D&D 5E Did The Finished 5th Edition Change Anyone's Mind?

[Tony Vargas]

Same here. Truth be told, it still feels a little (needlessly) retro, and there were some great advances in game mechanics that were abandoned in the name of this retro feeling,

It is decidedly retro - but is it needlessly so, with the OSR phenom in full swing and a desire to consolidate the brand? I think WotC realized that going that direction was the most expedient business decision. Lots of games have advanced the hobby in the technical sense of improved or innovative game mechanics, but doing so has never brought great success in terms of sales. 3e and 4e both made real improvements in that sense, but neither out-sold monopoly like D&D did in the 80s.

 

[Eric V]

It is decidedly retro - but is it needlessly so, with the OSR phenom in full swing and a desire to consolidate the brand? I think WotC realized that going that direction was the most expedient business decision. Lots of games have advanced the hobby in the technical sense of improved or innovative game mechanics, but doing so has never brought great success in terms of sales. 3e and 4e both made real improvements in that sense, but neither out-sold monopoly like D&D did in the 80s.

Fair enough. I was speaking more from a game-mechanics point, but from a business POV, it seems the right decision. I guess people wanted their favourite game re-sold to them, and WotC picked up on that.

 

[Stormonu]

I was completely disinterested in 5E during the playtest. 4E had turned me off official D&D and the first playtest packet did nothing to pique my interest. But, having bought ever version of D&D since the Red Box, I was going to get the Starter Set "just to see." Instantly hooked. Favorite edition since 2E.

I had pretty much the same experience, though I was piqued by the first playtest. but from the second on, just wasn't interested. Love the released game overall, and agree it feels a lot like 2E with an updated chassis.

 

[Sunseeker]

I actually like the finished 5th more than I liked the playtest. I can't really speak to specifics, but I just couldn't get into the playtest as much as I do the actual game, but that may simply be due to having hardbacks instead of PDFs.

 

[aramis erak]

I was on the fence... but people whose opinions tend to be similar to my own said it was good, and I gave it a go. And it was in fact a pleasant surprise.

 

[ehenning]

I did not participate in the playtest, because I was not playing D&D for the past 15 years; that said, with 5e Im now playing D&D again.

it changed my life

Didn't change my life, but I am playing for the first time in 20 years and love it

 

[Zak S]

Once I made a character and saw how easy it was I switched over my home game from the hack I had---which was no mean feat, they were all 10th-14th level.

Very pleased, mostly.

 

[Uchawi]

I don't think it was a matter of changing my mind, but 5E never convinced me to support it like I did previous editions. There was a lot of hope the game would try to consolidate the editions, even if there were disbelievers at every step (I had my moments), but the developers decided to take the conservative route for what was finally released. So it feels like a big compromise, versus moving the game forward. I expect part of that was shell shock from 4E, the other half is competition like Paizo (WOTC can not be too different), and finally whatever drove them to go retro. If I wanted a simpler, retro style game, I would be playing the previous editions.

And my biggest disappointment from a mechanical standpoint was not treating martial characters with the innovative ideas and flexibility they granted to spell casting classes.

 

[Zak S]

I would characterize it as: I love that they didn't dial back the original and innovative and radical openness of how fighters and tactics were treated in the early editions for what I saw as backsliding into familiar pre-RPG territory in later editions.

But different rhetoric for different people, I suppose.

 

[Reynard]

I expect part of that was shell shock from 4E

I think 4E proved you can innovate your way out of one genre and into another. that is to say, D&D is not just a series of games, it is a genre of game itself and assuch there are a number of tropes and expectations that are inherent in that genre. 4E discarded and/or changed a lot of those tropes and expectations and was a new new genre of game. 5E is indeed partially a response to that, pulling D&D back into the D&D genre, but it is also a response to the high granularity of Pathfinder (by way of 3.x). Pathfinder has shown that there is an appetite for a very detailed D&D, but the rise of the OSR showed that there is also an appetite for a more streamlined version of the game. There are a lot of folks, I think, that would like to see more "crunch" for 5E and that may happen, but so far it seems that the retro flavor and ease of play are 5E's primary selling points versus Pathfinder.

That is not to say I don't think there is a market for a divergent game like 4E. I actually think there is a really interesting game in there, especially a partially competitive one. One could use the hard coded balance of 4E to produce a sort of table top MOBA with relative ease, I think.