Right now, with the advent of 5e, there is a lot of negativity on the Internet.
Actually, I've noticed a lot less negativity than when 4e came out. That doesn't surprise me; 5e is a much better game than 4e (IMHO), and is the best version of WotC-D&D to date (again, IMHO). There are some real problems with the free Basic PDF, though, in terms of what I want from a game. I would find these easy to fix, if other games did not make that unnecessary. Why, for the love of Crom, does WotC feel the need to spread two lines of information into a quarter-page stat block?
But please, please, please do not feel the need to "talk down" about the new edition because that is your "side". And please, please, please, please do not feel the need to "talk up" (or be silent) about the new edition because some people don't want anything bad to be said. If you are going to review the new edition, please just try to be honest in your review. That's it.
I, for one, am interested in both what people like, and what people do not like, about the new edition....as well as about other games. I would bet good money that WotC is as interested in what people dislike as they are in what people like, too. If they were not, 5e would have looked a hell of a lot more like 4e.
I am not saying, "Yay! What we need is another Edition War!"
I am saying that, if all those people who were told to shut up when they criticised 4e had actually shut up, we wouldn't have this version of 5e. We would have had 4e Part III.
WotC has shown that they are listening. It is my understanding that they have declared that 5e is going to be a "living edition" that will continue to change and grow because WotC will continue to listen. So, yeah, if you think D&D needs hit points as a strategic resource that takes time to recover, bloody well beat your drum.
If anyone tells you to shut up, or that WotC isn't listening, point to the free 5e PDF and let them know that WotC certainly is. And, WotC? You might want to consider saying the same, because it would do you a world of good with the nay-sayers.
Now, about that licensing........
"It is my understanding that they have declared that 5e is going to be a 'living edition' that will continue to change and grow because WotC will continue to listen."
ReplyDeleteTranslated, I think that means tons of splat books. Sort of the way 2e was a "living edition".
Oh well. I agree with you that this is the best of the three WotC versions of D&D (not a very high bar in my opinion). But my hatred of WotC is pretty much set at this point, and 5e doesn't offer me anything I can't get from the TSR editions (besides being in the stores RIGHT NOW) or the many much superior OSR games. So I'm going to sit this one out. You guys enjoy though.
I came not to praise 5e, or to bury it, but merely to say, "Don't let people telling you to shut up prevent you from telling us what you think, good or bad."
DeleteRegardless of whether you like or hate 5e, I think it is a good thing that the TSR-era pdfs are available again, and that the new edition has turned in the direction I think it should have gone, if not as far as I would have liked it to have gone.
But, frankly, DCC is a pretty cool version of The Game, and 5e would have to offer something amazing in order to displace it. 5e falls quite a bit short of amazing, from where I sit.
"There are some real problems with the free Basic PDF, though, in terms of what I want from a game. I would find these easy to fix, if other games did not make that unnecessary." That's the key point for me. Is it a move in the right direction, for me, totally. But there is still so much about it that I'd want to change... that I might as well stick with systems that are already a lot closer to what I want.
ReplyDeleteSaying that, in certain places, has already gotten me called a 'hater'... and once again the zealous fans of something push me even farther away than my original inclinations.
I said it with 3.5, I said in with 4e, and I am saying it again with 5e: Don't let other people tell you what you can, or cannot, talk about with any game. You get to add your part to the conversation. People may choose not to listen, but that is on them, not you.
DeleteIt doesn't suck. It's better than 3.0. It's still not much of a game. I don't hate it. Honestly, I don't hate Wizards. If it becomes a staple of the gaming community, I will play it. If it becomes a niche item, I'll stick with b/x and making up my own games and clones.
ReplyDeleteI was ready to hate it. I was ready to love it. It's... Okay. That, I was not ready for.
After the initial "Wow. This is much better than I thought!" 5e has left me sort of indifferent. I would play it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to, and there are other things I would rather run.
DeleteI feel the game has way too much and easily accessed recovery of HP and a constant supply of magic to effectively support the claim it let's you play just like the old days. I pretty much if not outright said as much on my blog and haven't gained any abuse for saying such. Over on a forum I visit occasionally I got a little grief for that view but no decent counter argument has been presented beyond... "you can house rule the parts you don't like away". We each have a voice and we each have options.
ReplyDelete"We each have a voice and we each have options."
DeleteAs it should be.
Daniel, thanks for this post. It inspired me to post about my likes and dislikes over all editions of D&D. My post seems focused on the negative, but I'm keeping up. At the risk of link-whoring, here's the short URL: http://wp.me/p49gr9-p6 Thanks for the great posts, as always.
ReplyDelete