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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 9302474" data-attributes="member: 6801845">I think I disagree with just about everything.  Well, everything other than the apology, sometimes what we write does come across as harsher than what was intended.I have no idea what this means.  The standard I judge "Does 5E feel like D&D to me?" is the time we spend at the gaming table.  With the exception of 4E, fighting has always been the rules dominated portion of the game with a bit of leeway, how much leeway depends on the DM and group.  Outside of combat there's been some support, but with a few exceptions it's mostly up to the group.  Of course some editions had more or fewer rules, later editions certainly gave you a bit more concrete things to fall back on.  But even way back in the day if there was some uncertainty we just called for a roll.  It's just more official now.I think the qualities of and what kind of gameplay D&D appeal to a broad audience.  The reason you see negativity is because the people who don't like something (and many who don't even play D&D) are the ones that are complaining the loudest.  That, and I suspect a bit of confirmation bias.  People tend to discuss what doesn't work for them, not what does.  I'm never going to bring up Bless but I'll complain about Heat Metal because casting it on metal armor with the target having no save to avoid disadvantage isn't a good thing in my book.  Especially for a low level spell.  That doesn't mean I'm not perfectly okay with the vast number of spells in the book, it's just that I'm going to complain about that 1% that I don't like.Do I think D&D 5E is a quality game?  Based on relatively objective measures like overall consistency of the rules, lack of errata, general presentation (other than the DMG), yes.  Based on do I personally enjoy playing? Absolutely.  Based on the enthusiasm of the people I actually play with on a regular basis? Again, yes.  Is it objectively a quality game considering both?  Quality, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.  For millions of beholders (which EEK! A swarm of beholders!  Run while you can!) it sure seems to be a quality game, I'm not sure why else the majority of people would be playing it or why we would have had double digit growth every year for nearly a decade. So now because you don't agree with the reviewers they don't know what they're talking about?  Good grief.You will send me money ... oooh ...<img src="https://media3.giphy.com/media/mikKUG5gH5Lw4TIOgU/200.gif" alt="Spiral Hypnosis GIF by Feliks Tomasz Konczakowski" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Wait, that didn't work? Dang. I think the imaginary marketing manipulation you speak of (I don't remember the last time I saw an add for D&D) is any more effective.  Now, Debeers getting a monopoly on diamonds and convincing people that a diamond was the only way to prove true love?  That was pretty brilliant.  But comparing manipulation like that to D&D's "Hey try this game!" is comparing apples to oranges.So many things wrong here.  First, they don't promise all things to all people.  It's more flexible in tone and style of campaign than many TTRPGs but it's primarily schlocky high magic heroic fantasy fiction.  If you want gritty historical accuracy, D&D isn't the game for you and it doesn't pretend to be. Railroading is a loaded term.  The modules tend to be linear because they're easier for DMs to run.  I started playing a Waterdeep: Dragon Heist game with one DM that was sadly cut short because of covid.  It was a blast because the DM knew how to improvise and run with what we did. I played it through with another DM and it just didn't really work because he didn't know how to flesh out the game.  It's a module that gives the DM a lot of hooks, NPCs, organizations and  a sketch of a story line.  But it struck me as more of a setting book than an adventure module.As an example with the first DM we had a blast with the ghost bartender and it was a highlight of the session.  Working with the factions in town was pretty involved.  Second DM?  Yeah, there's a ghost give me a persuasion check.  Factions?  Let me read boxed text on what they are, you can join them if you want.  The second DM would have been better off with a linear campaign that kept a focus on action with clearly defined steps.Oh, and I run a very free form player driven campaign while having very few house rules.  It doesn't take "tremendous amounts of effort" and never has.Just because you don't seem to care for D&D, I think it's a tremendous leap to say it's a bad influence. First, I disagree.  I suspect that unless some other game had come along that filled D&D's role TTRPGs could well have remained even a smaller niche hobby than it is now.EDIT: When I say things like "the rules get out of the way', that doesn't mean the rules don't matter.  It means the empty spaces matter just as much as what gets filled in along with the rules are fast and streamlined enough that they don't slow the game down most of the time.</blockquote>

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