandur]

Yeah. I agree that Tomb of Annihilation is pretty good, once you get away from the Death Curse plot - which punishes players with a timer that goes against the fun of exploring Chult and experiencing the setting. (On my 3rd run of that campaign, I'm going to change that part.)

Easy enough just to turn it off, and make it a treasure motivated hexcrawl.

 

[Retreater]

If you want PC mechanics, of course Xanathar's will be your go-to. If you don't want adventures, then Heist, Mad Mage and Saltmarsh will be meh. Doubly so for campaign settings like Ravnica or Eberron.

Whether you are excited or meh about the last several 5E releases comes down to "Do I want a PC mechanics focused book?" And if this answer is yes, then you have probably a three year wait following Xanathar's until you get something you actually want.

I don't think I'm necessarily hard to please. Monster books, crunch, and adventure books. I just don't want parody content, campaign settings (I use my own).
If we got more than around 2 adventure books a year, I guess I could afford to be a little more selective to find something that aligns with my tastes?

 

[5ekyu]

Dragon Heist (no interest in that) - i was very interested in it and liked their approach
Ravnica (the MtG setting - blah) I was not interested in it but ended up being Ok with it.
Dungeon of the Mad Mage (ho-hum) I was medium and ended up about the same.
Stranger Things Starter (no interest) love the show, no interest in the product but understood why it was done. it did not target me but was still smart.
Saltmarsh (reprint - only mildly interested in that) - was interested and like it a lot.
Acquisitions Inc (a parody setting book) - mild interest and got more from it than i thought thats generally applicable beyond its "parody"
Starter Set. Not for me but still good idea.

So, in general, no, i do not share the OP views on recent products.

 

[Parmandur]

The Essentials Set, incidentally, is freaking fantastic.

 

[Azzy]

I dunno, TotYP, ToA, and Saltmarsh are the only adventures I've actually been interested in. I still need to pick up Mordenkainen's, and the Eberron book has me particularly excited. To each their own.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't think I'm necessarily hard to please. Monster books, crunch, and adventure books. I just don't want parody content, campaign settings (I use my own).
If we got more than around 2 adventure books a year, I guess I could afford to be a little more selective to find something that aligns with my tastes?

Ravnica & Eberron, incidentally, are player crunch, adventure and monster books: Ravnica has a toooon of stat blocks, and Eberron likely will, too.

 

[Retreater]

The Essentials Set, incidentally, is freaking fantastic.

I'm glad. But as person who's been playing 5e D&D since its release, I don't need anything in it. While it might be great for new players, how many starter sets do they need to publish every year?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I'd say that the only books that left me cold were the Acquisitions Inc and Rick & Morty announcements. Other than that, I've been super going-to-the-FLGS-on-my-lunch-break-the-day-of-the-release excited for all of it.

Even the stuff I haven't used yet (like some of the modules) still has the potential to inspire me. I'm likely not going to run Eberron, but I'm eagerly looking forward to pillaging it for content for my homebrew, which has a lot of magitech stuff in it already.

 

[Retreater]

Ravnica & Eberron, incidentally, are player crunch, adventure and monster books: Ravnica has a toooon of stat blocks, and Eberron likely will, too.

Yes, but it's like our local sushi place that made the "local roll": rice with bbq pulled pork on the top, slathered with lukewarm nacho cheese and sprinkled with imitation bacon bits.
You gotta go through a lot of odd flavors to get to the stuff you want.

 

[BigBadDM]

I think one thing to keep in mind here is not everything being published is by the Wizards team.
The starter boxes (and all the incarnations) are done by Hasbro.
I am pretty sure Acquistions Inc and Rick & Morty are the same (don't quote me on that one).

The Wizards team really just do two products a year. One Adventure on Splatbook of some kind (setting/rules/etc).

The marketing for the Hasbro products are different, they want to get more people playing (hence all the starter sets).