While I really like a lot of 3e/3.5/Pathfinder/d20 Modern/Arcana Unearthed, etc. and have a ton of cool adventures for d20 that I have not run yet and have a ton of monster sources I really like, I would probably add enough house rules to make it more like 4e (particularly class and monster abilities, skills) and 5e (spell concentration, combat movement and attack rules) that I don't see picking it up as a system of choice unless my group was against me running 5e.
I always figured the main reason people play 5e is because “everyone else does”.
With 6e “fully compatible“ with 5e, and everyone up in arms about OGL 1.1 and upset at WotC, I figure maybe we’re past peak 5e and can have a diversity of earlier and alternative games.
My old DM who taught me 3e and 4e is starting a new 4e game for his extended family. Out on 5e and uninterested in “OneD&D” - what a joke of a name for a situation so divisive.
And I am still running 3.5e. I DM my extended family game infrequently (8 times a year?), and my other campaign is slow over email, so I never have burned out/don’t feel a need for new editions, and have never allowed splatbooks or high level play. All the things people say are inherently “broken” for 3x, just aren’t part of my 3x world. But I played 4e for a few years and always was looking to learn/play some 5e when chances came up. I have the rules for all editions.
The whole OGL crisis has me a bit depressed and embarrassed to be a D&D evangelist to most people who know me.
I suspect I will be even more estranged from 6e than 4e & 5e. I’m thinking like do I boycott the movie? Will I even buy the PHB for OneD&D - probably Black Flag/ORC instead. Do I tell my family to stop buying me WotC stuff (lIke Dungeon Mayhem and a D&D baseball hat) for Christmas and my birthday? Kinda sad, but before this OGL 1.1 thing, I didn’t mind being associated with the game.
The brand is tainted.
WotC’s gotta walk it back further than “we both win” one-quarter-step back on OGL 1.1. Gotta show us they understand what they were trying to do in revoking OGL 1.0a was wrong, and they understand why we the D&D community sided against them.
They should know their brand doesn’t exist without DM’s. But they greenlit Dark Alliance ... so maybe they don’t know the first thing about D&D.
Their mea culpa should say in a legally binding way: yes, OGL 1.0a is forever. The game belongs the players and DM’s, and we cannot kill it. They need us more than we need them, and they apologize for real.
Geez, third corporate attempt to kill the game - 1997 TSR mismanagement (read “Slaying the Dragon”), 2007 OGS/4e, and now this. Paraphrasing what Tito of Yugoslavia said to Stalin: I’ve caught your third assassin. Stop sending assassins or I will be actively angry with you, not just disappointed.
