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

[MichaelSomething]

Every group I played with, and I played with several since coordinated or helped coordinate a couple of game days in a major metro area, had the same experience.

I'm happy for you if you were so freakin' brilliant that 4E combat ran fast. But that makes everyone I gamed with (over 2 dozen) idiots who "couldn't grasp the concepts". Give me a break.

Well I am a person who enjoys playing Agricola, so screwing around with fiddely bits is more up my alley.

Conversly, I share your feelings in regards to fighting videos/MOBAs/Starcraft. Inputing around 150 commands per minutes for 30(ish) minutes intervals while also considering economic and strategic problems?? Sounds hard.

When it comes to D&D, I don't blame people who want a fast easy game. That's more time to focus on characterization.

 

[Oofta]

Well I am a person who enjoys playing Agricola, so screwing around with fiddely bits is more up my alley.

Conversly, I share your feelings in regards to fighting videos/MOBAs/Starcraft. Inputing around 150 commands per minutes for 30(ish) minutes intervals while also considering economic and strategic problems?? Sounds hard.

When it comes to D&D, I don't blame people who want a fast easy game. That's more time to focus on characterization.

I think 4E had some interesting ideas, but to me it always felt a bit half baked. I can see how the game would work for some people.

One of my biggest issues was that we could just never get higher level combat to run smoothly. That and I prefer something a little more flexible.

Maybe it was the LFR mods, maybe there was some secret sauce I missed when running and that the DMs running for me missed.

In any case, sorry about being cranky in my earlier response ... it's been a bad day.

 

[overgeeked]

I think 4E had some interesting ideas, but to me it always felt a bit half baked. I can see how the game would work for some people.

One of my biggest issues was that we could just never get higher level combat to run smoothly. That and I prefer something a little more flexible.

Maybe it was the LFR mods, maybe there was some secret sauce I missed when running and that the DMs running for me missed.

In any case, sorry about being cranky in my earlier response ... it's been a bad day.

For what it's worth, I don't think you have anything to apologize for, those posters telling people who had slower combats they must be dumb are the ones who should apologize. I had similar experiences as you, Oofta. Maybe a pool of about 40 people, including 5 PHDs, with a collective several hundred years of RPG and wargaming experience and amongst them at the absolute fastest combat rounds took about an hour. This is with several small groups of course. Even at the end of 4E with all the various mods, adjusted monster math, more damage, fewer hit points, etc...all of it...combat still took about one hour per round.

 

[Shardstone]

So out of 20ish players that played to 30 and a dozen other people that experienced this after about level 10. I guess we were all just dumb. Sorry, less gifted. Gotcha.

Can you stop being so emotional and putting words into his mouth lol

 

[Oofta]

Can you stop being so emotional and putting words into his mouth lol

It's hard to see how "neurodivergent" is not insulting when the definition of the word is "relating to or showing atypical neurological behavior and development, as in autism spectrum disorder or dyslexia." I'm assuming it was not meant that way, but yes I've had a bad day so I could have chosen my wording better.

 

[Parmandur]

Has not one of the poets said, "hate the game, not the player?"

 

[overgeeked]

Tatical play requires understanding mechanics and tatics. If you can't process those concepts quickly, then it will be slow.

Maybe just not interested in learning and engaging those mechanics. Maybe the juice was not worth the squeeze for you.

Not trying to man. We all have our experiences. For me personally the game ran really smoothly. I personally had issues with combat length when I ran 5e. Neurodiversity is a thing. Some of us grok some games better than others.

Can you stop being so emotional and putting words into his mouth lol

@Shardstone. He's literally not. The above bolded bits are incredibly condescending and insulting. I'm surprised they're not considered either personal or group attacks.

 

[darjr]

I also think combats took to long

though a large part of the renaissance of 4e is due to new technology like working digital battle maps. Which might help a lot. But frankly I’m kinda sick of my computer. I wanna game analog in person.

 

[MichaelSomething]

@Shardstone. He's literally not. The above bolded bits are incredibly condescending and insulting. I'm surprised they'd not considered either personal or group attacks.

If it will make people feel better, they can tell me I'm bad at Gygaxian style skilled play, sandboxing, and being a neutral arbitrator when making DM judgement calls...

 

[Campbell]

I was speaking to neurodiversity, not neurodivergence. It's obvious that different brains work differently. That the way we process information and model the world around is different. That these differences are normal. We have differences in brain chemistry, hormone profiles, and various environmental factors. As a software engineer (who has moderate ADHD) processing abstract information is really easy for me because that's what I do all day. Parsing out 5e's "natural language" is far more difficult for me than the more object oriented approach to rules design seen in something like Pathfinder Second Edition. The lack of consistent interfaces makes it more difficult to process.

Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity refers to the idea that neurological differences, such as those seen in autism or ADHD, reflect normal variations in brain development. Neurodiversity is often contrasted with the “medical model,” which views conditions like autism or ADHD as disorders to prevent, treat, or cure...

www.psychologytoday.com