D&D 5E When Did 5E Peak Quality Wise?

[Scribe]

Are we not in an endless golden age already? Did not 5E unleash the potential of the DM to change and modify the game ad they see fit? Didn't 5E liberate us from the books and rules that restricted DMs everywhere? Are we not finally free?

"Always was.meme"

 

[Hussar]

agreed, and they along with whether I personally like the product go into my evaluation of quality. Since nothing about the ones you listed changed in the last 10 years, guess which one affects the result...

But, you're not actually evaluating quality. You're evaluating whether you like something or not. Which, again, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Advocate for what you love. Absolutely. But, pretending that your evaluation has anything to do with quality dilutes the term and renders it meaningless.

You're judging something based on whether or not it appeals to you and you can articulate why it appeals to you. Fantastic. That's great. Zero problems with that.

But, then you're taking a step further and claiming that just because it appeals to you, it becomes something that is objectively better than something you don't like, not because of any qualitative difference but, simply because of your personal preference. That's the problem I have here.

It is objectively true that WotC has set the standard for quality for RPG books for years. I remember the days of black and white softcover books. I remember the days of 6 point type on brown paper (looking at you Dungeon Magazine). I remember the days of stream of consciousness writing in adventures that made it really difficult to run those adventures at the table because information was buried three paragraphs down from where it should have been.

Hell, indexes. There's something of very poor quality in the PHB. The index in the 5e PHB is garbage.

But claims of a peak in quality? That's ludicrous. Like you said, it hasn't changed in 10 years. Or, if anything, it's generally gotten better.

 

[Shardstone]

Fizban's, and again for 1D&D

 

[mamba]

But, you're not actually evaluating quality. You're evaluating whether you like something or not.

that is part of what makes up its quality. I know that you somehow have the notion that only objective things should, but I disagree.

It is objectively true that WotC has set the standard for quality for RPG books for years.

by being so dominant, not because their quality is so high

But claims of a peak in quality? That's ludicrous. Like you said, it hasn't changed in 10 years. Or, if anything, it's generally gotten better.

the technical part has not changed, if that is all that quality is for you, go ahead and consider it constant.

Despite constant ‘quality’ I bought considerably fewer products since Tasha’s however, and there is a reason for that, whether you want to consider that a drop in quality or not.

If I were WotC and this were widespread, I’d want to know about this, because no matter how you want to call it, I created an inferior product which resulted in lower sales and I, as WotC, would want to fix that.

 

[Hussar]

How is, say, Strixhaven inferior to an earlier adventure? Or Radiant Citadel.

See I’m the other way. I never bought a single WotC book after the core three until about 2017 or 18.

I buy what I need for the game I’m running and always have. Sometimes that’s WotC sometimes it’s someone else.

But none of that has anything to do with quality.

 

[Zardnaar]

How is, say, Strixhaven inferior to an earlier adventure? Or Radiant Citadel.

See I’m the other way. I never bought a single WotC book after the core three until about 2017 or 18.

I buy what I need for the game I’m running and always have. Sometimes that’s WotC sometimes it’s someone else.

But none of that has anything to do with quality.

Most of the WotC APs kinda meh. There's maybe 2-3 good/great ones.

 

[mamba]

How is, say, Strixhaven inferior to an earlier adventure? Or Radiant Citadel.

it is a setting / adventure I am not interested in

See I’m the other way. I never bought a single WotC book after the core three until about 2017 or 18.

I kinda started late, 2020, and bought a bunch of books at once (and a few since), but of the ones I did get there are a lot more pre-Tasha than post, and I tend to like them better

I buy what I need for the game I’m running and always have. Sometimes that’s WotC sometimes it’s someone else.

I tend to buy beyond that when the topic interests me. I might end up running it or I might not, that is not entirely dependent on me

But none of that has anything to do with quality.

that is up for discussion, it certainly has to do with something other than the print quality

 

[Hussar]

Yup. That other thing your looking for is called personal taste.

And if the AP’s are mostly meh, what’s left? Four, maybe six books spread over the last ten years? Xanathars, Tasha’s Volos and modenkainnens. Two monster books and two class splats and a couple of setting guides.

 

[MichaelSomething]

If Quality material is what you're looking for; all you need to do is click on the "EN Publishing" tab, click on "EN5ider", and then partake in all the quality material you could ever want!

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

As the title says. When was 5E "golden age"? At least for you. Product wise since 5E is almost complete, WotC stuff only (mostly so people are somewhat familiar with it).

For me round 2017-19 Xanathars to Eberron. YMMV of course. Don't care about the adventures but the splat and campaign books I like the best are from that timeframe iirc.

Before the first open play test man!