D&D 5E (2024) The Ray Winninger Era of D&D 5e

[MonsterEnvy]

Not sure how much credit / blame they should get, but I like the Mearls era better, things went downhill starting with Tasha’s

In my opinion nah. Things have largely gotten more interesting to me.

 

[mamba]

In my opinion nah. Things have largely gotten more interesting to me.

good for you, it has not worked that way for me

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'd compare Volo's and MToF less to MotM and more to Fizban's and Bigby's, the latter two will age much better as sources of usable Lore IMO.

Either way the newer stuff wins by miles lol

 

[Parmandur]

Not sure how much credit / blame they should get, but I like the Mearls era better, things went downhill starting with Tasha’s

Tasha's is pretty great, and honestly the designers have mostly been on a hot streak in the 20s, with some exceptions.

 

[TiQuinn]

In my opinion nah. Things have largely gotten more interesting to me.

good for you, it has not worked that way for me

 

[Amphytrion]

I'm with those who think the Mearls era of D&D was much better - I enjoyed the releases far more back then. There are multiple reasons for this:

• I think the adventures were more interesting. Curse of Strahd, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Tomb of Anhilation, etc. The adventures in Winniger era have been much less captivating, and sometimes downright unusable.
• The setting work was mostly richer. I don't think much in the Winniger era compares to the care put in Eberron, for example. Ghosts of Saltmarsh has a great little setting in just one chapter of the book.
• The swings were more generally useful. I don't play in Theros or Ravnica, but I use those books all the time. Fantastic work with the piety and renown system which is easy to rip off. Strixhaven is on the other hand a waste to me. I have never used a single thing from it.
• The monster books were fantastic. New statblocks are nice to have, but easy to find and easy to wing. The real value in Volo's and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes was in the first chapters. I use those chapters constantly, it has dramatically improved how I run orcs, gnolls, devils, demons, hags, goblinoids, kobolds, and all the major monster categories. Great, top-notch material. The reassemblage those books suffered via Monsters of the Multiverse destroyed their entire value to me as a DM.

I generally really dislike the direction the game took post-Tasha, both on the player side and on the DM-facing material. There are proper exceptions of course: James Wyatt's books (Fizban's, Bigby's) are great and I also use them all the time. I am a big fan of him as a designer. I also liked Van Richten's, though some parts much more than others.

I'm also giving some leeway to the entire early team under Mearls for the first year or so of 5e, which did have some not-so-great releases (e.g. Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, which is really quite poor). They were adapting and I think they did so very well all things considered, and in short time, but it's worth mentioning those first few releases to be fair.

Separately from my general dislike towards the general direction of the game from Tasha onwards, I think that the releases were poorly timed from a branding perspective under the Ray Winniger/Jeremy Crawford leadership. Baldur's Gate 3 was released, and the Forgotten Realms accompanying setting is not due until 2 years later? Bizarre choice. And they had the time to think this through, considering the game was a success even in early access. This repeats itself with other tie-ins, like the movie, but it's more egregious in BG3's case.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Something that I find interesting is that only the following items have a "Compatible with the 2024 Core Rulebooks" label on the DDB Marketplace:

• Vecna: Eve of Ruin
• Keys from the Golden Vault
• Quests from the Infinite Staircase
• Journeys from the Radiant Citadel
• The Book of Many Things

An example:

Monsters of the Multiverse was supposed to be, IMHO they should have released it AFTER the Core books, not before.

 

[Scribe]

James Wyatt's books (Fizban's, Bigby's)

Hmm, interesting. As those are 2 of the few books I've kept, but are stored, I didnt realize they were both his, as lead?

 

[pukunui]

Monsters of the Multiverse was supposed to be, IMHO they should have released it AFTER the Core books, not before.

Indeed. I mean, technically they all are supposed to be compatible. It’s interesting that it’s just those few that get the actual “compatibility” label.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I do not have any of the mentioned campaign books and are waiting on the new FR book. I'll likely buy the new box set this year. Those campaign books looked like not my style. Not sure if that is Ray or not.

Honestly it's Jeremy Crawford setting philosophy all over it, Crawford is good with mechanics and turning feedback into mechanics, but his setting Philosphy was a disaster, he has this utility minimalist + art heavy view of settings , but he completely misses the importance of deep extensive lore to draw folks in and immerse folks in a setting.

I think Jeremy Crawford's setting design philosophies increased influence was the most negative thing about the Ray era of 5e, he just really never understood what fans of settings really wanted from settings so we ended up with gorgeous and extremely shallow products which were over priced (slipcases & the DL products), especially digital. I mean the slipcases had extra material costs, but digitally were very low content.

Honestly you can tell Ray Winninger abandoned Jeremy's philosophy by the time they started developing this year's books, because instead of getting a slipcase with three tiny books in it, the FR gets two big books focusing more on depth & quality then a shallow book and wasteful type of product that looks good on a shelf, with extra material costs dramatically drive up costs and reduce budget for substance. Eberron: Forge of the Artificer is a companion to E: RftLW so it really doesn't have to do as much beyond mechanical update & setting expansion, E: RftLW does the heavy lifting already. No idea what Lorwyn will have, it's not as big of a setting, but I suspect something akin to MOoT & GMGtR more then the less popular S: CoC.

Unfortunately I suspect Ray was hitting his stride when starting to develop this year's products, I don't know how much influence he will have on 2026 products and beyond.