D&D (2024) Does anyone else think that 1D&D will create a significant divide in the community?

[Campbell]

Games don't create divides. They expose them. Does it really make us more divided if we are playing multiple versions of the same game if there was never any compatibility (in terms of the experience we are seeking) to begin with? I know my personal dissatisfaction with 3e on both sides of the screen was definitely not caused by 4e's existence. I know the war gamer / illusionist divide was not caused by Dragonlance. Did new products bring these existing divisions / difference of preference to light? Sure. Did they exist before the products were released? Absolutely.

Also division is a pretty damn strong word to use for having incompatible preferences in a roleplaying game. It makes having preferences outside the mainstream almost feel like an affront.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Games don't create divides. They expose them. Does it really make us more divided if we are playing multiple versions of the same game if there was never any compatibility (in terms of the experience we are seeking) to begin with? I know my personal dissatisfaction with 3e on both sides of the screen was definitely not caused by 4e's existence. I know the war gamer / illusionist divide was not caused by Dragonlance. Did new products bring these existing divisions / difference of preference to light? Sure. Did they exist before the products were released? Absolutely.

Also division is a pretty damn strong word to use for having incompatible preferences in a roleplaying game. It makes having preferences outside the mainstream almost feel like an affront.

Don't forget the divide between people who hate Kender/ those who are empirically, objectively wrong for liking them.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Is that really a divide per se? I don't play 2E anymore, for example, but I don't consider myself "divided" from people who do currently play 2E. I think it takes more than just not being interested in a particular edition to have a divide. There has to be some kind of animosity, for lack of a better term.

I don't think I am divided with 1e or 2e players... even though I don't play those.
I do consider myself divided with 3e and PF players because I find they argue points I am very against.

 

[Zaukrie]

No. Most tables move on eventually.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I think if they eventually tamp down the dumbest playtest ideas then, ultimately, most 5e fans will migrate to 5.5. But since I suspect that I will come to see it as basically a degenerate form of 5e, I probably won't fully make the switch until the people I play with and I have used up 5e content. Since (to the extent I still care about published adventures) 5.5 adventures are likely to involve a minuscule amount of tweaking to be 5e adventures the "running out of content" scenario is basically when we have grown bored with the character possibilities of 5e, and see some appealing new ones from 5.5. The time frame depends on both the quality of 5.5 and how much 5e we play.

So while, as explained in prior posts, I am extremely unimpressed with the playtest materials, and at the moment have a strong impulse to swear off the new edition as an aimless and unnecessary remix of the current one, eventually I will probably find my way to it, because it is probably not different enough to be worth being schismatic over long term. Still, I think there will be a short term schism and a lot of bad feelings over the process if they don't articulate a stronger design philosophy to justify the overall direction of changes. As is the process just reads to me as "we are changing some things to make people buy new books and to support our digital tabletop". Will it cause a huge, long-term community divide? Probably not. Will it cause enough unnecessary short-term division and ill-will to make the unite-everyone-and-everything "OneD&D" branding ridiculous and a little embarrassing? Probably.

 

[Corinnguard]

Was 4e D&D ever play-tested by the players? curious

 

[Parmandur]

Was 4e D&D ever play-tested by the players? curious

No, all internal. WotC own postmortem is that 4E was designed in a self-referential environment without input from hiw most people actually play D&D.

 

[Corinnguard]

No, all internal. WotC own postmortem is that 4E was designed in a self-referential environment without input from hiw most people actually play D&D.

What about the editions that came before 4e? Or was 5e the first edition to actually be play-tested by the players?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I don't think the divide will be significant or long-term. Initial divide? Sure. Always is. I mean, there's a bit of a divide about it now, and we don't even know what rules will make it to actual print.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

What about the editions that came before 4e? Or was 5e the first edition to actually be play-tested by the players?

5e was first.