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

 

[GMforPowergamers]

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.

Adventurers in Middle-Earth has some of the best Martial love. I would love to run any D&D setting useing only those rules.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Those are great systems, and I believe they were an inspiration for Level Up.

I mean... we have @Morrus we can just ask...its' his site and this might give him the excuse to sales pitch it.

 

[jaynay27]

Who TF is attacking designers over this?
I really miss the days when if someone didn't like something they just moved on quietly and let other enjoy it if they wanted to.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Who TF is attacking designers over this?
I really miss the days when if someone didn't like something they just moved on quietly and let other enjoy it if they wanted to.

Yeah, sometimes I miss the days before the internet too.

 

[Parmandur]

The game mechanics in the books, mostly yes.

The game as people actually play it at the table, mostly no.

As discussed in the Doctor Who thread, the fact that Wild Beyond the Witchlight had to be marketed as having the potential to be completed without combat and apparently has special rules written to allow this proves the general point.

Well, there are no special rules for it in the book, Perkins just made sure every encounter had social options built in on the character and plot level, which anyone can do anytime anyways.

 

[overgeeked]

Well, there are no special rules for it in the book, Perkins just made sure every encounter had social options built in on the character and plot level, which anyone can do anytime anyways.

Right. The fact that it was used as a sales pitch in the marketing and explicitly called out in the text, it kinda proves the point. D&D is so combat focused that it’s worth noting when you can complete a whole module without killing anything.

“One of the many novelties of this adventure is that the characters can accomplish their goals without resorting to violence—but only if they're clever. They can fight their way through the adventure as well, but the odds won't always be in their favor.” WBtW, p4

So not murdering your way through a module is considered a novelty by the designers. Then it’s immediately followed by, “don’t worry you can still murder your way through it all.” That tells you the whole story right there.

 

[jmartkdr2]

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.

5e plays fine, they're having fun and don't experience any problems - why invest in a new tool when the current one is working fine?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Well, there are no special rules for it in the book, Perkins just made sure every encounter had social options built in on the character and plot level, which anyone can do anytime anyways.

someone in another thread said Strixhaven has this too.

 

[AverageMojito]

A designer saying they don't design D&D geared towards combat is one hell of a joke.

Sure most of us don't play with "90% combat" (myself included). Yet the keyword used is DESIGN. And the game design geared towards combat sticks out a mile. Please...

 

[Greggy C]

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.

That all sounds great. And makes sense for a middle-earth or any fantasy adventure.

But Dr Who? So you take the core rulebooks and you remove a) all classes b) all spells c) all magic items d) most of the feats e) 95% of the monsters

Then you add in mechanics and random tables for a) tardis b) time travel c) space travel d) intergalactic politics e) aliens etc

So really you reuse stats and combat sequence and not much more, but you call it 5e just for marketing purposes, got it.