I've taken another look at D&D5E

I've taken another look at D&D5E with as open of a mind as my old ass can muster for it, and I think I have changed my opinion a bit. But just a bit. It is still an incomplete game (no meaningful exploration rules or ways for players to interact with exploration in a meaningful way beyond circumventing the "hassle", for example), and it is still the worst TRPG to carry the name Dungeons and Dragons. But I don't think it's the worst thing to ever become popular in the TRPG world anymore. In fact, if you port in the dungeon exploration turn from BX D&D and do one other fix it might become a decent game.

The problem is however the other fix is too large to just homebrew. Non-casters are boring non-classes that present the illusion of thematic archetypes while not doing anything truly unique or special. Virtually everything that is different are just reskinned spells or bigger numbers. Now you could say that, for example, the battlemaster's maneuvers are a cool unique thing. But are they? Most of them are "when you do a thing add a superiority die" or worse "thing you should be able to do no matter what but we're gating it behind a superiority die" effects like Disarming Strike.

I hope 5.5 fixes that but it probably won't. I don't plan on running NuD&D but it hurts seeing the name D&D being reduced to just being a lifestyle brand where the game only exists to sell more t-shirts.

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