D&D General Playstyle vs Mechanics

[Oofta]

Second favourite RPG is still an RPG that the person enjoys and will happily play though, right? Hardly offensive, or a criticism.

I'm done repeating myself on this.

 

[TwoSix]

Second favourite RPG is still an RPG that the person enjoys and will happily play though, right? Hardly offensive, or a criticism.

I remind all my children that "second-favorite" isn't a bad place to be.

 

[soviet]

I'm done repeating myself on this.

OK

 

[Micah Sweet]

And I'm saying that your personal opinion isn't proof of anything. It's not the second favorite for a lot of people because they have different preferences than you do. It's not just "acceptable", it's an enjoyable game. Given infinite time to play and resources perhaps I could find a different game that I prefer more but that's irrelevant. There will always going to be some hypothetical "better".

Calling people who play and enjoy D&D "the great unwashed masses" because you happen to like other games is an insult. The majority of people who played D&D in the 21st century have been playing 5E because of it's increased popularity (which has many, many factors), but plenty of people jumped ship during 4E. I gave 4E the old college try, when I decided it was no longer working for me I considered options. As it happened 5E was that option.

There is no "best" product for everyone. D&D 5E is not everyone's second choice, even if it is the second choice for a vocal minority.

I would wonder actually how many people with good grounding in at least a few other RPGs (of any sort) would still rate D&D 5e/5.5 as their #1 favorite, based on any metric other than its general popularity.

 

[soviet]

I remind all my children that "second-favorite" isn't a bad place to be.

Wait, all? Are you lying to one of them?

 

[TwoSix]

Wait, all? Are you lying to one of them?

I'm lying to all of them, I don't actually like them.

 

[payn]

While that might be true, I think that more often this sort of rebuttal is used to avoid discussing the merits of why the mechanic was declared "bad" by making it about someone's play style instead of pointing a ray of sunlight at the reasons why someone with a different play style considers it "good" by openly saying what is often the quiet part of it's support out loud where it might be criticized in turn.

I can discuss mechanics and play styles with folks I dont agree with. I dont need to be right.

 

[soviet]

I would wonder actually how many people with good grounding in at least a few other RPGs (of any sort) would still rate D&D 5e/5.5 as their #1 favorite, based on any metric other than its general popularity.

To be fair I've been playing the same D&D campaign since 1990, with the same GM, and the other players started in it around 2000 witth the latest addition 2008. We've played through 2e, 2.5, 3e, 3.5, 4e, and 5e. Whichever one was currently in print was always seen by the others as the best one, and then was criticised only after it had been replaced.

Basically D&D editions are like monarchs.

EDIT: And while I'm more 'other RPG-curious' than the rest of my group, they've all played other games including some indie/nontrad stuff

 

[Micah Sweet]

Based on ... what exactly? Do you have any polls, any justification for your claim other than your personal opinion? Is it everyone's first choice? No, of course not. It's no everyone's second choice either. For pretty much everyone I play with it's our first choice.




They've been using a lot of dismissive terms. D&D is able to get away with murder is another example, or that people don't know that other TTRPGs don't exist which is condescending to a whole lot of people. Calling D&D everyone's second favorite is telling people that they would agree with you if they just knew better.

Your point of view, obviously. I don't see his comments that way. The 5e ruleset, for me, is no higher than #3, but I still play it a lot because of the ruleset's base popularity and because I can fiddle with it to make it more what I want.

 

[TwoSix]

I can discuss mechanics and play styles with folks I dont agree with. I dont need to be right.

Me either; I'm just not sure why it keeps happening.