Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Some things I don't care for in the D&D culture
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 6660878" data-attributes="member: 6677017"><p>I tend to think something is going wrong if my party always acts in ways that I have predicted--or rather if I have everything planned out ahead of time. But then again, I love to improvise--it's probably my favorite part of DMing--and it is the style that is least hampered by creative players.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I take the opposite preference on this, and think D&D <em>is</em> at its best when it is trying to be the best D&D than when it is trying to do something new. However, I can sympathize with that not necessarily having been my view back in the TSR days.</p><p></p><p>So what has changed?</p><p></p><p>I think it really comes down to backwards compatibility. AD&D (1e+2e) lasted for a looong time, as editions go. They built up this multiverse with a lot of settings and ways they were connected. For a lot of us, that became D&D for us. New settings came out, and you could, if you so chose, get on a spelljamming ship, or hop through a portal and <em>go there.</em> It was all a part of D&DLand.</p><p></p><p>So now we have a situation where D&D = D&DLand for a lot of people. Then they release a new set of rules, and for the majority of players, those rules are...better. I just can't play AD&D anymore--I got sick of the rules before the edition was even over (I actually stopped playing it in the 90s because the rules bothered me). So new rules are coming out, and I think, "Yay, now I can travel back to D&DLand!"</p><p></p><p>Except, I can't. Not without a bit of effort at least. The great wheel was more or less intact, except they gutted out some of the fun stuff. Half the compaign settings got, at best, authorized fan support, and the monsters you wanted right now were sprinkled over years and years of products, with initial releases filling up that space with the 'new and exciting.' New and exciting was great in 2e, because everything was going to be new and exciting, since publication continuity was still linear and unbroken. Once 3e came around my thought was, "Dangit--forget this new crap <em>until you have updated D&DLand to this new rules set!"</em></p><p></p><p>So it's not that the new stuff isn't interesting, it's that we never asked for the old stuff to be thrown out when the mechanics updated. I want D&DLand, and I don't want to have to spend massive amounts of time doing it myself (monsters are probably one of the most needed official updates), <em>so I can keep playing the same game I was with newer and better mechanics.</em></p><p></p><p>It's kind of like WotC is saying, "Okay, finish up your old campaign. D&DLand is no more. Try this sequel now!" What?! I didn't want a new game. It's New World of Darkness replacing Old World of Darkness--that isn't an edition change, that's a new related game. (4e, of course, was even worse than 3e in that regards).</p><p></p><p>5e is definitely a step in the right direction. They've recognized my demographic exists and realized that embracing D&DLand, along with the things that later editions added to it is better than just making a new related game world. There are still some issues with unfortunate and unneccessary continuity (I'm looking at you, Yugoloth backstory fiasco.) But in general, I don't have to do much to run D&DLand in 5e. All I really need now (other than psionics and some gestalt multiclassing rules) is another monster manual that includes many of the essential planar monsters to fill out the Great Wheel, and some other iconics (like gem dragons and more fey), and some basic spelljamming stuff, and I'm good to go with D&DLand in my favorite ruleset (5e). Then feel free to add all the worlds and settings you want. I can hop a ship and <em>go there.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sword of Spirit, post: 6660878, member: 6677017"] I tend to think something is going wrong if my party always acts in ways that I have predicted--or rather if I have everything planned out ahead of time. But then again, I love to improvise--it's probably my favorite part of DMing--and it is the style that is least hampered by creative players. I take the opposite preference on this, and think D&D [I]is[/I] at its best when it is trying to be the best D&D than when it is trying to do something new. However, I can sympathize with that not necessarily having been my view back in the TSR days. So what has changed? I think it really comes down to backwards compatibility. AD&D (1e+2e) lasted for a looong time, as editions go. They built up this multiverse with a lot of settings and ways they were connected. For a lot of us, that became D&D for us. New settings came out, and you could, if you so chose, get on a spelljamming ship, or hop through a portal and [I]go there.[/I] It was all a part of D&DLand. So now we have a situation where D&D = D&DLand for a lot of people. Then they release a new set of rules, and for the majority of players, those rules are...better. I just can't play AD&D anymore--I got sick of the rules before the edition was even over (I actually stopped playing it in the 90s because the rules bothered me). So new rules are coming out, and I think, "Yay, now I can travel back to D&DLand!" Except, I can't. Not without a bit of effort at least. The great wheel was more or less intact, except they gutted out some of the fun stuff. Half the compaign settings got, at best, authorized fan support, and the monsters you wanted right now were sprinkled over years and years of products, with initial releases filling up that space with the 'new and exciting.' New and exciting was great in 2e, because everything was going to be new and exciting, since publication continuity was still linear and unbroken. Once 3e came around my thought was, "Dangit--forget this new crap [I]until you have updated D&DLand to this new rules set!"[/I] So it's not that the new stuff isn't interesting, it's that we never asked for the old stuff to be thrown out when the mechanics updated. I want D&DLand, and I don't want to have to spend massive amounts of time doing it myself (monsters are probably one of the most needed official updates), [I]so I can keep playing the same game I was with newer and better mechanics.[/I] It's kind of like WotC is saying, "Okay, finish up your old campaign. D&DLand is no more. Try this sequel now!" What?! I didn't want a new game. It's New World of Darkness replacing Old World of Darkness--that isn't an edition change, that's a new related game. (4e, of course, was even worse than 3e in that regards). 5e is definitely a step in the right direction. They've recognized my demographic exists and realized that embracing D&DLand, along with the things that later editions added to it is better than just making a new related game world. There are still some issues with unfortunate and unneccessary continuity (I'm looking at you, Yugoloth backstory fiasco.) But in general, I don't have to do much to run D&DLand in 5e. All I really need now (other than psionics and some gestalt multiclassing rules) is another monster manual that includes many of the essential planar monsters to fill out the Great Wheel, and some other iconics (like gem dragons and more fey), and some basic spelljamming stuff, and I'm good to go with D&DLand in my favorite ruleset (5e). Then feel free to add all the worlds and settings you want. I can hop a ship and [I]go there.[/I] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Some things I don't care for in the D&D culture
Top