D&D 5E What are the "True Issues" with 5e?

[Micah Sweet]

The same things I said about the PHB also apply to splat books like Xanathar's as well. Why include niche rules that most tables won't use, when you could add more subclasses instead.

Niche rules like this are the perfect opportunity for 3PP books. Rules that are only going to appeal to 5% of players are just not worth it for WotC to publish. Their goal is to appeal to as many players as possible with their books, and to leave niche options to third party publishers.

Also, why should the niche rules that you want be included in the rules and not the various other niche rules that other people want? Its not just a matter of adding a few additional pages to the book for expanded equipment rules. Why should they add equipment rules and not additional tactical combat rules, low magic rules, or any others niche rules that other people want?

Add those rules too. I want all of those!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Exactly. It's also a sign of a wider problem. People wanting specific, bespoke, niche rules for everything instead of broadly applicable rules to cover wider cases. Something like an extended contest mechanic, like clocks and various ways to use them could be dropping into the PHB or DMG and used for dozens or hundreds of specific cases without trouble. Instead, people seem to want specific rules for Pokemon, sidekicks, crafting, cooking, and harvesting.

I don't see any of that as a problem.

 

[codo]

Exactly. It's also a sign of a wider problem. People wanting specific, bespoke, niche rules for everything instead of broadly applicable rules to cover wider cases. Something like an extended contest mechanic, like clocks and various ways to use them could be dropping into the PHB or DMG and used for dozens or hundreds of specific cases without trouble. Instead, people seem to want specific rules for Pokemon, sidekicks, crafting, cooking, and harvesting.

5e could certainly use more general rules like this. I actual have high hopes for the new DMG. While the current DMG does actually have lots of good info in it, it is frankly, a mess. Rewriting the DMG to actually teach new players how to DM and making it more user friendly, like Crawford has said they are doing, is probably what I am looking forward to the most in the new version.

 

[Red Castle]

Like how long it takes to travel somewhere in most movies. Everyone travels at the speed of plot. Indiana Jones and the red line travel montage. How long does it take? There is a real-world mathematically correct answer...that is also completely irrelevant to anything in the movie. You can insist that the answer matters and should be known, but you'd be taking the wrong end of things. It's the drama and tension that matters, not the miles per hour.

It reminds me of Hyperspace jump in Star Wars. How long does it takes to get from point A to point B? The answer is (when watching movies, series or reading books): As fast or slow as the plot needs it to be, the heroes or villain will arrive just at the right moment, or just a little bit too late.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It reminds me of Hyperspace jump in Star Wars. How long does it takes to get from point A to point B? The answer is (when watching movies, series or reading books): As fast or slow as the plot needs it to be, the heroes or villain will arrive just at the right moment, or just a little bit too late.

Sure, but you can't have that answer in a traditional RPG.

 

[Cadence]

Now I kind of want a system free book that takes several people (worlds strongest contestant, top level gymnast, top level decathalete, navy seal, parkour course star, and then a handful of less extreme cases spread out over the physical attribute spectrum down to couch potato, and gets them to do a bunch of things like climb, swim, break down doors, carry back packs, dig various holes, climb ropes with a backpack on, swim with a backpack on, see how long they can fast march, etc... just to have some benchmarks.

 

[overgeeked]

Now I kind of want a system free book that takes several people (worlds strongest contestant, top level gymnast, top level decathalete, navy seal, parkour course star, and then a handful of less extreme cases spread out over the physical attribute spectrum down to couch potato, and gets them to do a bunch of things like climb, swim, break down doors, carry back packs, dig various holes, climb ropes with a backpack on, swim with a backpack on, see how long they can fast march, etc... just to have some benchmarks.

You can find a lot of that with Google. While doing my video game rabbit hole I found out that the standing jump distances in the PHB are kind of accurate. The world record is held by a man who jumped something like 90% of his height. Tiny and small creatures beat that automatically because the baseline is 3 feet + your STR mod in feet. So there are no men with STR 16-17+ in the real world according to that math. I also found out that Mario from Super Mario Bros. has an average jump that's at least 4x the numbers in the PHB. Platformer physics are weird.

 

[Cadence]

You can find a lot of that with Google. While doing my video game rabbit hole I found out that the standing jump distances in the PHB are kind of accurate. The world record is held by a man who jumped something like 90% of his height. Tiny and small creatures beat that automatically because the baseline is 3 feet + your STR mod in feet. So there are no men with STR 16-17+ in the real world according to that math. I also found out that Mario from Super Mario Bros. has an average jump that's at least 4x the numbers in the PHB. Platformer physics are weird.

I want the wackier more game action specific stuff too

 

[Red Castle]

Sure, but you can't have that answer in a traditional RPG.

Why not? Why should the players really care if the travel takes 2 or 5 days? Just tell me your intention and I’ll make it fit in the narrative. Do you want to take the safest longest road or do you take the more risky shortcut? The road taken will determine if you arrive early or too late. Then tell me what you’re planning to do during the travel and we’ll treat it as a montage. Do you want to train your lightsaber parry? Do you play Dejarik against the wookie (I would advice against it unless you plan to lose)?

Sure, you can worry about the actual time taken to travel, but I personnally don’t bother with that. I think it’s just more bookkeeping that don’t actually serve the story. Regardless if the travel take 5 hours or 5 days, you’ll still get intercepted by the Interdictor Star Destroyer.

The only time I will bother with it is if it actually serve the story.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Why not? Why should the players really care if the travel takes 2 or 5 days? Just tell me your intention and I’ll make it fit in the narrative. Do you want to take the safest longest road or do you take the more risky shortcut? The road taken will determine if you arrive early or too late. Then tell me what you’re planning to do during the travel and we’ll treat it as a montage. Do you want to train your lightsaber parry? Do you play Dejarik against the wookie (I would advice against it unless you plan to lose)?

Sure, you can worry about the actual time taken to travel, but I personnally don’t bother with that. I think it’s just more bookkeeping that don’t actually serve the story. Regardless if the travel take 5 hours or 5 days, you’ll still get intercepted by the Interdictor Star Destroyer.

The only time I will bother with it is if it actually serve the story.

What you're describing is what you do in a narrative or storygame, where dramatic need eclipses verisimilitude or any objective idea of how fast FTL travel in that universe actually is. If that's what you want, fine, but I prefer drama to not be a power source in my games.

My games don't have a "story" to serve.