D&D 5E How are people currently feeling about 5e?

[Sylrae]

A. The departure of Monte Cook makes me a little nervous. While he's not my favorite game designer, the current team is made up of the people that bored or irritated me all the way to other publishers and game systems just a couple years ago, when I discovered that I just didn't have fun playing 4e, and didn't much like the 4e realms, the 4e planes stuff, or dark sun.

B. Hopefully they learned what worked and didnt in 4e, and 5e will be a game I'm interested in playing again. But Monte leaving makes me even more skeptical. I'll give it a go, but I dont plan to invest any money in it until after I play in a 5e game run by someone else for a while.

B.i. I hope they don't try to forcefeed everyone the DDI Business model. I don't have a problem with digital content. I do have a problem with digital content that I dont get unlimited access to forever. I would rather shell out the money to buy options, or pay a subscription that gives me permanent access to articles or something. But if I will lose access to the material the instant I cancel the subscription, I'm really not interested in shelling out money for it at all. - Same reason I buy DVDs instead of going Netflix. I'm interested in ownership, not rental.

B.ii. PDFs? Seriously. DDI's not going to cut it for me - unless they have content -purchasing- with an access guarantee, and hard copies just aren't searchable, so going all hard copy is a huge headache. I hope they modernize somehow and provide some sort of useful digital content. PDFs are the most common approach, but the important part is searchable and permanent access.

B.iii. I really hope they bring back /words/. It felt like there was almost no text in many of the 4e books. Dungeon tiles everywhere, tons of white-space, and big fonts sometimes made me feel like I was paying 50$ for a 20$ book.

The promises have been pretty big so far. Supposedly they're going to be able to please everyone. That's a tall order; as I want combat-as-war, with paizo/2e style modules, and much more simulationist gameplay than 4e delivered (I'd like to see the death of dailies and enxounter powers and x/time period abilities), and the 4e fans seem to want very different things.

Hopefully they put out a game I can get back interested in. If not, I'll continue to support Mongoose, Green Ronin, and Paizo for their products. It's not like I'm anti-D&D - I have a 6ft x 2ft bookshelf with 5 shelves that is FILLED with d20 products(WotC or Otherwise) - but I did get rid of most of my 4e stuff (I kept my Monster Manual 3) as apparently they decided against putting out much in the way of products or business models I had an interest in during the 4e era.

Here's hoping.

And if it turns out to be wholly unsatisfying? RuneQuest/Legend & Pathfinder and Song of Ice and Fire and Mutants and Masterminds!

If I dont like the 5e game system but they start writing really good modules again (paizo quality, or even the quality they used to do in like 1996-2001) I may buy the modules and convert them to a ruleset I like. I actually still get some use out of the old TSR modules on my shelf - but I dont play 2e.

 

[Serendipity]

Until I actually see some rules and get an idea what the game will actually be like, I'm not making my mind up about anything.
I look forward to the start of the playtest, but I look forward more to later on in the playtest when something approximating the actual shape of the game begins to show itself.

 

[Jack99]

You ought to change the title to "How do you feel about WoTC", since that is pretty much what you are talking about. The business model, the designers, not the game itself.

 

[delericho]

How do I currently feel about 5e?

Depressed, with a side order of despair.

I was initially extremely enthusiastic about 5e. Once again, WotC seemed to be saying all the right things, and all the old discussions seemed to be open again. But with each week that passed, and each "Legends & Lore" article, my enthusiasm waned. I was hoping the open playtest would be up and going quickly, before it died completely.

Too late.

And very little of this has to do with Monte leaving. In general, I like Monte's work, and think he's a very good game designer, but I don't hold him in any undue reverence - there are other great designers out there. And from what little I could glean from his L&L columns, he didn't really seem to be doing his very best work. I do think 5e would be better off with him on the team than without, but it's hardly the end of the world.

I just don't particularly have any enthusiasm for the new edition left, and almost no hope for it. Maybe the playtest will get that going again... but we'll just have to see.

 

[Sylrae]

The business model and design philosophies are large parts of the game itself.

What you do when designing the game, and how I have to get that game are big parts of how I'm going to feel about that game.

I'm not saying "Hey guys. Without Monte Cook I have no interest in this!" or "I dont buy things Mike Mearls writes", or anything like that. However, Monte was around before 4e, and Mearls was the main guy responsible for 4e, which I didnt like much of the game design of, and didnt have alot of fun playing. I kindof got the feeling that Mearls maybe understood some of what was bad in 4e, Cook understood what was bad in 3.x, and they might make something good together.

Now I have less confidence in the game design, but am remaining cautiously optimistic about it. I am however, a bit less optimistic about their business model, which I hope becomes more appealing.

 

[Blackwarder]

I feel ticklish.

Warder

 

[ren1999]

When someone said that Humans will get saving throw bonuses in 5th edition as if it had already been decided, I started to feel uneasy.

It matters little who is staying on the project and who left. It only matters that whoever is working on the game listens to many different opinions of people who have been playing the game since it came out and new people to the game.

I like several things in both competing editions. In one addition, I really like the basic system giving 1st level player characters a chance to survive by upping their hit-points. In the other system, some characters start with 5 hit points and a little Goblin gets 2 chances in 20 to do double damage. That's just not right and only makes newcomers to the game angry when they've got to say good-bye to a character they spent a long time learning how to generate. I really like the art in the other system and I think that it is great that all the really important powers were carried over from the previous edition.

In one system's modules, the game system seems too ridged as if we're playing chess. In the other system we've got too many different rolling systems. In one power, we have to guess what the DC save to end that power is. In some supplements, only a brief character sketch is given of enemies without giving stats. Some monster stats are listed in books that are from 3rd edition that some of us GM's don't have copies of.

One thing that both systems get wrong is that they failed to reduce the redundant feats and powers that secretly frustrate and anger most participants in this game. That is why I said 5E will fail if those books aren't weeded.

 

[wrightdjohn]

I went from being guardedly optimistic to guardedly pessimistic with Monte's leaving but to be honest I was always going to review the game itself when it arrives. I have vowed not to buy something that hits me like 4e. I love D&D and I wish it to survive but I also have to vote with my dollars.

 

[Ellington]

Optimistic. Overly so.

 

[Weregrognard]

I'm cautiously optimistic, with a dash of cynicism and bias towards older (pre-3e) D&D.

Still, I’m participating in the playtest to get my input out there. I feel it is my duty as a D&D fan, after all