D&D 5E Casual player responses to DMs planning to avoid WotC 5e/1DnD rules

[J.Quondam]

I still find it odd that people are trying to find a path when the fog of what we're dealing with is far from lifted. There are a lot of cards left to be revealed before we need to make any decisions.

Yeah, a good point. I just think some of the issue is that the "fog" is so, well, foggy. The drop dead date is this Friday, but because of the silence surrounding this, no one is really sure what to expect when that happens. Or even if it will happen.

There's just a ton of uncertainty surrounding this, including questions like whether favorite 3pps, specific publications, online platforms, etc, will even exist next week or not.

 

[pogre]

I have one casual player left in my group, the rest are pretty invested in the gaming scene. The casual player does not care what we play.

The pushback is very slight from a couple of players. One who is heavily invested in Adventure League and really prefers D&D 5e to any other game. He probably would push back if I said we were not going to the new edition or leaving 5e. He was shocked when I said I was not interested in playtesting D&D1 for example. The other player barely knows the 5e rules and is reluctant to learn any new rules at all.

 

[Shiroiken]

It looks like the 1.1 OGL leak is inspiring DMs to run future games with different system rules.

How are casual players responding to DMs who are moved about what’s going on in the community?

Are casual players pushing back against DMs making changes due to all this?

This is assuming the DMs are not casual DMs. For casual DMs and players, the change in OGL isn't going to have a significant impact on their game. The serious DMs and players are the ones who will be most impacted (beyond, you know, content creators), which is those of us here, on Reddit, Facebook, Discord, and various other social media.

Casual players are going to have the same decisions as everyone else: stay or leave. They've got the same question coming for the revised edition anyway, which will require them to learn the changes if the DM moves to it. If they don't like the DM's decision, they've got to let the DM know, and a good DM is going to take everyone's opinions into consideration.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I had three players briefly mention the "OGL-thing" in our session last night. Frankly, I told them it doesn't make any difference to me since I never use 3PP stuff--just official TSR/WotC material and the rest is all house-rule / homebrew.

Honestly, unless you have a 3PP business or such 3PP material matters to you, I really don't see what the big deal is. 99% of gamers I know this won't make a difference at all.

Seconded. I'm honestly a bit surprised and confused that people care so much.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

This is assuming the DMs are not casual DMs.

I had no consideration about DMs’ casualness amount. I allow them to self-identify their casualness as they desire.

 

[Dausuul]

I still find it odd that people are trying to find a path when the fog of what we're dealing with is far from lifted. There are a lot of cards left to be revealed before we need to make any decisions.

Wizards is making its decision right now. If you want to affect that decision, now is the time to act. If you wait to see all the cards, all you can do is punish them after the fact.

 

[overgeeked]

Know that it was all your fault!

I remembered that game when you posted about it the other day. Thanks for that.

Ha ha.

Check out the author’s discord and patreon. He regularly posts play test stuff that’s more polished than some companies’ finished products.

 

[thundershot]

We’ll keep playing 5E. I don’t have the time or patience to learn a new system, and I have a plethora of 5E adventures (WOTC and 3P) we haven’t even touched yet and have material to last the rest of our lives.

 

[Manbearcat]

The "casual players" (and adjacent - family members that sometimes play in a one shot of something if I go to their place and run it) that I know are "causal D&D players" but not full-fledged "casual players" per se (because they probably play more games than a lot of folks who comment prolifically on ENWorld due to how often I run games at our social get-togethers). They're "casual D&D players" because they got into the game via 4e D&D and fled the D&D gaming scene when (a) 5e replaced it or (b) their lives changed sufficiently that they couldn't try to run 4e games themselves (eg kids or change of address and the like) or (c) I wasn't running an active 4e D&D game for them to play in. But their overall signature in TTRPG-spaces is pretty low on the whole (to non-existent).

So now, they only play varying indie games (either 1-shots or like 6-8 session games) when we make a commitment for me to run those games for them in meatspace. I'd say that constitutes "casual players" generally and "casual D&D players" especially.

I know about 30 of those folks in total (including a few adjacent family members who would also qualify). Every one of them is aware of the situation. With more than a little irony..they're paying far more attention to the situation than I am (someone who runs a pretty ridiculous number of weekly TTRPG games and who has been in the culture for quite a long time). We've got multiple venues of chat (plenty overlapping) and the stupid notifications don't stop. I think for this cohort in particular, their primary curiosity about the whole thing is because of how much grief they received from obnoxious agitators about their 4e love affair in various areas of meatspace (nerd venues overwhelmingly, but even some common spaces) and Facebook etc. Seeing D&D self-immolate is an interesting cultural touchstone for their lives.

 

[Bohandas]

Truth be told if I stopped purchasing or using products that crossed ethical boundaries I'd likely be homeless, naked and starving on the streets.

Well you need to buy those kind of products secondhand, preferably from someone who got them when they fell off the back of a truck, that way your money does not go to the manufacturer.