D&D 5E Don't Throw 5e Away Because of Hasbro

[The Myopic Sniper]

I was going to bail on 5e during the OGL scandal, but I came back once they agreed to relent on the changes that they had planned and pushing the game into CC.

However, the behavior of the wider 5e community on social media and YouTube since the OGL scandal is definitely dampening my enthusiasm in the same way that Star Wars fandom turns me off of that franchise. I am just not sure I want to be associated with anything that toxic.

Fortunately, I do still have EN World and a small handful of YouTube channels which are among the few places where I feel things are being talked about reasonably as a community.

 

[SakanaSensei]

All of my favorite things for 5E are from creators that aren't WotC, and they always have been.

Monsters: Flee Mortals and Monstrous Menagerie are fantastic.
Items: Really love the Griffin's Saddlebag.
Character Options: I'm a huge fan of MCDM's and Mage Hand Press' classes.
Adventures: Arcane Library's stuff is fantastic, and most adventures in the OSR are easy enough to convert by just plopping in monsters from the above monster books.

It's tough to push toward the ideal of "5E and DnD are separate!" I've got multiple friends who call any and all fantasy adjacent roleplaying as DnD. They're playing World of Dungeons, Cypher System, Dungeon World? They call it all "D&D," because for a lot of people that's the Kleenex term for the entire hobby.

Obviously not for people who are on a gaming forum, but this is a place for inside baseball. I don't think a single person I actually play with know who Mike Mearls or Chris Perkins are. For these friends, they were confused when I first mentioned things that I did or didn't like about "5E." Because again, all roleplaying to them is just "D&D."

 

[Parmandur]

No plans to move away from D&D because of Hasbro: they haven't really changed at all I'm the entire time I've played, anyways, and I don't expect them to either.

 

[DevL]

An even more pertinent take on the state of current D&D is that even if you do dump 5E, don’t let that be the end of TTRPG for you. There are so, so many wonderful RPG:s out there that are worthy of your time and support and they don’t have to be simplified versions of D&D or OSR or ”narrative-only” or ”massively crunchy”. Go forth and explore!

Just like the thought Hasbro = 5E is false, so too is 5E = TTRPG. Do yourself a favour and avoid monocultures.

 

[Retreater]

As a GM and someone who knows more about the industry than most of my players (who are mostly Gen Z), I feel the responsibility is on me to introduce them to other systems and make them comfortable with games other than D&D. One of the players, going back to college this semester, is starting a Pathfinder game as the GM.
Had I not run other games with him, it's likely he'd be running 5e and encouraging his friends to keep buying Hasbro products.
Staying in the 5e ecosystem can lead to buying stuff on DMs Guild, engaging with content on social media that keeps people supporting Hasbro.
It's better to bring attention to other systems.

 

[mearls]

I don't think a single person I actually play with know who Mike Mearls or Chris Perkins are.

You know, nothing is stopping you from changing that. I can send over a PowerPoint deck for you to use, if that helps.

 

[Stormonu]

I lived through 2E and TSR's shenanigan's. I don't support the company, I support the game I like - which currently happens to be 5E.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I like the product and think they kind of nailed it. Just because there are suits who make bad decisions in the vicinity does not intrude on my basement nerd kingdom.

I am going to DM my kids this weekend and also play with my pals if we can swing it. Multiple nights of D&D on a weekend for a working parent? Jackpot.

 

[Minigiant]

I'm pretty simple but very controversial in my belief.

To get the best community and versions of D&D, someone has to be the big ugly corporate monster.

D&D needs that big corp dumping money into advertising and marketing for foster the internal economy which props up the third parties, the content creators, and the big thinkers asw ell as keeping the flow of new fans.

The non-D&D-adjacent RPGs are stagnate and niche because there is no constant money dump to let independents live off its economy.

So meh,I don't love the suits. But I want the suits to be here.

 

[Distracted DM]

Tldr: I stopped buying WotC, but I still buy 5e stuff like A5E.

I've definitely moved away from WotC 5e, but that's a combination of their decisions and design.

I used to be able to say "use any of the official books. I have them all on DnDBeyond, here's the campaign invite."

But then a series of book releases added things that I didn't know I would have a problem with until they came up in gameplay. You can't even filter what sources are used in your DnDB campaign! Just what books you're sharing.

Then I, along with a lot of other folks, were locked out of our DnDB accounts for over a month because our yearly subs elapsed and the site wouldn't allow them to be renewed. My players couldn't even access their characters! Fk that.

Other releases like Spelljammer made me feel absolutely ripped off.

Basically, I went from buying every WotC 5e release physically and digitally, to not buying any until Planescape.

I'm pretty much done with WotC for the foreseeable future because I'm done with what they've done with 5e. Other people are doing good things with the system, though.