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

[Parmandur]

It sure would be, if earlier 5e releases hadn't regularly disappointed in various ways. I'm also a bit surprised to Tiamat making a come back already in Descent...

It' been five years. Five years after Keep on the Shadowfell was released, 4E was out of print.

 

[robus]

Hundreds of groups playing through them, apparently.

Apparently, would be fascinating to see some of the reports. But perhaps they're just using the adventures as setting guides as is often recommended on these boards and not actually trying to follow the convoluted logic of the plots?

 

[darjr]

I loved the first two adventure books. I ran the last chapter in a marathon session and drove those high level players within inches of a tpk. We had an audience late in the day and cheers went up when they came through triumphant.

 

[Parmandur]

Apparently, would be fascinating to see some of the reports. But perhaps they're just using the adventures as setting guides as is often recommended on these boards and not actually trying to follow the convoluted logic of the plots?

I remember on Dragon Talk last year Perkins went into some detail about the playtesting: a big part of his job was to read the hundreds of full reports by the playtest DMs, and adjust the books based on feedback.

I have begun to suspect that the oddity of the WotC adventure design is partly a response to what actually works for the table in practice, rather than working logically from first principles.

 

[robus]

It' been five years. Five years after Keep on the Shadowfell was released, 4E was out of print.

These adventures can take years to complete, so not that long if you just finished ToD (we finished it about a year ago, for example - admittedly slotting in the second half of SKT that extended it, but also dropped some of the talky-talky missions of RoT). Not angry, just surprised that big bads are being recycled (and adds to my "meh" feeling...)

 

[darjr]

@Parmandur I wish I could go into detail on this. Gah!

 

[Urriak Uruk]

These adventures can take years to complete, so not that long if you just finished ToD (we finished it about a year ago, for example - admittedly slotting in the second half of SKT that extended it, but also dropped some of the talky-talky missions of RoT). Not angry, just surprised that big bads are being recycled (and adds to my "meh" feeling...)

I don't think Tiamat has that big of a role in Avernus, it's really more her subordinates. And if you look at their art, I'm happy with the addition.

 

[robus]

I have begun to suspect that the oddity of the WotC adventure design is partly a response to what actually works for the table in practice, rather than working logically from first principles.

If anything I would think it would encourage them to keep it simple, but instead the convoluted plots and ex-machina devices (and, silly, jaeger endings [SKT and OotA], keep coming )

 

[Xenonnonex]

It sure would be, if earlier 5e releases hadn't regularly disappointed in various ways. I'm also a bit surprised to Tiamat making a come back already in Descent...

Earlier not later. A lot of the later 5e releases have been regularly stellar. And the newest releases look to knock expectations out of the park.

 

[robus]

I don't think Tiamat has that big of a role in Avernus, it's really more her subordinates. And if you look at their art, I'm happy with the addition.

Perhaps, I just saw a full page stat block for her though (bigger than the one in ToD if memory serves).