D&D (2024) D&D Monster Manual (2025)

[Chaltab]

I mean to be fair we're all building on the work of the designers that came before us all the way back to and preceding Arneson and Gygax.

 

[Remathilis]

I mean to be fair we're all building on the work of the designers that came before us all the way back to and preceding Arneson and Gygax.

Which means we're all equally creative.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I find this argument interesting when most (all) 3pp haven't actually created their own system, but have instead opted to take the work done by the designers you are disparaging and build on it. I don't think either should be lauded as more creative since it's like asking is it more creative to invent the automobile or fine tune it to be an offroad vehicle. How do you even answer that, they're both being creative in different ways.

Ok. I never had anything all that bad to say about the base 5e system. It's pretty solid. But it's development is constrained by the megacorporation that publishes it and its desire for endlessly maximized profit, hence every product needing to be designed to broadly appeal to as many people as possible to meet that goal.

 

[Micah Sweet]

What's the playstyle?

High magic, low lethality super-heroic fantasy.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Which means we're all equally creative.

Depends on what we do with it. We are perhaps all potentially equally creative.

 

[Chaltab]

Which means we're all equally creative.

Well no, few of us can match the wild madcap... creativity... that you'll find on D&D Beyond Homebrew.

 

[Micah Sweet]

No. I think it is AS creative. No more, no less. Different, certainly. Would you say Taylor Swift is less creative than the unsigned band down the street because she has a record contract and marketing people, and the local band doesn't? Would you say James Gunn is less creative than a Youtuber? Would you say James Patterson is less creative than the writers on fanfiction.net? Of course you wouldn't! And if you did, you'd be lying. Creativity is not a condition of size or connections.

Creativity can be constrained by those who hold the purse strings, and all of your examples potentially have that issue, because the artist isn't in full control of what they create.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Creativity can be constrained by those who hold the purse strings, and all of your examples potentially have that issue, because the artist isn't in full control of what they create.

On the other hand Leonardo Da Vinci had a track record of doing whatever he wanted and screwing over the person paying his bills.

 

[Micah Sweet]

On the other hand Leonardo Da Vinci had a track record of doing whatever he wanted and screwing over the person paying his bills.

Which is why this is a potential issue, and not a definite one.

 

[Imaro]

Which is why this is a potential issue, and not a definite one.

You stated it like it was a given though.