D&D General How has D&D changed over the decades?

[beancounter]

1E/2E complexity was perfect for it's time. Far fewer distractions back then.
5E "simplicity" is perfect for now.

Personally, if D&D remained as complex today as it was back them, I probably wouldn't have had the time to get back into it.

This is my personal experience. Other waterfowl may see things differently.

 

[Jer]

4e had daily powers as well, though, right (AEDU)?
Pretty much all games have something along these lines (games like Champions/Hero tend to have the default being everything recharges in 5-10 minutes, which has its own issues). The only great solutions are to have a curated playstyle ('this is what this game expects, deviate from it only if you are specifically intending to'), or the ability to vary the recharge frequency (13A, or the rest variants in the 5E D&D DMG-both of which can have game verisimilitude effects).

4e did have daily powers, which was IMO a mistake, but even there since the expectation was 4 encounters per day, encounter powers were quite good, and the number of daily powers were limited it was pretty easy to figure out when to burn a daily and when to not.

(In my ideal 4e redesign only the Wizard would get daily powers - everyone else would get encounter and at-wills while the Wizard would have a set of daily powers and at-wills and would be the only class designed that way).

 

[Arilyn]

I think some of this coincides with the fact that 1e was created at a time when gamers didn't interact with game designers and didn't argue for preferences that hard. So there was no sense of assertiveness instill in D&D players to DMs

Now at the time of 5e, almost all new D&D fans are video game fans. And assertiveness to things you don't love is being nice. I be half of all new 5e fans over 13 have an angry post or online wishlist on a forum or Reddit post to a game developer or publisher.

Have you seen those old letters from the Dragon magazine or read any of Jon Peterson's books on D&D history? The arguments were just as fierce and nasty and dealt with the same issues: GM power, fights over role play and rules, speed of levelling, magic items, and yes entitled players.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

Dude, you complained about colors and a cute creature, then made a five-years dead My Little Pony Joke.

Can you please illustrate me how I can express myself correctly by your standards while I'm saying that the art of D&D is progressively uninspiring to me, product after product and in particular in the last product released?

 

[Hussar]

I suspect most of us know that, we just don't like it.

Oh you don’t have to like it. I totally get that.

But it would be nice if folks were honest enough to just admit it rather than pull drive by thread crapping and regurgitating the same tired old cliches in every conversation.

 

[Remathilis]

Can you please illustrate me how I can express myself correctly by your standards while I'm saying that the art of D&D is progressively uninspiring to me, product after product and in particular in the last product released?

Maybe you shouldn't infantilize those who disagree with you?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Can you please illustrate me how I can express myself correctly by your standards while I'm saying that the art of D&D is progressively uninspiring to me, product after product and in particular in the last product released?

It's not the method of expression I'm cracking on, it's the idea being expressed: that color and cute are bad.

Okay, maybe the method of trying to find something one assumes everyone is against (My Little Pony) to hold up as 'I say it's like this, so you hate it now too, right?' is something else I'm cracking on, but I have to applaud the use of something creative like MLP instead of just WoW or anime that is typically used as D&D's unrequited crush.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

Maybe you shouldn't infantilize those who disagree with you?

Sir, it seems very clear to me that saying "D&D illustration make me think about My Little Pony" is not infantilize others who love it. It is a personal judgment. I find the illustration childish.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Sir, it seems very clear to me that saying "D&D illustration make me think about My Little Pony" is not infantilize others who love it.

Not the thing I said. I said it was used to invoke an assumed shared hatred to appeal for others to feel the same. Infantilization never factors into this tactic.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

Not the thing I said. I said it was used to invoke an assumed shared hatred to appeal for others to feel the same. Infantilization never factors into this tactic.

I surrender.