D&D 5E (2014) New D&D WotC survey asks if you read ENWORLD!

[Lanefan]

Settings: Homebrew-from-scratch, Mystara, Birthright - at least I think that's what I put.

 

[Greg K]

Jein. They asked for top three games - unspecified - that you played on the same page and immediately following them asking about video games. The implication for me was that the question was about video games.

Lol. It may have been. I was in a hurry to go apply medication and change a surgical dressing and , not being a player of video games, it never crossed my mind.

 

[Greg K]

For settings, I chose Homebrew (from scratch), Darksun, and Ravenloft. I really wish there I had one more available choice to add in Al Qadim (and had their been a fifth, I would have added Greyhawk (Gygax 1e))

 

[tetrasodium]

Something that came up in a session earlier reminded me of how much I hate one of the utterly thousand percent useless questions on the survey that keeps coming up.

Something like "How important is it for you to take charge & lead the party" not at all somewhat very important".
Players were in DiA, specifically Idyllglen fighting yeenagu after a long battle with many gnolls, many dretch, & some powerful fiends worthy of a fight on their own. Much of the fight up to this point, artificer has been using web to lock down the trash for the barbarians he needs to keep arguing with about how all of those critters will swarm & kill their healbot if they don't clean up & many spell slots have been burned on it including one because guy with the shield cast fireball on a freshly webbed batch of dretch but all that is passed & the party is fighting yeenagu on a battle that looks like this

B1 barbarian1, b2 barbarian2, Y yeenagu, Druid, T 3d8+int temp hp generating turret, off to the side are A Artificer & V Vrock

Through pretty much idyllglen the artificer has been ignoring the vrock & imposing disadvantage on things like a marilith, barlgura, & other high cr nasties to keep the druid up with the turret & the moon druid's own heals. Due to the turret, the barbarians have pretty much kept at full hp or close to it but druid & artificer are running low on slots. Yeenagu is no slouch but the artificer is miraculously managing to keep everyone up aside from B1 who refuses to swing around to be within 10 feet of the turret or throw a javelin at the vrock because he wants to have advantage from flanking & doesn't care that the vrock is keeping the artificer from faerie fire yeenagu. Predictably a group that could have stomped all over & killed yeenagu is left needing to be saved by zariel's arrival

To answer the question, it's of critical importance well beyond extremely important for some characters to take charge & direct the battle in addition the inverse for other characters at times.

Exploring an unknown passage is the kind of situation a sneaky rogue or crunchy fighter/barbarian being in charge might be extremely important. A hectic fight where a god wizard type controller/debuffer/buffer is juggling the baddies might be the kind of situation where everyone needs to jump when that PC tells them to jump how they tell them. fight where damage is building or looks incoming is absolutely the time where the healer saying "no we/you need to do this & that because I can't waste healing on a stupid strategy.. so on & so forth

The question is problematic because it is both of those things & the same with nearly every situation including "do we go left or right">"actually I'm going to split the party" and both sides of "should individual PCs be powerful enough to ignore a healer/controller/etc trying to fill their role" vrs "should a healer/controller/etc habe enough clout to direct the party strategy".

 

[Lanefan]

Something that came up in a session earlier reminded me of how much I hate one of the utterly thousand percent useless questions on the survey that keeps coming up.

Something like "How important is it for you to take charge & lead the party" not at all somewhat very important".

[...]

To answer the question, it's of critical importance well beyond extremely important for some characters to take charge & direct the battle in addition the inverse for other characters at times.

The question is more "How important is it that YOU be that in-charge character most of the time?"...at least, that's how I read it.

Put another way, it's asking whether you play the game to lead or to follow.

 

[guachi]

I totally forgot to write-in Al-Qadim (or was that a choice?). I completely skipped buying the setting when it came out but, as I'm an Arabic linguist now, I bought all the Al-Qadim stuff off of ebay, all of which was in incredible shape, way back in 2015.

That setting is loads of fun. It oozes style and fun. The mini-boxed set adventures are amazing. Maybe they don't need a 5th edition book for it, but I seriously think that different Earth cultures need representation in D&D. It's a definite plus of the leatherette guidebooks for 2e that represented many cultures in Europe besides the standard medieval setting.

 

[Don Durito]

I totally forgot to write-in Al-Qadim (or was that a choice?). I completely skipped buying the setting when it came out but, as I'm an Arabic linguist now, I bought all the Al-Qadim stuff off of ebay, all of which was in incredible shape, way back in 2015.

That setting is loads of fun. It oozes style and fun. The mini-boxed set adventures are amazing. Maybe they don't need a 5th edition book for it, but I seriously think that different Earth cultures need representation in D&D. It's a definite plus of the leatherette guidebooks for 2e that represented many cultures in Europe besides the standard medieval setting.

Unfortunately in the current climate it's extermely unlikely that any setting based on a non-European culture would be published.

 

[wingsandsword]

I totally forgot to write-in Al-Qadim (or was that a choice?). I completely skipped buying the setting when it came out but, as I'm an Arabic linguist now, I bought all the Al-Qadim stuff off of ebay, all of which was in incredible shape, way back in 2015.

That setting is loads of fun. It oozes style and fun. The mini-boxed set adventures are amazing. Maybe they don't need a 5th edition book for it, but I seriously think that different Earth cultures need representation in D&D. It's a definite plus of the leatherette guidebooks for 2e that represented many cultures in Europe besides the standard medieval setting.

While I very strongly agree with this, some people apparently get profoundly offended when any non-European setting is published and WotC is far, far too adverse to controversy to publish Al-Qadim, Maztica, or Kara Tur in the current cultural/political climate.

There was a huge, long, very heated thread here back in the Spring about it. Suffice it to say I really wish they'd continue those settings, but some people feel very strongly that those settings are inherently racist. The controversy even lead to WotC to put a disclaimer on .pdf sales of old AD&D materials.

 

[Azzy]

While I very strongly agree with this, some people apparently get profoundly offended when any non-European setting is published and WotC is far, far too adverse to controversy to publish Al-Qadim, Maztica, or Kara Tur in the current cultural/political climate.

No, not really. Were WotC hire the appropriate cultural consultans and sensitivity writers, a non-European setting would likely be greatly welcomed.

There was a huge, long, very heated thread here back in the Spring about it. Suffice it to say I really wish they'd continue those settings, but some people feel very strongly that those settings are inherently racist. The controversy even lead to WotC to put a disclaimer on .pdf sales of old AD&D materials.

No, the settings are not viewed as inherently racist. The presentation of those settings are fraught with unwitting racist stereotypes, exotification, and othering. There may be something to salvage, but it's going to take a bit of an overhaul and better presentation. Fortunately, with Zakhara, Kara-Tur, and Maztica being a part of the Forgotten Realms, there's a built in licence to overhaul those sub-settings—the Time of Troubles (for Kara-Tur, which came out in 1e), the Shadoweave becoming a thing, the Spellplague, the calendar progressing 100 years, and then the Sundering.