D&D (2024) Pulse check on 1D&D excitement level

[Micah Sweet]

I know you feel this way, i just don’t get it.

We appear to have completely different experiences as gamers. How could you get it?

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

My D&D was mid 90s, where you could read the new Dragon magazine and try to convince your 1e/2e hybrid GM to let you play the latest ridiculous NPC class, and pour over the new Ecology article. I can't even pretend that's what D&D is anymore.

IDK, that sounds very similar to my trials and tribulations trying to get my DM to except some 3PP class from the DMsGuild.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

We appear to have completely different experiences as gamers. How could you get it?

I guess, but I doubt it. I think is a difference of perspective more so than gaming experiences (depending on how you define gaming)

 

[Bill Zebub]

With my children we explained on a need to know basis only. So we started playing right away after covering the basics. Then just answered questions or explained things as they came up.

Yeah, that's what I did playing 5e with kids and it was great and we were totally happy with it.

And then on a whim I tried Five Torches Deep, and afterward they all said it was more fun and nobody has asked to go back to 5e.

 

[DEFCON 1]

It's not 5e. It's WotC version of 5e in the last few years, and what they intend to continue making of it.

I loved 1e and 2e best. 3e and 3.5e were decent. 4e was good for a while, but after a year or so of running and playing it I got tired of its assumptions. I went back to my 1e group mostly after that. When 5e came out I loved it. Played the heck out of it for years, and followed it closely. Then a few years ago my best friend and long-time fellow gamer of 25 years passed away, and my old group broke up. I formed a new 5e group since then and have had a lot of fun, but recently the "official" game has been irritating me more and more, and my old friends with whom I played the old stuff I like best are gone. Level Up is the best compromise I can make, and I do love it, but I really miss the continuum of TSR/WotC D&D, and wish WotC hadn't taken the game across a line I don't want to cross.

The whole thing is very frustrating for me. My D&D was mid 90s, where you could read the new Dragon magazine and try to convince your 1e/2e hybrid GM to let you play the latest ridiculous NPC class, and pour over the new Ecology article. I can't even pretend that's what D&D is anymore.

From my untrained outside eye it sounds more like its the loss of your best friend and old group is what is causing you more pain than any ruleset. If you loved 5E for a couple years but it was only after your friend passed and the group broke up that the game suddenly lost its luster... isn't that what the real change was?

The game of "WotC D&D" didn't become something else so suddenly that it would go from a game you loved to a game you hate just like that. The game is pretty much the same as it ever was. Seems to me the real change was in the group you no longer play with. So when you say you really miss the continuum... that's what appears to be the actual break you experienced from my outside perspective that you lost, not that the 5E ruleset suddenly "went bad". You lost someone and something you loved with all your heart, a group of friends that were your heart and soul.

And the fact that you day after day come onto these boards to do nothing but decry 5E and 1D&D over and over and over, constantly wishing for the days of yore sounds more like you are trying to hang on to your past because you desperately miss it. Which is completely understandable... it's just not very healthy. In any other situation where a person just got tired of a game, they would decide to play a different one (like you have with Level Up) and never look back in the rear view mirror. There would be no reason to concern themselves with something they weren't playing. But you aren't doing that. You haven't been able to move on. You're using WotC 5E as the reason for your pain and you can't help but constantly lash out at it day after day after day, thread after thread after thread.

Look, I'm very sorry for your loss... but from this outsider perspective it sounds like you really need to do is to take more time to process what happened to you, because this incessant lashing out at the "old bad stuff" of WotC 5E (because you can't lash out at the pain of losing your friend and group) just isn't helping you move on.

 

[Li Shenron]

I basically don't care anymore. I'm downloading the playtest docs but haven't even read the latest, just saving them for the future just in case.

Mostly, I just stopped worrying about rules in general. If I join someone else's game as a player I essentially don't mind what ruleset they will use, I'd just focus on the game at the table. However, for DMing purposes I have absolutely zero interest in another attempt at reinventing or adjusting the wheel, I already have three favorite editions (BECMI, 3.0 and 5e) to choose from depending on the general game setup I'm looking for, and I am more than able to adapt them to suit specific campaign needs.

 

[Azzy]

You do what you want, but we started our children and their friends on 4e at 8 years old (2nd grade), so I don’t think 5e is too complex for young kids. IME, it is how you teach it more than what you’re teaching.

Heck, my brother and I started my 9yo and niece and 8yo nephew to 3.5e.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

It's an overwrite if you want it to be, an addition if you do not. Personally I'd take it as an overwrite.

Like Nufighter, Nuwizard, Nurogue, Nubard?

 

[cbwjm]

I'm still looking forward to the onednd changes, I think if people came to my table with a 2014 character, the only change is make is granting them a 1st level feat for their background and then get playing.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

Am I excited for the mechanics of the game? Yes.

Will Wizards ever get a single dime of my money ever again? Unclear and unlikely. I never forgot who they were from 4e. The latest OGL fiasco is just a reminder and confirmation that my memory and attitude was not misplaced.