D&D 5E The Annotated PHB

[Minigiant]

I think I'm going to need to see some evidence for this because this is literally the opposite of everything I saw on reddit when the spellless ranger came out.

You won't see it on Reddit as reddit skews new and young. Therefore they have fewer preconceived opinions.

But on older forums back during the play test, you'd see it all the time. You have people here who think the ranger should be merged with the fighter and all the spells stripped out. There is a percentage of D&D fans who want LOTR woth more monsters and the heroic fantasy, higher than average magic, default of 5e doesn't suit them.

And you know how people act if you openly tell them they are not the primary target audience.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

You won't see it on Reddit as reddit skews new and young. Therefore they have fewer preconceived opinions.

But on older forums back during the play test, you'd see it all the time. You have people here who think the ranger should be merged with the fighter and all the spells stripped out. There is a percentage of D&D fans who want LOTR woth more monsters and the heroic fantasy, higher than average magic, default of 5e doesn't suit them.

And you know how people act if you openly tell them they are not the primary target audience.

How to talk about GiantITP without saying GiantITP

 

[ph0rk]

Your implication was perfectly clear: people couldn't have honestly tested or they would have rejected the playtest because you don't like some of the decisions.

It is a long leap to get from "convenience samples are not representative" to this.

Relying on those survey responses as being accurately representative is a little like relying comments under political stories on a news organization website as reflecting the electorate; they aren't terribly likely to.

Over-reliance on convenience samples results in the streetlight effect, and it is entirely right to call that our when one sees it.

 

[Faolyn]

You won't see it on Reddit as reddit skews new and young. Therefore they have fewer preconceived opinions.

But on older forums back during the play test, you'd see it all the time. You have people here who think the ranger should be merged with the fighter and all the spells stripped out. There is a percentage of D&D fans who want LOTR woth more monsters and the heroic fantasy, higher than average magic, default of 5e doesn't suit them.

And you know how people act if you openly tell them they are not the primary target audience.

I'm not saying that the older gamers are not the primary target audience because I'm in my 40s and started playing in '91 or so, and would consider myself to be part of the target audience. But here this shows that at least half the players (and probably more since reddit likely has more people posting to it than these older forums do), want a ranger with abilities that replace spells (and a system that supports exploration).

 

[Minigiant]

I'm not saying that the older gamers are not the primary target audience because I'm in my 40s and started playing in '91 or so, and would consider myself to be part of the target audience. But here this shows that at least half the players (and probably more since reddit likely has more people posting to it than these older forums do), want a ranger with abilities that replace spells (and a system that supports exploration).

But half wasn't the threshold WOTC was going for

So if they did annotations, you'd get a lot of people getting upset from being told they aren't big enough to be worthy of the effort or telling them that want they wanted is too hard or takes too long to produce.

 

[Faolyn]

But half wasn't the threshold WOTC was going for

So if they did annotations, you'd get a lot of people getting upset from being told they aren't big enough to be worthy of the effort or telling them that want they wanted is too hard or takes too long to produce.

And that depends entirely on how they write it. I don't see how "We kept the ranger as a spellcaster because that's how we've always done it throughout D&D's history" would anger people.

 

[Reynard]

Or the fact that he was a healer marked him as being truly the right person to be the king. The LOTR text itself doesn’t indicate which one causes the other. In any event, Aragorn was a skilled healer because he learned to be one in Elrond’s house, and it’s a question of art not truth how to model that - with skill checks or spells. Either can work in RPGs.

My preference would be a feat or class feature, actually. "You may use the Medicine skill to cure magical ailments." with the implication you can't otherwise.

 

[Northern Phoenix]

I get the impression from reading this thread that a DnD version of being told how the sausage is made would be exactly as popular as the metaphor, for mostly the same reasons. Well, mostly the same, but even worse, because DnD is ultimately a game about fantasy (the concept rather than genre) and deliberately breaking peoples fantasy is one of the most sure-fire ways to make people, especially new people, not enjoy the game.

I'm sure it could be a fun fan-project for veterans though.