D&D General Concerns with returning to D&D in 2026

[Umbran]

Mod note:

A bunch of you are now bickering (no, not "stating facts" - bickering) about the OGL debacle in a thread that is not ostensibly about such.

Please stop. You are overwhelming the actual topic, and raising acrimony. Next step will be warning points and threadbans.

 

[Stormonu]

My own very limited and removed thinking regarding OGL's existence is that it was first and foremost a business move to choke out the competition, but somewhere along the way the leadership changed and forgot why it was done in the first place. With the revised version being drafted, whether or not it was a proposal or an act of aggression towards someone they believed was cutting in on their pie of profits is out of my reach, and it would be a far out conjecture regardless. However, there is no way that any of it was accidental. Nobody fat-fingered some excel spreadsheet with a decimal point in the wrong place.

The OGL wasn't about choking out the competition. It was about opening up the game to everyone to enlarge the main market. It freed up the official designers to make the products they knew best and would make profit and let other companies in to produce additional material WotC didn't care to dip its toes into - while the same time pulling them into D&D's orbit. It was designed (from what I've read) so that 3rd party companies, rather than making competing RPGs (with half a dozen different rule systems) everyone would use a sort of universal, readily available game engine - not to kick them out. It was a sort of "industry standard" sort of document and a way to preserve D&D as-is against extreme revisions (which is ironic considering what happened a few years later), bad actions/actors or bankruptcy/switch of the IP holders.

It being used for the OSR movement and being used to design whole games from scratch (such as Mutants & Masterminds) wasn't something they expected, I believe.

 

[abazaba]

nevermind.

 

[SkidAce]

I was going to advise the OP to listen to the advice on the first three or so pages, and pass when it turns to debate, but someone beat me to it.

 

[jayoungr]

Speaking of rests, one of the changes they made to 5.5 that you can easily implement in the 2014 version is that a rest is interrupted any time you have to roll initiative.

This is a change? Were there people who were allowing a rest to last through initiative before that? Wow. I would never have even considered that.

 

[jayoungr]

Also, not entirely unrelated with regards to rests: in 5.5e 2024 when attempting/taking a long rest (8 hours) but you get interrupted: If you rested at least 1 hour before the interruption you gain the benefits of a Short Rest.

Again, is this new? I've always done that in 5.0. It just seems logical.

 

[abazaba]

Again, is this new? I've always done that in 5.0. It just seems logical.

I guess it depends on how strict you read the rules.

From the 2014 PHB:
If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity—at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity—the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.

Depending on how you read that, it may or may not be obvious or logical. I guess WotC decided to make it a little more explicit in the 2024 rules.

 

[Maxperson]

And it happened BECAUSE of the OGL fiasco.

We can grumble about it, but really it was a huge win for D&D players/fans.

Was it really, though? Up until that point third party creators had been using the OGL just fine and could trust it, so there were no problems at all. Had the OGL fiasco never happened, creators would simply have continued on forever trusting in it and creating content.

All the OGL fiasco did was put content creation back to the exact point where it was at before the fiasco, except that now a lot of creators and those who support creators felt bitterness and bad blood over what happened. Bitterness and bad blood is not a win for the people who are having those feelings.

Edit: Didn't know the OGL topic was off limits.

 

[jayoungr]

what adventures would you recommend? A lot of complaints I hear regarding 5E adventure modules from WoTC seems to be centered around map/description inconsistencies, or lazy adventures in general - speaking specifically about the Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun book. Other than LMoP I've yet to come across a generally agreed upon positive review of a first-party adventure for this edition, but maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

Curse of Strahd is generally positively viewed, I think. Probably the best-regarded of the book-length adventures.

For someone coming from older editions, as it sounds like you are, Ghosts of Saltmarsh might be a good fit. Or the converted adventures in Tales from the Yawning Portal.

I've run Curse of Strahd, Tyranny of Dragons, and most of Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus. I've also played through Princes of the Apocalypse. They have all been fun. Tyranny of Dragons, in particular, gets a worse rap than it deserves, in my personal opinion.

You may also find these threads useful:

D&D 5E (2014) Thread 'Best Third Party Adventures'

Jun 16, 2024

After reading many conflicting opinions about the quality of WotC's hardcover adventures (a subject I think we can all agree is one that there probably won't be a consensus), it got me thinking: What are the best THIRD PART adventures written for D&D 5E? Heck, even Pathfinder 2e (since that's what I'm playing now after abandoning D&D after WotC's OGL shenanigans last year).

A lot of people aren't aware of how much 3PP stuff is out there and separate the wheat from the chaff is a Herculean task.

• JediSoth
• Replies: 11
• Forum: *Dungeons & Dragons

D&D 5E (2014) Thread 'Best Third Party (not WotC) D&D Adventures?'

Oct 3, 2024

What are the best third-party (not WoTC) D&D 5e Adventures according to you?

• Thierry-Advent
• Replies: 35
• Forum: *Dungeons & Dragons

D&D General Thread 'Could you recommend - third party - long adventures (or adventure paths) for D&D or Pathfinder?'

May 7, 2024

Could you recommend - third party - long adventures (or adventure paths) for D&D or Pathfinder?

The only three I am aware of are Ptolus, Chains of Asmodeus and Empire of the Ghouls.

My group loves game of thrones style roleplay (intrigue at high court), but anything that is centered around humanoids (humans, elves, hobgoblins etc.) in a civilised society is to their taste.

• Maenalis
• Replies: 25
• Forum: *Dungeons & Dragons

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[Maxperson]

You can spin it any way you want but since it was not implemented it was a proposed change. A short-sighted and stupid one, but a proposal nonetheless.

It was not a proposal. A proposal is, "Hey, we want to do this." Once you start sending out contracts to people, you are in the process of implementation. It was never fully implemented, but it went beyond the proposal stage.

Edit: Didn't know the OGL topic was off limits.