D&D 5E What does 5E do well?

[darjr]

@Aldarc Eh, your chips are your chips. Just cause you think you see em on my shoulders isn’t my problem.

I had fun with 4e. I ran more 4e than any other edition of D&D until 5e and the next playtest. Encounters, conventions, multiple in store games, and home games.

And those styles you say 5e doesn’t do? I’ve done them, just did one recently. And even if you don’t think it does them well, it does them a fair bit better than 4e.

And just because you’ve seen ONE reason I think 4e failed don’t doubt for a second I dismiss the MANY OTHER reasons it failed.

 

[Aldarc]

Eh, your chips are your chips. Just cause you think you see em in my shoulders isn’t my problem.

You're getting awfully heated.

And those styles you say 5e doesn’t do? I’ve done them, just did one recently.

Jolly for you.

And even if you don’t think it does them well it does them a fair bit better than 4e.

I don't think that people, such as Matt Colville, are arguing that 4e does these things better than other editions though. Colville even says though that one of the problems that people were having with 4e is that they were trying to use it run game styles it wasn't designed to handle. Likewise I wouldn't run B/X for superheroic epic fantasy for Critical Role style games. Could I? Yes. But it was primarily designed to perform procedural dungeon-crawl play.

And just because you’ve seen ONE reason I think 4e failed don’t doubt for a second I dismiss the MANY OTHER reasons it failed.

You're still reduce those complexities to a single issue to sell an argument. If we addressed a number of those other issues, would this singular one really be an issue or a reason for failure? That is much more difficult to prove.

 

[Leatherhead]

Using Advantage to hammer down the core d20 mechanic is a sublime thing when contrasted with adding dozens of little bonuses or penalties and/or digging for esoteric resolution charts.

 

[darjr]

You're getting awfully heated.

Apologies. I’m not. It’s late and I’m punch drink.

 

[Delazar]

So it’s like, 5e is the Bard of DnD editions?

 

[Ath'kethin]

Using Advantage to hammer down the core d20 mechanic is a sublime thing when contrasted with adding dozens of little bonuses or penalties and/or digging for esoteric resolution charts.

So much this. Advantage is such an elegant mechanic that it's mind blowing. I imported it into my Rules Cyclopedia game and it's a godsend.

 

[loverdrive]

It just rocks at emulating videogames. There's nothing else out there that gives an experience so close to Diablo.

Otherwise, I think that vast majority of people who enjoy 5E for reasons other than charop would enjoy Dungeon World much more.

 

[robus]

Bounded accuracy and advantage/disadvantage.

And it’s great for zero to hero adventures.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I think what 5e does best is flexibility.

It doesn't really do a single playstyle best, but instead to allows you to customize the game to fit your own playstyle. You could do this with other editions of course, but parts of those systems tended to get in the way and often had to be worked around. I'm not suggesting that 5e can do anything and everything, but rather that it supports a fairly broad range of playstyles.

I think that it supports "making it your own" better than other editions.

 

[Oofta]

What does 5E do well? Sell lots of books?