D&D General Player Preferences

[Benjamin Olson]

I voted for "highly detailed world" but really what I meant is "world that either through design or DM improvisation is robust enough that there seems to be something to it beyond what we see." I'm not interested in whether someone has hardcore accessed their inner Tolkien, just in whether, say, a city feels like it exists beyond the tavern, shop, and magistrate's office we visit, or at least could exist if we choose to go exploring.

 

[jasper]

otHER bOOT TO MY HEAD

 

[Reynard]

otHER bOOT TO MY HEAD

I don't want to tell you how to live, but if you're having a stroke call an ambulance, man.

 

[Reynard]

So, looking at the results so far, does anything strike anyone as particularly surprising? I am a little surprised at how low the desire for monetary treasure is. I wonder if that is a 5E thing since there is not much to spend it on or if that is an overall D&D thing in which people generally prefer magical items to gold.

 

[prabe]

So, looking at the results so far, does anything strike anyone as particularly surprising? I am a little surprised at how low the desire for monetary treasure is. I wonder if that is a 5E thing since there is not much to spend it on or if that is an overall D&D thing in which people generally prefer magical items to gold.

Maybe instead of "money" people selected the things they'd spend the money on, if they could? I mean, if you promptly spend the money you get from adventuring on, e.g., magical treasure, did you really want the money or the magical treasure?

 

[Lanefan]

So, looking at the results so far, does anything strike anyone as particularly surprising? I am a little surprised at how low the desire for monetary treasure is. I wonder if that is a 5E thing since there is not much to spend it on or if that is an overall D&D thing in which people generally prefer magical items to gold.

Saddened and disappointed in how low both "Detailed world" and "Detailed exploration" are running.

My guess re the low running of "Monetary treasure" echoes yours: in 5e there's not much to spend it on and (by RAW) no magic-item economy. Were this a poll of by-RAW 1e players where gold = xp I think you'd see a very different result!

I'm also a bit disappointed, though not at all surprised, to see how well "Mechanical character advancement" is doing. I see advancement as a side-effect of play rather than the reason for it, but I guess I'm in the minority - again.

 

[Shiroiken]

Wow, apparently I'm a weirdo. I only voted for 3 things: detailed world, detailed NPCs, and player direction. The first two are interlinked for me, giving the setting the game a living feel, rather than a tacked on area to place the adventures. The last one was because I detest railroading, at least if it's obvious (I'll almost always choose to take the "correct" option, but hate being forced to do it).

Ones that I've played entire games without the others and been fine. Well, if you consider dragons to mean creatures as a whole, then I've not done that but could see a campaign based only against humanoid NPCs.

 

[FrogReaver]

Saddened and disappointed in how low both "Detailed world" and "Detailed exploration" are running.

My guess re the low running of "Monetary treasure" echoes yours: in 5e there's not much to spend it on and (by RAW) no magic-item economy. Were this a poll of by-RAW 1e players where gold = xp I think you'd see a very different result!

I'm also a bit disappointed, though not at all surprised, to see how well "Mechanical character advancement" is doing. I see advancement as a side-effect of play rather than the reason for it, but I guess I'm in the minority - again.

I have no idea what detailed exploration meant.

 

[FrogReaver]

So, looking at the results so far, does anything strike anyone as particularly surprising? I am a little surprised at how low the desire for monetary treasure is. I wonder if that is a 5E thing since there is not much to spend it on or if that is an overall D&D thing in which people generally prefer magical items to gold.

I think some of the problem with some options revolves around the qualifies.

"A high degree of"
"highly deteailed"
"Detailed"

Looking at the pool, results with those qualifiers rank among the lowest...

I think these may getting low votes not because whatever they are talking about isn't important to people but because different people place different meanings on those qualifiers - or aren't quite sure what they are talking about. (Normally in polls people don't pick options when they don't know what they mean)

 

[FrogReaver]

The biggest standout to me is that:

"NPCs with depth and personality" is rated higher than "The ability of the PCs to directly and significantly impact the world."