D&D 5E Where are the options?

[Terramotus]

I want to state first that I'm not trolling in any way. I've been playing D&D since 2E, happily made all the edition jumps since then, and then was very turned off by Essentials and basically stopped buying product. I haven't been following much news

I've been playing other systems since then - NWoD and Numenera, mainly. I ran a brief little campaign for some coworkers using 5e, though, and thought, "This really seems like a nice system. It will be great when there's actually some meat there as far as character options." So I've been waiting and... nearly nothing, more than a year later. There are a handful of options in EE player's companion, as well as the Sword Coast Player's Guide and some stuff on the website, but that's it? Not even enough to make a full splatbook full of rules, it seems.

I guess I'm wondering what the designers are even up to with their time. Writing a few adventures? I guess those are nice, but I've always found running modules boring as a DM and have avoided them. But I thought it had been established long ago that adventures were never going to be as profitable as rulebooks? I want classes and monsters and spells and psionics and other interesting character options to play with. I at least want the rules I need to play Eberron properly. It seems like there would be more out by now unless there's like just Mike Mearls and one other guy working in an empty building on D&D.

I'm starting to wonder: Are they ever planning on supporting this ruleset in the way I would expect them to? Or did they leave behind players like me when they went to 5e?

 

[NotActuallyTim]

Crunch may be high profit, but it tends to burn out an entire system if you add too much of it. Too much like homework for new players.

However, you might want to look into the DMsGuild. It's currently a bit disorganized, but there's certainly a lot of stuff to go through.

 

[SunGold]

I'm starting to wonder: Are they ever planning on supporting this ruleset in the way I would expect them to? Or did they leave behind players like me when they went to 5e?

If you're holding out for splatbooks or the like, sorry, man, but you're probably going to be disappointed. This interview with Chris Perkins is probably worth reading. It strongly suggested that those days are over:

"'We’ve gone from being product-focused to being story-focused,' Perkins told Polygon..."

"D&D the role-playing game is not going away. It is the heart and soul of your business. But how you see it, the things we create for it, will be much more calculated, because we’re not going to put effort toward a product that’s only going to sell 10,000 or even 50,000 or even 100,000 copies if we can help it."

"[Fifth edition] is not what a lot of old-school D&D players necessarily recognize, because they might still be thinking about D&D as it was in 1978, 1988, 1998 or even 2008 — a bunch of books on a shelf, a book a month of new class options, a new setting every year."

 

[pming]

Hiya!

I'm starting to wonder: Are they ever planning on supporting this ruleset in the way I would expect them to? Or did they leave behind players like me when they went to 5e?

Short answer? Nope.

Long answer? Probably nope.

They have stated many times that they are not going to go down the "splat book a month" route that 3.x/PF/4e did/does. IIRC, they basically said "we don't want to pump out rules upon rules upon rules...we want the individual DM's and Players to use the core rules to create their own stuff...we want them to make the game their own...make rulings that make sense for them and their game". They have (mostly) been sticking to this.

They have also stated they want a MUCH reduced product release speed; as I said, no more "splat book a week/month" craziness that basically destroyed 3.x and 4e (again, IMO).

The mantra of 5e is: "Rulings...not rules".

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[I'm A Banana]

I want to state first that I'm not trolling in any way. I've been playing D&D since 2E, happily made all the edition jumps since then, and then was very turned off by Essentials and basically stopped buying product. I haven't been following much news

I've been playing other systems since then - NWoD and Numenera, mainly. I ran a brief little campaign for some coworkers using 5e, though, and thought, "This really seems like a nice system. It will be great when there's actually some meat there as far as character options." So I've been waiting and... nearly nothing, more than a year later. There are a handful of options in EE player's companion, as well as the Sword Coast Player's Guide and some stuff on the website, but that's it? Not even enough to make a full splatbook full of rules, it seems.

I guess I'm wondering what the designers are even up to with their time. Writing a few adventures? I guess those are nice, but I've always found running modules boring as a DM and have avoided them. But I thought it had been established long ago that adventures were never going to be as profitable as rulebooks? I want classes and monsters and spells and psionics and other interesting character options to play with. I at least want the rules I need to play Eberron properly. It seems like there would be more out by now unless there's like just Mike Mearls and one other guy working in an empty building on D&D.

I'm starting to wonder: Are they ever planning on supporting this ruleset in the way I would expect them to? Or did they leave behind players like me when they went to 5e?

So, as others have said, the sheer quantity of options is likely going to be smaller in this edition for quite a long time. Handfuls here and there are what you're looking at.

But it might help to think of it this way: what options are you actually missing? Like, what characters do you want to make that you can't? And why not?

5e development is very focused on things that actually see play, so options for the sake of options isn't something you'll be seeing a lot of. Most players probably haven't had more than 2-4 characters, period, even if they started playing 5e on the day of release, so there's a lot of options left un-tried so far.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I ran a brief little campaign for some coworkers using 5e, though, and thought, "This really seems like a nice system. It will be great when there's actually some meat there as far as character options." So I've been waiting and... nearly nothing, more than a year later. There are a handful of options in EE player's companion, as well as the Sword Coast Player's Guide and some stuff on the website, but that's it? Not even enough to make a full splatbook full of rules, it seems.

I guess I'm wondering what the designers are even up to with their time. Writing a few adventures?

They farm most of those out, as I understand it. There really aren't a lot of designers working at WotC, it seems. D&D just isn't getting the resources from WotC/Hasbro that it was 7 or 10 years ago. It's just that D&D has never been a big source of revenue relative to other properties. According to an insider who posted here years ago, sometime c2006 or something, there was some secret meeting at which WotC pitched D&D as an IP capable of MMO-like revenue, if only they'd throw a lot of money at it for a few years. The result was 4e, and when it's on-line tools didn't live up to the hype and generate that huge subscription revenue stream, the resources went away, and WotC re-trenched, first with Essentials, then the Next playtest & 5e. The good news is that D&D no longer labors under unrealistic revenue goals - the Hasbro policy that made it necessary to shoot for such goals just to survive has apparently changed, and D&D is safe for the moment, and, doing well, as as far as we can tell, compared to how it's done in the past decade or two, and relative to its actual, rather than imaginary/potential, market.

Bottom line, you're not going to get a lot of stuff coming down the pike, not unless DMsGuild is up to your standards and/or 3pps start running with the 5e SRD and go back to publishing under the OGL the way they used to.

I want classes and monsters and spells and psionics and other interesting character options to play with. I at least want the rules I need to play Eberron properly. It seems like there would be more out by now unless there's like just Mike Mearls and one other guy working in an empty building on D&D.

I'm sure they have plenty of company at the WotC building - just none of 'em officially working on D&D.

I'm starting to wonder: Are they ever planning on supporting this ruleset in the way I would expect them to? Or did they leave behind players like me when they went to 5e?

If you were used to the kind of support D&D got in the middle of the 2e run, in 3.5, or in early 4e, then, no, probably not - the resources just aren't there. OTOH, if you remember how the game held up for many years before that with just a book or so a year, it's not that devastating.

 

[TwoSix]

There'd always Pathfinder. You will never, ever, EVER run out of splat with Pathfinder.

 

[ExploderWizard]

5E already features many optuions including multi-classing, feats, and magic items. The DMG contains a whole lot more rules options to try. I think the game is healthier and more approachable to newer players now than it has ever been since the days of the original red box.

The existing game, with the freely accessible basic rules online, can be picked up and played by those with a casual interest. Those that play and want to learn more can be get the core books and have everything they need for years of play. Imagine being a new player and realizing that there are 15+ volumes of rules bloat. The new model of fewer rules is less intimidating and more welcoming. I have been running and playing 5E games since release and haven't even started to use all of the available rules & options.

The best thing to come of this is the reminder WOTC has sent to players everywhere that making additional stuff for your own games is a great thing and to embrace that creative freedom. Who knows what you want in your own game better than you? Make what you like and have it work like you want. It doesn't get any better than that.

 

[cmad1977]

All around you.

 

[Shiroiken]

I'm starting to wonder: Are they ever planning on supporting this ruleset in the way I would expect them to? Or did they leave behind players like me when they went to 5e?

As was previously mentioned, I want to reiterate: they are supporting it with the DM's Guild. This allows them to use limited in-house personnel for game design, but allowing people like you to get want you're looking for. If, however, you're expecting "official WotC" support, it's going to be a VERY slow release (as they've shown so far).

If that is unacceptable for you, then 5E is probably not for you. There is nothing wrong with playing an older edition of D&D (especially if you incorporate aspects you like from 5E and other editions), or even playing a non-D&D RPG. There are a lot of great products out there, most notably Pathfinder. Good luck and have fun!