D&D 5E Long time players and 5e’s success

[Warpiglet-7]

double

 

[Warpiglet-7]

It's fascinating to read these few posts from outsider perspective. I grew up in Croatia, good old Balkans. Land of chaos and insanity. My HS years were in early to mid 2000s.

Yes, D&D did attract fair number of geek guys who were into stem hs and also crowd from art hs. But most of people i played with were also into heavy/thrash/power metal, playing music, partying, had decent sucess with girls.

Other very popular rpg at the time, and my first ever, was V:tM. Goth/black/doom metal crowd mostly and decent amount of goth girls played it.

We never had that jock/geek stuff. There was divide by subcultures ( punks, skins, metalheads, football ultras, golden youth etc) but if you were hanging out in the hood, you would probably be ok with everyone. It wasnt uncomon to see metalhead, casual and skinhead chilling together at the park bench sharing booze.

No one gave a flying f if you had geeky hobies.

I am glad times have changed.

It was brutal in middle America where I was. I hid for some time my gaming. Ridiculous!

It’s funny…my friends now all have spouses, families, good lives. We have engineers, healthcare professionals, a lawyer, professor among us.

But at that time it was the kiss of death in my world to play D&D from a social perspective. I had to contend with that Satanic panic garbage too and hide my hobby for a time.

now I can wear my slayer shirts and pound bears with a fistful of dice with no shame in my game. My kids are playing, I can get on here and jaw about it, go to wal mart or target! And see a book.

D&D life is good now. My friend just arranged a game Saturday too! Just gotta get through a couple more days of work…

 

[SteveC]

Oh, I think that argument is coming up more than you realize in this thread and others recently.

I think you know this, but we are 100% on the same side on that issue. Maybe there are some folks I already have on Ignore who are talking about it. If that's the case, I'll definitely do a mea culpa.

 

[billd91]

I think you know this, but we are 100% on the same side on that issue. Maybe there are some folks I already have on Ignore who are talking about it. If that's the case, I'll definitely do a mea culpa.

Definitely a possibility. There are people I haven't ignored mostly to keep an eye on their BS. There are other board members who have put me on ignore whom I suspect doing so for our divergent politics on this issue.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Only reason I play 5th is because it’s easier to find games for. If I run it, I modify it a bit.

If I can truly play my games my way its using OSR like OSE or Shadowdark. I like to keep things simple and frankly stuff like BX are way easier to play and run then 5E

 

[Mournblade94]

We are genX, and we have introduced our kids to d&d, they now play in certain campaigns with the adults. And, they now run and play in their own games with their gaming friends. We have and continue to do our part to pass on the "love the game" despite the absolutely hostile environment of the current scene has become. But you know, you go to a con like GaryCon and vibe is super positive and filled with awesome games and people, it gives you some hope. And the kids play and run games at the cons now as well.

And we spend, huge whale amounts on minis, terrain, accessories and stuff to support the hobby. Not really with wotc any more, used to up to a few years back, but not any more with them. We were all in for 2014 5e, loved it, played in AL, the whole thing! But remember, they don't want my business any more.

This is where I am. Instead of buying D&D 5e after they said alignment and monsters was problematic I bought just about all the books for traveller, castles and crusades, wfrp, and even Fantasy Age.

They made it clear they don't like my game aesthetic so I went elsewhere because WOTC have proven to be bad stewards.

 

[Reynard]

Oh, I think that argument is coming up more than you realize in this thread and others recently.

But I do agree that neurodivergence (or neurodiversities in general) needs to be approached inclusively as well. So I'm prepared to give some leeway if someone appears to be having good-faith trouble with the boundaries.

As someone who runs games at cons, I'm not.

That is, I don't actually care if someone is angrily blasting the W word because they are a jerk or because they are ND. I am not a therapist, and the safety of the rest of the people at the table outweighs the potential that it isn't their fault. I grab a con official and ask to have them removed.

Thankfully it has only happened once in about 10 years of regularly running Con and store games. Most people are decent humans at their core and just want to play. But I have no patience for a player that creates a problem of that sort at my table.

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

This thread is kind of interesting to me because I don't feel like 5e was built to cater to younger players, I'm 30 and it feels like it was built to cater to someone older than me and the 20/30 somethings that make up my extended playgroup and 2024 feels like as small a step toward something a little younger as possible and only because I've heard they're wrapping in the psionic subclasses and some other more magical options in core.

I feel like its built to cater to people who were teenagers before and towards the beginning of third edition or who would have nostalgia for the eighties maybe: low balance, low numbers of total character options, do-it-yourself sensibility, decidedly muted inspirations from anything like anime or current video games in favor of a nostalgic aesthetic in the artwork.

I felt like 4e, the edition I started with in my sophmore year of high school (2010), was the one actively built to appeal to younger players, we were very... unenthused when 5e was coming out, it felt like a huge step into the past, and while I played it for a handful of years for unrelated reasons, it eventually validated my feelings about it and I ended up being like yeah, should have listened to college me.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

This thread is kind of interesting to me because I don't feel like 5e was built to cater to younger players, I'm 30 and it feels like it was built to cater to someone older than me and the 20/30 somethings that make up my extended playgroup and 2024 feels like as small a step toward something a little younger as possible and only because I've heard they're wrapping in the psionic subclasses and some other more magical options in core.

I feel like its built to cater to people who were teenagers before and towards the beginning of third edition or who would have nostalgia for the eighties maybe: low balance, low numbers of total character options, do-it-yourself sensibility, decidedly muted inspirations from anything like anime or current video games in favor of a nostalgic aesthetic in the artwork.

I felt like 4e, the edition I started with in my sophmore year of high school (2010), was the one actively built to appeal to younger players, we were very... unenthused when 5e was coming out, it felt like a huge step into the past, and while I played it for a handful of years for unrelated reasons, it eventually validated my feelings about it and I ended up being like yeah, should have listened to college me.

I actually agree. If we are not axe grinding, there are a lot of stuff that is 3e and AD&D adjacent on 5e.

But…very traditional players aren’t happy either. I think this is because they tried for broad appeal…

It’s like a projective test. What is missing depends on what you are looking for.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

This is where I am. Instead of buying D&D 5e after they said alignment and monsters was problematic I bought just about all the books for traveller, castles and crusades, wfrp, and even Fantasy Age.

They made it clear they don't like my game aesthetic so I went elsewhere because WOTC have proven to be bad stewards.

I like alignment in the old fashioned way. It’s just not popular anymore.

I like evil and good as cosmic forces. Ah well…