D&D 5E D&D is Getting Unweildy

[Gadget]

I think 5e has done a better job of avoiding the problems mentioned in the OP than any Edition of the past 20+ years. They have been vary restrained in releasing bloat, and the whole PHB + 1 idea they had going was designed to combat these problems. However, any edition has to release new things over time, as the initial PHB material inevitably has issues that manifest over time.

 

[Reynard]

Unless, like me, I'm not using Tasha's rules - and do not want to. My wife, conversely is only using PHB - no additions allowed from Monsters of the Multiverse, Xanathar's OR Tasha's. Some people just don't want that stuff rolled back into the "basic" PHB.

Besides, doesn't help updating the PHB for 2022, if everybody at the table is still using their 2014 copy, and doesn't feel like buying a new one.

Why would WotC concern themselves with non customers? If people refuse to buy the new core they probably aren't going to buy the next Tasha's either.

 

[Umbran]

It's about how easy it is for someone to come into the hobby.

I dunno if "coming into the hobby" by jumping in as a GM without any prior experience has, or will, ever be considered an easy way to enter.

 

[MGibster]

I dunno if "coming into the hobby" by jumping in as a GM without any prior experience has, or will, ever be considered an easy way to enter.

How about making is less difficult then? I wonder if a lot of us old hands are so used to the way things are we don't consider what the experience might be for new players.

 

[Umbran]

How about making is less difficult then? I wonder if a lot of us old hands are so used to the way things are we don't consider what the experience might be for new players.

Well, they have these wonderful starter sets, that have so far had pretty good adventures in them, with pregen characters, rules, and so on...

 

[payn]

How about making is less difficult then? I wonder if a lot of us old hands are so used to the way things are we don't consider what the experience might be for new players.

Lot of old hands drop youtube vids daily on how to make it easier. Publishing this stuff in books would take a mountain of resources.

 

[Datactingguy]

As some who jumped on a few years ago, I found it was very easy to learn to play and eventually DM. Had never played a tabletop role play game before, all I had to do was Google anything I needed to know. The 5e wiki dot has pretty much everything I needed to know, before I eventually bought any books (the core three were actually some of the later books I picked up).

 

[Vaalingrade]

Allow me to reveal the magic incantation that helped me pick my way through that issue back in 3e all the way through now in multiple editions and multiple systems: "Show me".

Then I look at the material and know how it works. Don't need to know the whole book, just what's on the character.

 

[Stormonu]

Why would WotC concern themselves with non customers? If people refuse to buy the new core they probably aren't going to buy the next Tasha's either.

Just because I'm not using Tasha's doesn't mean I'm not a customer. I still picked up Spelljammer, for example.

 

[Guest 7034872]

Hm. I may be an outlier on this, but the learning curve on AD&D was a big appeal to me in high school. When I first started on Moldvay, I recall the apparent complexity of AD&D did deter me from jumping right into it, so it may be that beginners would profit from a less complicated system. Even there, though, my sense is that YT videos and Twitch streams have made 5e a lot less intimidating to beginners than "back in my day."

I have a twelve-year-old student at my school who is just beginning to play, and his buddies are energetically making sure he successfully climbs the 5e learning curve. From what I've seen, the abundance of options and skills to learn about has him pretty excited, not intimidated.