D&D (2024) Is the 5E player base going to split?

[Micah Sweet]

That's also why they stsrted.openly talking about this in 2021, 3 years early. Anyone who buys in the next few years has access to the information that a new revision is coming, and if they can make it worthwhile with new art and improved organization...well, people who bought relatively recently probably won't begrudge it overall.

See, new art and improved organization don't make it worthwhile to me, and that's on top of me mostly not liking the changes they're planning to make anyway.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If it was me doing it (spoiler alert - it's not) I'd present as much as possible of 5.5 as 'options' rather than actual changes. So when you get a Ranger class feature at level 6, for instance, you'd get to choose from a list, including the original PHB feature, or the Tasha's alternate feature, or whatever. Give the monk a d10 hit dice and fix some of the more feeble subclasses while you're at it if you must, and I suspect nobody will complain.

Spell changes being back compatible isn't as big a deal as it was back in 3.x, simply because the Concentration limit means that there's fewer module encounters or PC builds that rely on the complicated interaction of seven different stacking buff spells. Will it probably screw over those people who've built some finely optimised Booming Blade Hexblade/Paladin monstrosity or similar? Well, yeah, inevitably. When you stretch the rules to the edge case, and the rules change to fix up the edges, you're gonna get cut. And frankly, that doesn't bother me at all.

Class design in Level Up basically works the way you describe.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I disagree, it will be adopted but it won't be fast. It will be a steady clip of people moving to it though. People will get over Tasha's and MotM by then and we will have more experience with them. MotM is more how it was handled than anything actually wrong with the material IN the book outside of what was removed from the front of Volo's and ToF.

Unless you don't like how they changed the monsters (particularly spellcasting ones), or removed cultural content from the race rules altogether in favor of a "make up the fluff you want, you don't need mechanics" approach to it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I tend to imagine them as like those poor Japanese soldiers who never found out WW2 was over.

This whole line of reasoning seems condescending to anyone who doesn't care for the current and upcoming revisions. "You'll fall in line eventually" is dismissive.

 

[payn]

This whole line of reasoning seems condescending to anyone who doesn't care for the current and upcoming revisions. "You'll fall in line eventually" is dismissive.

So, they should just stop what they are doing and cater to you?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This whole line of reasoning seems condescending to anyone who doesn't care for the current and upcoming revisions. "You'll fall in line eventually" is dismissive.

Mistaking a cheap joke for a "line of reasoning" suggests to me you might be looking for opportunities to be a victim, personally. YMMV.

If you just misquoted, then the question is, what should happen, should WotC support all editions forever? That doesn't seem entirely practical.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So, they should just stop what they are doing and cater to you?

Of course not (though that would be nice). I'm not saying WotC is dismissive, I'm saying posters who assume that anyone who doesn't like where things are going will eventually go along with it anyway are being dismissive.

 

[Reynard]

So, they should just stop what they are doing and cater to you?

That's not what they are saying. They are saying that it is dismissive to assume there won't be a split because people will just accept whatever WotC does. It is a dismissive attitude, and could well be wrong, too. We will have to wait and see.

What I think could happen is that this "rebuy all your books" move could inspire a lot of people that came to the hobby with 5E to jump ship to other games that do what they want better. It happened in the early 90s and could well happen again.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Mistaking a cheap joke for a "line of reasoning" suggests to me you might be looking for opportunities to be a victim, personally. YMMV.

If you just misquoted, then the question is, what should happen, should WotC support all editions forever? That doesn't seem entirely practical.

It didn't sound like a joke to me. My mistake.

 

[payn]

Of course not (though that would be nice). I'm not saying WotC is dismissive, I'm saying posters who assume that anyone who doesn't like where things are going will eventually go along with it anyway are being dismissive.

That's not what they are saying. They are saying that it is dismissive to assume there won't be a split because people will just accept whatever WotC does. It is a dismissive attitude, and could well be wrong, too. We will have to wait and see.

What I think could happen is that this "rebuy all your books" move could inspire a lot of people that came to the hobby with 5E to jump ship to other games that do what they want better. It happened in the early 90s and could well happen again.

What is the answer? I mean, if they cant do revisions and updates after a decade when can they?