D&D 5E Are DMs getting lazy?

[KingsRule77]

Seen way too many fanboys on here talking about 5e and how awesome it is to take the bolded part above seriously, sorry.

I haven't seen any non-5e fan asking for more stuff.

That's funny because all I see is people griping about the 5e adventures/products. Maybe I'm wearing the wrong glasses.

 

[Shasarak]

This would be a valid point except that the work done by professionals is roundly derided by the people clamoring for work done by the same professionals.

They should make a meme about it. Maybe call it "Be careful what you ask for" or something like that.

 

[Nellisir]

But, he does have a point. Sure, it would be great to have more sources of inspiration and possible even sources that will directly reference D&D lore the way WOTC could, but, it's hardly necessary. I mean, I had a discussion here recently telling me that a new player could never know what an abbey was because it wasn't detailed in the DMG construction rules. I'm not saying you're going that far, but, there are those here who are apparently incapable of looking beyond the game books for any source of information.

I mean, if someone doesn't know what an abbey is, and cannot be bothered to take the 30 seconds to look it up on Wikipedia or in a dictionary, then I despair on the quality of any campaign developed by that DM. Which does roll back into the idea of DM's being lazy. Yup, it's nice to have books from WOTC, but, in the absence of those books, it shouldn't be too difficult to look for other sources.

<sigh>
You're shooting way the hell off into left field, at least regarding my comments. You're making arguments against positions I don't hold and never argued for. I'm honestly speechless.

 

[KingsRule77]

They should make a meme about it. Maybe call it "Be careful what you ask for" or something like that.

'Wants more stuff from WotC!'
'Hates things WotC makes'

 

[Eric V]

'Wants more stuff from WotC!'
'Hates things WotC makes'

WotC made the PHB, MM, and DMG.

They seem to be roundly praised.

 

[KingsRule77]

WotC made the PHB, MM, and DMG.

They seem to be roundly praised.

Hey you know what, you're right. Maybe that's it. Their core products are so good people are just slavering for more

 

[Nellisir]

WotC made the PHB, MM, and DMG.
They seem to be roundly praised.

The cynic in me wonders why people need them. There are other games. Maybe they should go to a game store once in a while. They're not necessary books. The Basic Rules are online and free.

And then I remember I don't really care, and go back to minding my own business.

 

[Hussar]

<sigh>
You're shooting way the hell off into left field, at least regarding my comments. You're making arguments against positions I don't hold and never argued for. I'm honestly speechless.

I'm not necessarily only speaking to your points but also to other points made in this thread. There are more than a couple of people here who want wotc to provide everything you could ever want for a campaign and refuse to acknowledge that other resources exist.

 

[ingeloak]

It seems that in a number of threads, a certain subset of folks are very upset at the lack of adventures and such for 5E, to the point of suggesting they will "run out" of things to do with 5E in a year or so. While I would certainly like to see a more robust release schedule with both standalone modules and setting books (not to mention Dungeon and a Dragon back in publication) the idea that you would "run out" of stuff to do with D&D is just plain weird. It's D&D. One of the core conceits is that you, the DM, will be creating most of the game content (usually in conjunction with your players). Need a new and interesting magic item? Create it. Need a monster that the PCs have not faced before? Create it. Need to know what it costs and how long it takes to create a magic item? Decide. These aren't the burden of the DM, they are the joys!

For fear of of sounding like an in-my-day curmudgeon, are DMs these days just too lazy to make the game their own?

not lazy in so many words, but the recent editions of D&D *cough* 4th *cough* everything was spelled out for you. X monsters are Y a challenge rating, and drop Z parcels of treasure. in 1st and 2nd, none of that was there. the game was largely left in the hands of the DM, and ours was a baptism by fire and steel. my earliest adventure ideas were on a piece of graph paper with a pencil, not full color maps and plastic minis. over 25 years of gaming, and i only now have a decent miniature collection (thanks, Reaper!).

DMs are used to having a plethora of adventures and sourcebooks pouring out of WotC, and now that the designers have reduced that to 1-2 major arcs per year and 12-15 smaller league adventures per arc, you are correct. we may run out of published material. it'll be up to the DMs and 3rd party developers to fill in the gaps. Necromancer Games has stepped up to the plate with their recent trilogy of 5E books, and a few other companies have also released adventures.

 

[Neonchameleon]

not lazy in so many words, but the recent editions of D&D *cough* 4th *cough* everything was spelled out for you. X monsters are Y a challenge rating, and drop Z parcels of treasure. in 1st and 2nd, none of that was there. the game was largely left in the hands of the DM, and ours was a baptism by fire and steel. my earliest adventure ideas were on a piece of graph paper with a pencil, not full color maps and plastic minis. over 25 years of gaming, and i only now have a decent miniature collection (thanks, Reaper!).

DMs are used to having a plethora of adventures and sourcebooks pouring out of WotC, and now that the designers have reduced that to 1-2 major arcs per year and 12-15 smaller league adventures per arc, you are correct. we may run out of published material. it'll be up to the DMs and 3rd party developers to fill in the gaps. Necromancer Games has stepped up to the plate with their recent trilogy of 5E books, and a few other companies have also released adventures.

That might just be the weirdest spelling of "Pathfinder" I've ever read. Most successful 4e groups fast realised that WoTC adventures for 4E were terrible and writing better wasn't hard.

But really posts like this are the equivalent of "Back in the 60s we used to service our own cars". It is as much easier then. To invent a new 1E monster required Hit Dice, AC, Morale, number of attacks, and damage. Nothing else. In 5E AC is a derived stat. You need basic stats, level, hit dice, armour, attacks, and its skills. At least three times the work per monster and probably six. And dungeons are easier to create than open world. (The 3.X family is probably twice the work of 5E). 4E by the way is as gamier as 1E - the monsters take about as long as 5E but last so much longer than 1E it comes out in the wash.

Yes there was much more home few in 1E than 5E. It was a much better game for it.