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

[Queer Venger]

For the past nine months, I’ve heard from a fair number of people, including people close to me and people I’ve worked with, say they don’t want anything to do with Hasbro, WOTC, or D&D. Unfortunately, they’re piling all of 5e in there too.

5e isn’t D&D. Since its release into the Creative Commons by two different companies, 5e is now an open system supported by hundreds of publishers and, in some cases, with whole games built around it.

5e is now and forever an independent tabletop roleplaying platform not tied to any single company.

If someone doesn’t like 5e as a system, that’s totally fine. Not every system is for everyone. I know many who love the tactical crunchiness and character customization of Pathfinder 2. I know many others who love the fast and furious grim dark fantasy of old-school games like Shadowdark, EZD6, and Old School Essentials. That’s cool.

Likewise, if you’re happy with D&D and don’t want or need anything else, that’s cool too. Most D&D players probably never consider products outside of what WOTC produces for D&D. I definitely recommend looking at the many awesome D&D / 5e compatible products many other publishers have created. Here are ten notable products for 2022 and my YouTube video segment on favorite products of 2023, all from other publishers than WOTC. Check them out.

If you enjoy 5e but you’re done with Hasbro or WOTC or the D&D brand, this message is for you.

5e isn’t D&D.

You can enjoy the hell out of 5e without having to use any products or pay any money to Hasbro.

There are several excellent alternative core books for 5e – my current favorite being EN Publishing’s Level Up Advanced 5e and more on the way like Kobold Press’s Tales of the Valiant.

These companies pay no license fees to Hasbro. Their work is completely independent from D&D. In A5e’s case, they have their own system reference document they wrote and released under a Creative Commons license that’s significantly bigger than the 5.1 SRD.

These systems and products are completely independent from Hasbro or WOTC or D&D. 5e's rules were built by designers, many of whom aren't at Hasbro anymore, based on principles that go back 50 years and two full company acquisitions ago.

Yes, 5e came from the development of the 2014 version of D&D. 5e stands for “5th edition” and that’s the 5th edition of D&D, but that doesn’t matter now. Now, all of the mechanics are released under a Creative Commons license and, as mentioned, there’s a whole separate one you can use instead if you don’t want to use the one published by WOTC.

If you love 5e, as I do, don’t throw it out just because you’re mad at one company publishing material for it. 5e is ours and I personally think it’s awesome. You’re not hurting anyone or supporting the wrong group by buing products for it, running it, and playing it.

Game on.

Sly, I really really appreciate you posting this. It's something I already knew but like you I do see a lot of chatter about hating on 5e. As Ive said before and I'll say again: D&D is what happens with my players, at my table, with my books (many which are 3rd party. published).

 

[mamba]

If it was the one that was shared where they basically showed an entire book with only minimal commentary they kind of deserved it. Even a basic understanding of copyrighted materials means I know you can't do that.

it wasn't that one, but yeah that one was over the line

 

[mamba]

Both of which have been subject to so much misinformation and outright fabrication that any actual, real outrage is hard to find.

sure, never cared about the Pinkertons myself and Blurgate was just plain stupid on WotC's part but no major issue. Still, no need to make up fake topics here, which is what I was addressing. I would expect you support that in your effort to combat misinformation

 

[Faolyn]

So why are you acting like you have to stop playing 5E because you don't want to give WotC money? That's the part I don't get.

Maybe you didn't mean to imply that, but that was how it sounded to me when you talked about how RPGs are "a luxury that I can get through hundreds, or possibly thousands of other companies" and "I'm not going to be forced to live in a cave because I don't buy from WotC."

I didn't imply that I have to stop playing. I'd kind of like to, since I have so many other games I want to try, but I don't have to. I'm not going to demand that the DMs at my table who are running 5e games stop doing so, and I'll continue to happily play them until they end naturally.

But the person I was quoting, @AlViking, said, "If I didn't buy stuff from companies that did something or thought about doing something I disagreed with once every couple of years I'd likely have to be self sufficient living in a cave."

Which is why I brought up the difference between buying a necessity and buying a luxury. They're completely different things. If I decided to stop buying food, clothes, medicines, or other necessities because the companies do bad things or put our products that are subpar or too expensive, I'd probably end up dying sooner rather than later. If I decide to stop buying D&D because of WotC doing bad things or putting out products or subpar or too expensive, oh well. I can still play 5e. Or another edition, since I have the books for several of them. Or some completely different non-D&D game. Or I could make up my own rules entirely from scratch.

 

[Faolyn]

I believe she is saying that she can engage in 5e or any other RPGs just fine without continuing to contribute to WotC financially, so she loses nothing she cares about by doing so.

Exactly this.

 

[Faolyn]

Responding belatedly to this point. That idea may have crept in somewhere along the way, but it wasn't the reason the thread was started. From the very first post:

"Since its release into the Creative Commons by two different companies, 5e is now an open system supported by hundreds of publishers and, in some cases, with whole games built around it.

"5e is now and forever an independent tabletop roleplaying platform not tied to any single company."

Sure. If I wanted to buy more 5e stuff, I wouldn't have to buy it from WotC. Of course, since I'm not getting the 5.24 books, it might become hard for me to find things that were written only with the 5.14 rules. I'm assuming that the CC will allow people to write in either ruleset but that a lot of people who actually want to sell books will do so with 5.24.

Personally, I'm kind of tired of the system in general and have no problem simply not buying any D&D material. But that's unrelated to anything either WotC or Hasbro has done.

 

[Hussar]

sure, never cared about the Pinkertons myself and Blurgate was just plain stupid on WotC's part but no major issue. Still, no need to make up fake topics here, which is what I was addressing. I would expect you support that in your effort to combat misinformation

You missed my point. Nearly all the "gates" that people get worked up about are subject to so much misinformation and outright fabrication, that it's very hard to take anyone's outrage seriously.

 

[mamba]

You missed my point. Nearly all the "gates" that people get worked up about are subject to so much misinformation and outright fabrication, that it's very hard to take anyone's outrage seriously.

I did not miss that point, but you sure did not address mine

 

[Hussar]

I did not miss that point, but you sure did not address mine

Then I completely missed your point.

 

[mamba]

Then I completely missed your point.

my point was that the issues mentioned in the post I replied to (below) were made up. I assume intentionally, to belittle the actual issues, however you feel about those. No one had brought those up in this discussion at all

People were upset with 3e, 4e, changes to orcs, gold dragons, gnolls being fiends, not changing the rules of best selling version of the game enough or changing it too much.