D&D General Styles of D&D Play

[Oofta]

Like I said....most gamers leave 5E after a time....no never game again. But there is always enough of an flow of new gamers in to replace them.

While there has always been a percentage of people that stop playing at a certain point because of busy careers, kids, and other responsibilities, that has nothing to do with 5E. It's certainly far less than what I personally saw with 4E. In fact the retention rate appears to be higher than ever because people are more accepting of the activity as a worthwhile leisure activity.

Unless of course you have something to back up your assertion other than your opinion.

 

[Lanefan]

And why this is a never-ending argument. Because the play styles happen all the time which means that they are supported. They just don't have the spelled out gamified total support you want.

Comes back to the difference between passive support (which is often all that's needed) and active support.

For me (and, I suspect, many) passive support is good enough - if a system doesn't get in the way and otherwise remains neutral, to me that's passive support: you can do it because there's nothing saying you can't.

And in a few major cases, passive support is arguably much better than active support: in-character social interactions, I'm looking at you as I say this.

 

[Lanefan]

Because the OP claimed the game supports all those styles.

It does.

It supports them by not opposing them.

Silence, in this case, is consent; and consent, in this case, is support.

 

[Lanefan]

Supported and Allowed are different things.

I can carry a toddler. = Supported.
I can let a toddler walk with me. = Allowed

And supported, in comparison to letting the toddler wander off alone.

 

[hgjertsen]

It does.

It supports them by not opposing them.

Silence, in this case, is consent; and consent, in this case, is support.

Not the best metaphor you could have used but I think quibbling over the definition of support sort of sidesteps the issue of the OP being so vague as to be equivalent to saying that the Novel supports both horror and romance genres, there wasn't much discussion of mechanical support for the narrative to begin with so any that comes in is bound to be muddled.

 

[Oofta]

Comes back to the difference between passive support (which is often all that's needed) and active support.

For me (and, I suspect, many) passive support is good enough - if a system doesn't get in the way and otherwise remains neutral, to me that's passive support: you can do it because there's nothing saying you can't.

And in a few major cases, passive support is arguably much better than active support: in-character social interactions, I'm looking at you as I say this.

In addition to the freeform play we've always done in 5E we have skills, backgrounds, guidance on handling social encounters, etc. which for the most part are useless in a hack-and-slash campaign. Those things may not be "enough" for some people but they do exist. So saying there are no rules is false.

 

[Lanefan]

It doesn't even have to be a tie in.

An original setting.

Doesn't even have to be an original setting.

Tweak and reboot Birthright and you're good to go.

Imagine a noble family of Bahamut worshipper, a family of arcanists, and a family of martial mercenaries vying for the throne and setting up an adventuring party to find lost royal artifacts.

 

[Minigiant]

Doesn't even have to be an original setting.

Tweak and reboot Birthright and you're good to go.

No make a dang new setting dangnsbbit.

There the issue. Stop leaning on nostalgia and make variant rules and variant settings for the people who have variant playstyles.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It does.

It supports them by not opposing them.

Silence, in this case, is consent; and consent, in this case, is support.

Have to disagree with that. Lack of opposition is not support.

 

[Micah Sweet]

No make a dang new setting dangnsbbit.

There the issue. Stop leaning on nostalgia and make variant rules and variant settings for the people who have variant playstyles.

WotC doesn't make new settings, at least not ones with any detail to them.