D&D 5E Is D&D 90% Combat?

In response to Cubicle 7’s announcement that their next Doctor Who role playing game would be powered by D&D 5E, there was a vehement (and in some places toxic) backlash on social media. While that backlash has several dimensions, one element of it is a claim that D&D is mainly about combat.

Head of D&D Ray Winninger disagreed (with snark!), tweeting "Woke up this morning to Twitter assuring me that [D&D] is "ninety percent combat." I must be playing (and designing) it wrong." WotC's Dan Dillon also said "So guess we're gonna recall all those Wild Beyond the Witchlight books and rework them into combat slogs, yeah? Since we did it wrong."

So, is D&D 90% combat?



And in other news, attacking C7 designers for making games is not OK.

D&D 5E - Doctors & Daleks - Cubicle 7 Brings Doctor Who to D&D 5E

Cubicle 7 -- makers of the official Doctor Who roleplaying game -- has announced that the Doctor will officially be coming to 5E soon under the name Doctors and Daleks. There are no dates or details yet, over than that the Doctors and Daleks Player's Guide will launch 'soon'. A NEW COMPANION...

www.enworld.org

 

[Greggy C]

Even 2e wasn't 90%. Maybe 50% of the 12 hour sessions.

But Dr Who using DnD rules? That seems like a bizarre choice considering most of Dr Who is not combat.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think that the way d&d is structured results in 90% combat with the other 10% being almost entirely dependent on the GM supporting it almost entirely to keep it from collapsing. The gm can stretch how much game time that 10% occupies up or down but still needs to carry it quite a bit. You can massively rebuild the system from the ground up like levelup did to support exploration & such rather than treat it like an interruption to combat that needs to be overcome but most d20/5e forks of d&d don't change the rules enough so you still have what is largely a combat engine with a few extra subsystems tacked on.

One of many reasons why Level Up is the superior beast. They actually want people to engage in exploration and social play, and include rules to that effect.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Even 2e wasn't 90%. Maybe 50% of the 12 hour sessions.

But Dr Who using DnD rules? That seems like a bizarre choice considering most of Dr Who is not combat.

As has been said, it's surely a marketing decision. Don't blame Cubicle Seven, blame the legions of lazy gamers unwilling to try systems that aren't 5e.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

So, is D&D 90% combat?

And in other news, attacking C7 designers for making games is not OK.

the newer the books the less combat they are. I think 5e has moved more and more to non combat.

 

[Micah Sweet]

the newer the books the less combat they are. I think 5e has moved more and more to non combat.

Interesting to see how they handle the core book reprints in 2024. Not exactly compatible if they don't have a huge amount of combat stuff in them.

 

[Weiley31]

I'm so confused by something.

Just because the new Dr. Who game uses 5E rules doesn't mean its going to have 5E's imbalance of stuff. They are likely making completely new character options and subsystems to go with those options that focuses more on Dr. Who. Why is the assumption that a OGL game has to stick strictly to 5E's gameplay loop?

This is the EXACT same thing that happened when they did Adventures in Middle-Earth: It was 5E engine wise under the hood, but the wonderful folks at Cubicle 7 managed to create a number of neat subsystems: The standouts being the Journeys/Audiences/Fellowship mechanics. Those were pretty much subsystems for the Exploration and Social Pillars of standard Dungeons and Dragons 5E. Expanded subsystems that originated from a 3rd party and WoTC has yet to come up with a decent stand in for the official version. Heck they even made somewhat of a Crafting system for 5E and it even involved the use of spending your own Hit Dies if you wanted to push your chances at success as well.

Since Doctor Who isn't a series known for solving problems with combat, Doctors & Daleks could end up expanding upon the Journeys/Audiences/Fellowships mechanics that were established by Cubicle 7 before. And such mechanics/refinement could be jacked and used in other 5E games/systems. And who knows, if such a thing becomes popular enough, then WoTC might actually refine the Exploration/Social pillars for 5.5. or even 6E.

 

[J.Quondam]

As has been said, it's surely a marketing decision. Don't blame Cubicle Seven, blame the legions of lazy gamers unwilling to try systems that aren't 5e.

I honestly don't think most gamers' unwillingness stems from being "lazy", so much as just being casual. The vast majority of gamers today simply aren't obsessive game-system nerds.

 

[Greggy C]

As has been said, it's surely a marketing decision. Don't blame Cubicle Seven, blame the legions of lazy gamers unwilling to try systems that aren't 5e.

Well I'm keen to see the 10 page sonic screwdriver artifact description.

 

[Micah Sweet]

This is the EXACT same thing that happened when they did Adventures in Middle-Earth: It was 5E engine wise under the hood, but the wonderful folks at Cubicle 7 managed to create a number of neat subsystems: The standouts being the Journeys/Audiences/Fellowship mechanics. Those were pretty much subsystem for the Exploration and Social Pillars of standard Dungeons and Dragons 5E. Expanded subsystems that originated from a 3rd party and WoTC has yet to come up with a decent stand in for the official version. Heck they even made somewhat of a Crafting system for 5E and it even involved the use of spending your own Hit Dies if you wanted to push your chances at success as well.

Since Doctor Who isn't a series known for solving problems with combat, Doctors & Daleks could end up expanding upon the Journeys/Audiences/Fellowships mechanics that were established by Cubicle 7 before. And such mechanics/refinement could be jacked and used in other 5E games/systems. And who knows, if such a thing becomes popular enough, then WoTC might actually refine the Exploration/Social pillars for 5.5. or even 6E.

Those are great systems, and I believe they were an inspiration for Level Up. But unfortunately they didn't have an influence on WotC then, and I see no reason they would now. WotC would just see it as "uneeded complexity" for a game they desperately want to simplfy even further to keep bringing in the shiny new players.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I honestly don't think most gamers' unwillingness stems from being "lazy", so much as just being casual. The vast majority of gamers today simply aren't obsessive game-system nerds.

I can accept that, but either way, the point is most gamers simply don't care that the hobby extends beyond D&D.