D&D General Stuff 5E Did Right

GrimCo

Hero
I’ve been a player and DM since 1993. Now I’m a dad with a demanding job and a big house. I want D&D to be simple and easy to play. My friends are in the same situation as me. We like 5E because it’s easier to play than 3E and 4E.
Bit younger than you, but in the same boat. My group is similar. We are all veteran players (20-25 years of playing ttrpgs), but we are also dads with small kids (1-7 y.o), demanding jobs, and d&d isn't only hobby for any of us. So just like your group, mine also likes 5e cause it's still d&d, but it's easier to run and play than older editions (3.x/PF1 i'm looking at you).
 

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Zardnaar

Legend
Bit younger than you, but in the same boat. My group is similar. We are all veteran players (20-25 years of playing ttrpgs), but we are also dads with small kids (1-7 y.o), demanding jobs, and d&d isn't only hobby for any of us. So just like your group, mine also likes 5e cause it's still d&d, but it's easier to run and play than older editions (3.x/PF1 i'm looking at you).

Similar boat sans the kids.

Picked up PF2 and bleah. PF1 maybe if someone else runs it.

BECMI/Basic for the win lol. No one hates them.
 
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Tonguez

A suffusion of yellow
Well it's easy to focus on the negatives of WotC bring a terrible company. Never the less I think they did a few things very well that contributed to the success of 5E blowing up. Some of this is in concept even if the execution was off here and there.

1. Advantage and disadvantage mechanic. Personally I was over the number bloat of 3E, 4E and Pathfinder. Hell throw in Star Wars Saga Edition. Mathematics isn't fun rolling dice is. Very newbie/DM friendly.


3. Opt in complexity. Yes the champion might not be to exciting and we probably love our feats. A feats probably better than an ASI but ASI is still good in your prime stat early on. The champion might not be for you play something else.

4. Bounded accuracy. Didn't work as intended but smaller numbers are good. Think I would personally prefer stretching +6 over 20 levels to +10 a'la 4E but use B/X stat array (18's capped at +3).


8. Excellent Starter Sets. Both the starter sets and essentials are very good for onboarding newer players. They all have their flaws. A great one would have LMoP (S tier adventure. B tier product)with a tweaked opening encounter, the bells and whistles of the essentials box and pre constructed characters from DoSI.

I agree with these, the Advantage/Dis system is a bit of gaming genius and as much as I liked 3e stacking bonuses I think bounded accuracy has worked out okay

OOC:
5. The round structure. Very similar to 4E but you cant swap a move action into bonus (minor) action. This is good it's less complicated and you can dodge various exploits. You could use it to clone any previous edition tweaking it as required eg minor action becomes a bonus action and you can swap a move action.

6. Monster design. They kinda screwed up the monster design part but large using a d10 HD, huge d12, small d6 is quite good. One could also tweak the 5E monsters to redo older editions. Eg a B/X ogre being upgraded to 1d10 vs d8 HD is a buff that's not going to wreck the game. You could also use older edition design concepts eg 4E ones or adding old school energy drains and SR if you desired.

7. Lower complexity in general. Got a laugh at my newbie friendly beginners game. I handed a 13 year old player 900 pages of the core rules and told him to make a character in 15 minutes. Instead I supplied each player with a 2 page cheat cheat summarizing the 5E round structure and what to do.


I dont agree with these, I think the monster design is terrible and the lower complexity has resulted in a more boring game,

then again the best thing about 5e Monsters is lair actions and regional effects to the extent that I tend to design encounters around those with the monster just been there 'in principle'
 

Zardnaar

Legend
I agree with these, the Advantage/Dis system is a bit of gaming genius and as much as I liked 3e stacking bonuses I think bounded accuracy has worked out okay

OOC:
5. The round structure. Very similar to 4E but you cant swap a move action into bonus (minor) action. This is good it's less complicated and you can dodge various exploits. You could use it to clone any previous edition tweaking it as required eg minor action becomes a bonus action and you can swap a move action.

6. Monster design. They kinda screwed up the monster design part but large using a d10 HD, huge d12, small d6 is quite good. One could also tweak the 5E monsters to redo older editions. Eg a B/X ogre being upgraded to 1d10 vs d8 HD is a buff that's not going to wreck the game. You could also use older edition design concepts eg 4E ones or adding old school energy drains and SR if you desired.

7. Lower complexity in general. Got a laugh at my newbie friendly beginners game. I handed a 13 year old player 900 pages of the core rules and told him to make a character in 15 minutes. Instead I supplied each player with a 2 page cheat cheat summarizing the 5E round structure and what to do.


I dont agree with these, I think the monster design is terrible and the lower complexity has resulted in a more boring game,

then again the best thing about 5e Monsters is lair actions and regional effects to the extent that I tend to design encounters around those with the monster just been there 'in principle'

The monster chasis is great, the design is not.
 

Micah Sweet

Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
I’ve been a player and DM since 1993. Now I’m a dad with a demanding job and a big house. I want D&D to be simple and easy to play. My friends are in the same situation as me. We like 5E because it’s easier to play than 3E and 4E.
Right. As I said, subjective. Simple might be better for you; it is not just better.
 

Oofta

Legend
Supporter
Right. As I said, subjective. Simple might be better for you; it is not just better.

Is there a point to anything you've posted on this thread? You don't like 5E. We get it. You've told us over and over again. Meanwhile the person you just responded stated they like playing 5E and gave reasons. They said nothing about "better". It's better for them, just like it's better for me and the people I play with because we value aspects of the game that you do not.
 

GrimCo

Hero
Yep. We are focusing on the things that 5e did right for the people that like 5e. What made it attractive to so many players, be it new or old.
 

Micah Sweet

Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Is there a point to anything you've posted on this thread? You don't like 5E. We get it. You've told us over and over again. Meanwhile the person you just responded stated they like playing 5E and gave reasons. They said nothing about "better". It's better for them, just like it's better for me and the people I play with because we value aspects of the game that you do not.
I don't like official D&D as much as I like Level Up and other 5e games and supplements. Official D&D and Level Up et al are all 5e. Even then I liked D&D fine until about Tasha's or so, mostly. Everything official has been going downhill for me faster and faster ever since.

I also believe that a game should be judged and valued based on what it does for all the people who play it, not just on how well it gets new players on board.
 



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