WotC WotC Winter 2026 D&D Community Survey

[Alzrius]

In a blog last year, Dan Ayoub talked about a new direction for D&D, one that puts our community front and center.

So he doesn't think that D&D was putting the community front and center under the direction that Crawford and Perkins were taking it?

 

[humble minion]

Interesting survey structure, lots of questions about general trust in WotC (and probably lots of zeros...), but the only question I got that allowed for a written response specifically asked about how to improve trust in the direction of D&D under WotC ownership. So I read that as a question on the direction of the game specifically, not of the company as a whole or I'd have had a lot more to say stretching back to the OGL and beyond.

Basically said "your 5.5e was a halfbaked directionless mess that caused more problems than it solved, and anything you publish for it is of no use to me, but I've been in this hobby for 30 years and I know very well that lore lasts while rules systems are transitory. So lean in to making good lore, don't skimp on page count like that rubbish Spelljammer thing, be respectful of the old material if you're updating something, respect the intelligence of your customers, and cater for an array of playstyles rather than assuming every table is the same. Then maybe, when I look back on it, the 5.5e era won't have been a waste."

 

[Remathilis]

Expressed that 5.5e was a downgrade from 5e. I suggested more playtesting in the future. For example the stealth rules. Clearly the community could have helped make something usable. D&D has tons of fans who will work for free to make your game more playable why not embrace it?

I disagree. The D&D audience is deeply fractured and most have a Dunning-Krueger like view of their own abilities. Outsourcing ANY design to the fandom would result in a near useless collection of contradictory rules and suggestions that ranged from simple "roll a die for success or fail" to complex and fiddily subsystems that require multiple steps to complete a single task.

Let the fans give vibes checks on things, but I don't want the community crowdsourcing any elements of design. There are hundreds of D&D clones built off the SRD if you want that. Some are even good!

 

[Remathilis]

As to the survey, I only asked for clearer communication. Beyond has decently clear ideas on what is happening, but I feel of late the pivot from Kendrick's videos with designers has left us too busy guessing and ascribing motives in the silence. Say what you will about the One D&D playtests, but we usually knew what the results were within months of the survey closing and didn't get PDK became the banneret when we opened the Forgotten Realms book type shocks.

 

[Tigris]

I disagree. The D&D audience is deeply fractured and most have a Dunning-Krueger like view of their own abilities. Outsourcing ANY design to the fandom would result in a near useless collection of contradictory rules and suggestions that ranged from simple "roll a die for success or fail" to complex and fiddily subsystems that require multiple steps to complete a single task.

Let the fans give vibes checks on things, but I don't want the community crowdsourcing any elements of design. There are hundreds of D&D clones built off the SRD if you want that. Some are even good!

I agree with this. Most D&D fans know almost no other games, and some just want old outdated gamedesign back, while some believe some publishers that their illusion of choice gamedesign is brilliant and this points in opposite directions.


On top of that WotC is also not that good with handling feedback (or adking the right questions).


And a big problem of 5.5 is that it is incoherent design and having more different community feedback for different parts would make this worse not better.

I just yesterday compared the monk with the ranger, and the difference in design is huge... not quality, design philosophy.


Both have subclasses at 3,6,11, while the ranger needs to have hugr power coming from the subclass, the monk has almost no power budget for the subclass, they even mived the power spuke from the normal level 11 to 10 by having it in the base class.

Monk got less non combat things while all other martial classes got more.


Monk get an immense powerfull level 20 keystone which is as general (and numerical powerfull) as possible, while the ranger got a highly specific and really weak one.


These class upgrades really already feel like made by different people so what is missing is 1 key gamedesign guy with a consistent vision and good math skills.

 

[Artamo]

My response was mostly neutral about the products and gave the company in general a two. I kept my free-form response to providing PDF options for products, and pull back on the over-written technical writing style.

 

[EthanSental]

Any chance to send a note to Greg Bilsland and team is a plus as I do think he will do well in the position for upcoming D&D adventures and books.

 

[Remathilis]

I agree with this. Most D&D fans knoe almost no other games, and some just want old outdated gamedesign bsck, while some believe some publishers that their illusion of choice gamedesign is brilliant and this pointsnin opposite directions.

D&D, as part of it's DIY spirit, is full of amateurs thinking they understand the game better than the professionals. I've been looking at the 6e thread and the vast majority of suggestions that get tossed in there would collapse the game and drive away fans because they are catering to a highly specific niche (them) rather than seeing what the larger community is willing to compromise on.

 

[sevenbastard]

Are you kidding? The "community" can't agree on a gosh-darned thing. There would be zero things the "community" could assist with that would improve anything the designers make.

The D&D audience is deeply fractured and most have a Dunning-Krueger like view of their own abilities. Outsourcing ANY design to the fandom would result in a near useless collection of contradictory rules and suggestions that ranged from simple "roll a die for success or fail" to complex and fiddily subsystems that require multiple steps to complete a single task.

Im not saying let the community design it. Im saying let the community PLAYTEST it and provide feedback. For 5e they released D&D Next as a playable game and fans gave feedback.

The designers still need to seperate the good feedback from the bad feedback. But if you want to build trust and a better game ask for it. D&D Next was an attempt to win back fans after 4e. They forgot the lesson when they made 5.5.

Stealth makes you Invisible is not a concept that I believe survives a full scale playtest.

Yes lots of people have dumb ideas and and you need someone to hold true to the vision, but a public playtest of the rules builds trust and finds the bugs before the game is released.

 

[Tigris]

Im not saying let the community design it. Im saying let the community PLAYTEST it and provide feedback. For 5e they released D&D Next as a playable game and fans gave feedback.

The designers still need to seperate the good feedback from the bad feedback. But if you want to build trust and a better game ask for it. D&D Next was an attempt to win back fans after 4e. They forgot the lesson when they made 5.5.

Stealth makes you Invisible is not a concept that I believe survives a full scale playtest.

Yes lots of people have dumb ideas and and you need someone to hold true to the vision, but a public playtest of the rules builds trust and finds the bugs before the game is released.

They literally changed the whole encounter building in 5e after the last playtest without testing into the absolute broken state 5e had changing from level to CR. (Yes it was broken, look at 5.5 because of the xp multiplier for many monsters missing many encounters have now 2 times the xp budget! And in addition to that monster math was also changed significantly).

They also made huge class changes like the fighter without any testing after the last playtest.


So yes the playtest was a marketing stunt to increase people wanting 5e, but it was also far from real playtesting because much of the actual 5e system was never playtested.


Also many people are really bad at playtesting as well, because many D&D players are bad at tactical playing and or think that certain classes need to be better than others.