No. Next dumb question?
Waitwaitwait. Stop right there.Why is this a problem? From where we sit (me and my group), it's made recruiting people for 5e virtually IMPOSSIBLE. An advert for "two or three 5e players for a weekly, Sunday game, 3pm to 7pm, give or take a half hour"...may get calls and emails, but the moment I say "Er, no, we don't use Feats, or Multiclassing, or stuff from SA or UA unless we all agree before hand and I don't see a problem with it, campaign wise"...POOF! No more interest. At all.
So much for "Now anyone can jump into a 5e game and play the way they want!"....should be "Now anyone can jump into a 5e* game and play the way they want! (*Feats, Multiclassing, SA, UA and all other WotC produced content is assumed)".
And you are blaming WotC for... what, exactly?
Hiya!
I know there are quite a few vocal folks on ye olde 'net that clamour for ever more "choices" in 5e. I get that. Not my cup o' brew, but to each their own. That said...
I *thought* one of the key selling points of 5e was "simplified" (yes, the CORE system is that) with a focus on individual DM and Player creativity...specifically, "to avoid the proliferation of all the minutia that plagued 3.x/4e/PF" (in a nutshell). I also remember some promise about not having a "book of the month" club that 3.x/4/PF had/have. Technically, that's probably true...but to me they were being a bit shady to me. We may not get a new book every month...but we get new "Sage Advice" and "Unearthed Arcana" every month; and that stuff seems to be regarded by the masses as more or less "official".
With every "Somebody's Guide to..." or Sage Advice column, it seems we are heading down the exact same path that 3e took (and PF...we avoided 4e like the plague, so no comment on that system). I see a constant increase in the noise ratio on these boards and others of "creativity" to "choice...ivity". The art is also sort of turning more and more towards the boring as hell (IMHO) "model posing for the painter" style (e.g. "Ok...now, raise the styrofoam sword a little higher...higher...great. Hmmm..stretch out a bit more. Perfect! Ok, Sal, turn on the wind machine so I can get some movement in those bright red locks while I paint this! Hey, lets use the white-sheet background too, I think. Yeah. Why not? Ok...stay still now..." ).
Why is this a problem? From where we sit (me and my group), it's made recruiting people for 5e virtually IMPOSSIBLE. An advert for "two or three 5e players for a weekly, Sunday game, 3pm to 7pm, give or take a half hour"...may get calls and emails, but the moment I say "Er, no, we don't use Feats, or Multiclassing, or stuff from SA or UA unless we all agree before hand and I don't see a problem with it, campaign wise"...POOF! No more interest. At all.
So much for "Now anyone can jump into a 5e game and play the way they want!"....should be "Now anyone can jump into a 5e* game and play the way they want! (*Feats, Multiclassing, SA, UA and all other WotC produced content is assumed)".
This was what I was afraid of. And probably why I won't be DM'ing a 5e campaign anytime in the next decade.
Is anyone else out there in the same boat that we are? If you don't use the "so-called OPTIONAL" stuff mentioned, your chance of finding a game or players is virtually zilch?
^_^
Paul L. Ming (a now, more-or-less, "ex-5e DM" at this point).
Fourth edition was marketed as a standardized experience, so players could jump between tables without having to learn new rules. Every book that they put out was considered a core book, and you were supposed to allow everything in every game. That was their selling point.I'm sorry about your recruit failure, but what did you expect.
D&D(all editions) is an evolving game. It gets bigger. It has to as majority will get bored after couple of years with same content.
and after you say; no feats, multiclassing, UA or any books after PHB, you are just saying, we play D&D but it's kind of 24,7% of the game.
Only true if all the 'majority' cares about is mechanics.I'm sorry about your recruit failure, but what did you expect.
D&D(all editions) is an evolving game. It gets bigger. It has to as majority will get bored after couple of years with same content.
What he's saying sounds more like "we play 5e D&D in a stripped-down, old-school way". Nothing at all wrong with that, and it's something 5e has been designed to accommodate.and after you say; no feats, multiclassing, UA or any books after PHB, you are just saying, we play D&D but it's kind of 24,7% of the game.
Though I can't speak to pming's specific and quite isolated community, I'd disagree with this assertion in a more general sense. I think the pool of players is still growing.It is your choice, but you need to realise that you are swimming in ever reducing pool of players.