D&D General Why Editions Don't Matter

[Umbran]

What other factors are those? Genuine question.

In a word: People.

 

[Imaro]

I believe that most groups run into some kind of trouble with it sooner or later, yes.

Possibly...

It's why you get complaints from people who play other games--like Shadowrun fans, or White Wolf fans--of the same color as what you see with D&D, for example.

Yes but I am asking about the majority of D&D players...

If the game sells itself as a cooperative exercise that everyone contributes to, but players B and C contribute 90% of the work combined and players A and D contribute 10%, people are gonna notice. Hell, there's a HUGE brouhaha going on right now in the FFXIV comunity because one job (Machinist) is doing about 8% less damage than the top-end jobs. That 8% is enough to ignite a firestorm. So yeah, I do think there's a significant chunk of people who care about this sort of thing. The overlap between "people who play video games" and "people who play D&D" is pretty significant, and video gamers tend to respond very poorly to egregious balance issues.

I think the style in which the majority of D&D players actually play D&D does end up being a cooperative exercise where the distribution is much more even than 90/10. While I'm not claiming the problem doesn't exist... the effect seems to be disproportionately re-hashed on the internet.

 

[Imaro]

I think if you remove the word "vast" from that sentence its true.

Fair enough I guess...

 

[Manbearcat]

I’ve got two fairly intensive posts in here on GMing Blades in the Dark.

I’ve got multiple others strewn about ENWorld.

I’m thinking about collating all of those posts into a “GMing Blades in the Dark” thread, but I’m not interested in doing that if there wouldn’t be both (a) interest in such a thread and (b) participation (those threads need questions like the ones in this thread to uncover how best practices work at the table).

How much of (a) and (b) is out there for this game?

 

[FrogReaver]

I’ve got two fairly intensive posts in here on GMing Blades in the Dark.

I’ve got multiple others strewn about ENWorld.

I’m thinking about collating all of those posts into a “GMing Blades in the Dark” thread, but I’m not interested in doing that if there wouldn’t be both (a) interest in such a thread and (b) participation (those threads need questions like the ones in this thread to uncover how best practices work at the table).

How much of (a) and (b) is out there for this game?

I will participate and ask questions specific to my running the game. It would be helpful for me.

 

[Mistwell]

Does this mean edition doesn't matter? Or does it mean that adventures don't matter? Or maybe that for some people, conversion-on-the-fly is a perfectly functional thing for any system they're passably comfortable with, and for other people it's really, really not. (I'd consider myself in the latter camp. Converting a PF module to 4e, or a 1e module to 5e, or stuff like that--all sounds nightmarish to my ears.)

I just don't think "this means edition is completely irrelevant most of the time" is the correct conclusion to draw from "Mistwell is very good at adapting adventures across editions on the fly."

I certainly don't think editions are completely irrelevant and I don't think the video is making that case either. Editions matter to a certain extent I just think the debate is over what extent. A 1e adventure in 1e system feels meaningfully different than that same adventure run in 5e. But it can be run in 5e and feel like a 5e adventure, without much effort to convert it (and it's easier than you might think - most is just replacing the monster stat block with the 5e stat block and making sure the challenge isn't suddenly wildly overpowered for the party and if so adapting something for that).

 

[Mistwell]

But again, @Mistwell was posting in the context of adventures. There are others aspects of the game where edition matters much more.

Sure. But I guess the question is, how much more? Is it enough to make a big fuss out of it? Is it enough to argue that systems are so important that genres need to be relegated to specific systems to be considered worthwhile for that genre? Has the importance of system been exaggerated by people who enjoy creating systems or people who enjoy discussing systems because of that enjoyment rather than because systems are really that important?

 

[FrogReaver]

I’ve got two fairly intensive posts in here on GMing Blades in the Dark.

I’ve got multiple others strewn about ENWorld.

I’m thinking about collating all of those posts into a “GMing Blades in the Dark” thread, but I’m not interested in doing that if there wouldn’t be both (a) interest in such a thread and (b) participation (those threads need questions like the ones in this thread to uncover how best practices work at the table).

How much of (a) and (b) is out there for this game?

When you do please pm me with the link.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I feel like most folks who've been posting in this thread play 5E. But I think most, if not all, of us have played D&D far longer than 5E has been about.

So why are we playing 5E?

If edition doesn't matter, then why are we all playing the newest edition of the game and not just playing an older version? Why is anyone converting anything when they could just play AD&D or 3E or whatever?

I know this probably seems like a post that's trying to make a point, but I'm genuinely asking. What is it about 5E in particular?

 

[Cadence]

I feel like most folks who've been posting in this thread play 5E. But I think most, if not all, of us have played D&D far longer than 5E has been about.

So why are we playing 5E?

If edition doesn't matter, then why are we all playing the newest edition of the game and not just playing an older version? Why is anyone converting anything when they could just play AD&D or 3E or whatever?

I know this probably seems like a post that's trying to make a point, but I'm genuinely asking. What is it about 5E in particular?

I figured if I got my son playing it, it would be good for him to be able to easily play with friends, and they would probably be playing 5e (or it would be easier for them to get).

If not for that, after having started him on B/X I probably would have gone for Pathfinder 1e instead.