D&D General Talking about Stepping Away from D&D?

[iserith]

Easiest way to avoid being lied to is to just stop listening to what they have to say.

Play the game because your family and friends want to play the game, and stop worrying about the company that makes it. Why let them live rent-free in your head by reading up on everything they do? After all... if you keep digging and looking long enough, you'll find every single company and person in the entire world will have done something you disapproved of.

And if you can't handle that truth... then you have to just let it go.

(EDIT) Apparently @iserith had the same thought.

Seems to me that we should all of us be having that thought. "This thing I'm voluntarily doing is making me miserable." Well, maybe stop doing that? It worked for me and burpees.

 

[schneeland]

I want them to stop lying to me. I was basically okay with everything after the Creative Commons solution. It is Kyle Brink that is pushing me over the edge now.

As the two previous comments already mention: if you are at a point where your well-being depends on a large corporation and its PR people to treat you with honesty, that's a clear sign to take a step back and shield yourself from the negative influence.
The main question you will have to answer is if you could enjoy continued play of 5e when blanking out WotC for a moment. If the answer is yes, then taking a break from online discussion and news around WotC will probably do. I seem to remember, though, that you already commented on 5e not really matching your personal preferences anymore. If that's the case, then even the best possible behavior on WotC's side will probably not be enough to mitigate that dissatisfaction.
Assuming you want to keep the groups going, among others because it allows to share hobby time with your wife and a teenager who benefits from it, maybe you can gracefully ramp the current campaign down, then switch to another system that is similar enough to 5e and classic fantasy gaming, so people would still enjoy it. Examples I could think of would be Shadow of the Demonlord, or, if you are willing to step away from the d20, Free League's Forbidden Lands (Shadow of the Weird Wizard or Dragonbane would be probably even better, but both will not be out until later this year).

 

[Oofta]

Wasn't 1.2 the one they had the survey to review? Are we5 talking about 1.1 (which was the really "draconian" one)?

I want them to stop lying to me. I was basically okay with everything after the Creative Commons solution. It is Kyle Brink that is pushing me over the edge now.

You're assuming they're lying. I don't have insider info, we know that several "inside scoops" were fabricated. Maybe it's corporate spin, maybe not.

But I assume no corporation is 100% truthful. Heck, I don't assume people are 100% truthful. I can enjoy a product without liking every aspect of a company. On a scale of 1 to using child slavery, corporate spin ranks pretty low on my corporate offense scale.

 

[Blue]

I had the talk at one table prior to the current situation that I wouldn'\t be buying any more WotC products. That I'd play 5e but not have access to anything new, and would not be picking up the 2024 Anniversary Edition. If they wanted to move on to 2024 I'd be glad to play other games with them but I'd be leaving the main campaign. Some understood, some didn't understand the importance of the situation but were supportive that I felt strongly about it.

But a few of us have been trying to get other systems into that group for a while - not as a replacement to do D&D better than D&D does (though for any particular table there may be those out there) but to play games that D&D doesn't do particularly well. We'd flirted with them, but while they are all good roleplayers it's a mix of how much people are willing to invest in a game system and some don't have the energy to learn new ones with everything going on.

On the other hand, in another group we're currently playing 1920s Pulp Call of Cthulhu, and the last time that group played D&D was a 3.5 campaign that lasted a year or two into 4e's release.

Yet another group I put together and run, so when the current campaign finishes I'll propose what I want to run next and we'll go from there.

 

[Clint_L]

My main problem is that I am far more passionate about D&D, and gaming in general, than my players. I live and breathe this stuff. They enjoy it, but it is far from a priority. I, on the other hand, already have a timer set for the launch of Dwarven Forge's latest Kickstarter (9AM on Sunday!).

So we'll play a ton for awhile, but then they all get busy with other stuff and a whole campaign goes on the back burner, leaving me far too much time to spend on forums (but bless online forums for letting me debate and discuss with other passionate fans).

 

[Parmandur]

Not to sound like a complete nonsequitur...but have you considered taking up meditation? 15 minutes of mindclearing breathing exercises a day can do wonders for stresses like this.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But I assume no corporation is 100% truthful.

It can't be, a corporation has a duty to it's shareholders to talk up the business and avoid talking down the business.

See this for an example of what happens when corporations are too honest: Gerald Ratner's 'crap' comment haunts jewellery chain: from the archive, 22 August 1992

 

[kenada]

I'm wondering how the discussion might go. How do I address that I want to stop playing their favorite game because of some idealogical dispute with a corporation? How do I frame this in a way so we can all keep having fun without me looking even more dishevelled than usual?

When I’ve wanted to switch systems, I tell my players I don’t feel like running the current one anymore. Sometimes I frame that as a pitch for what I think the new one does better.

In your case, it might be better to say you’re just not happy with 5e right now and would like to take a break from it. Leave it at that. If you try to explain why, people might take that as an invitation to convince you otherwise, but you shouldn’t feel pressured into doing anything you don’t want to do.

 

[Parmandur]

Ome way to approach this would be to pitch a big shift of not just rules, but genre. Superheroes, science fiction...?

 

[edosan]

My main problem is that I am far more passionate about D&D, and gaming in general, than my players. I live and breathe this stuff. They enjoy it, but it is far from a priority.

Same here. They enjoy it but aren't near as committed as I am - if I had to stop DMing for some reason, they'd find something else to do. It's something fun that we do together but they could do something else if that sounded more interesting.

It's given me a clearer perspective that we think the events of the last month or so are earth shattering but they barely move the needle to people outside our circles.