Tag: d&d5e

Actually, why don’t I like D&D5e?

Somewhat related to the last post, Leaving D&D5e, I should probably specify why I don’t like the system. I hadn’t actually grokked the reality of my feelings until earlier this morning, where I managed to write something in a conversation that I think was incredibly thoughtful and truly struck a chord as to answering why I don’t like the system, beyond a simple “it doesn’t do what I want out of a game” or “the rules are broken”, and even reflects on why I don’t like FATE Core, my problems with my home system of Numenera, and why my review of Ryuutama was so lukewarm!

Someone asked, a bit tongue-in-cheek, while we were discussing alternative systems, well “which [system] is the objective best”? The answer, of course, is that there is no such thing, and my friend replied as such – “there’s no objectively best system because they all answer different questions”. Therefore, then… The problems with systems come in when they fail to answer the questions they say they want to answer. This is where you get gripes with D&D5e, Shadowrun, etc. – most of my disliked systems are not disliked for their mechanics specifically, but because the mechanics and goals of the system seem to have failed to connect. Ryuutama had a weird amount of lethality to it for something that was thematically Ghilbi-esque, Numenera‘s combat and initiative system makes no sense for the logic-based rulings over rules guidelines, and FATE Core (review incoming)’s problem is that none of the mechanics actually work together to create something cohesive that answers goals. You hear time and time again from people who have played Shadowrun that they “love Shadowrun, hate the system” because the mechanics are just not conducive to the theme.

Recently I played Scum & Villainy, a “FitD” system that probably could merit its own review post, but I’ll just bust a quick one out here: I loved it. It did exactly what it was meant to do and the mechanics and the gameplay went perfectly hand in hand with the theme of the game we were playing (‘idiot assholes do shady jobs in space’). But I actually do not often care for PbtA-built systems, which is where FitD was born out of – but I liked this because it worked well. I love Numenera and nearly loathe Cypher because the system caters to Numenera‘s settings and goals and disconnecting the cyphers from that setting makes Cypher, well, not as impactful. It doesn’t feel good as a universal system.

What questions is D&D5e trying to answer? What are the goals of the system? One could say that it is in the name, ‘Dungeons’ and ‘Dragons’, but plenty of other bloggers have gone into the problems of the game no longer teaching people how to play or run dungeons, and how the mechanics of attrition seem to be fading away in favour of more narrative approaches. I think in order to become a better system in future iterations, the designers really need to lean into that more and change the rules to accomplish the goals that the designers actually want to achieve. But, they probably won’t, because D&D5e makes a lot of money as is… and that is why I think people should get away from 5e, not because it’s just, completely bad, or wrong, but because it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to be doing, and you have so many options that actually do a) what “D&D” is supposed to be and/or b) what you want to do in a game.

Leaving D&D5e

Woof, this title’s a bit of a misnomer, but it gets the idea across. This is a bit of a spicy one. As an early caveat, if you like D&D5e, keep playing it, and don’t tell me why it’s great. This blog post isn’t for you.

The first game system I ever played was Numenera, and I played it for about 2 years before moving on to trying other systems. I’d call myself fortunate, in a way, that my introduction to the hobby wasn’t Dungeons & Dragons, but for the most part, a lot of people’s first game system is going to be Dungeons and Dragons 5e (the current edition as of this writing). Dungeons & Dragons is arguably the very first TTRPG series to come out of wargames, and it makes sense why it has continued to be a mainstay in the tabletop community – it has clout. More recently, Podcasts and shows like Critical Role or Stranger Things have really brought a lot of new people to the hobby, and if you look on any ‘Looking for Group’ style community, such as on roll20, a huge majority of the people looking for games are going to be playing or running D&D 5e.

And it makes sense – D&D was always fairly easy to grok the premise of: everybody knows now what ‘medieval fantasy’ is. You have dragons, heroes, elves, wizards and all that stuff – you don’t need to explain to your grandma what a dragon is. She knows. While there is a lot of different worldbuilding in 5e with the Forgotten Realms setting, a lot of it is still on that Lord of the Rings-esque premise, and it’s easy to know what’s going on. Genres like sci-fi are also easy to grok, but it’s still a “nerdy” niche that a lot of people are going to be unfamiliar with past a certain point. Medieval fantasy is easy. Numenera combines the two into something truly strange – and getting people into understanding the setting takes effort, an effort a lot of people aren’t necessarily going to want to look into before starting a game – sure, (though I will say it wasn’t required of me in my introduction).

However, the mechanical rules of the game are a different beast. If people say that D&D5e is “easy to pick up and learn”, they may be referring to the above setting grok, but the game itself is hard to figure out. It’s not beginner-friendly. The game has baggage, rules that don’t make sense, misprints, overcomplicated sections that everyone has trouble with (grappling, action economy), and when someone comes to me and says “5e is great, it’s so easy to get new people to play it” I think those people are wrong. And normally, I’d say to each their own, but tabletop games are such a wonderful hobby, and if someone tries running D&D as a new Dungeon Master, and they find it hard, they’re going to think that any other game system is just as difficult to get into, and they’ll either quit the hobby altogether, or continue to try and desperately pull the things they want out of the hobby out of an unsuitable system for their needs and spend their days feeling frustrated.

D&D5e is popular for a reason. If you don’t know anyone else interested in TTRPGs, it’s a great way to find new players and friends to play with. I’ve run it for an Open Table before just because I wanted that cast of rotating weekly players (though now I might run Moldvay’s D&d instead). But it’s not my go-to for tabletop gaming, and I don’t think it’s helpful to encourage everyone to start with D&D 5e, or to tell them that it’s the ‘easiest to get into’, because it sets up that new GM for failure if they meet any sort of resistance (which in D&D 5e’s case, could be very often). There are so many different game systems out there that are so easy to get into – literally you can pick up and finish Honey Heist as if it were a board game in less than an hour or two, and get the idea of what a tabletop game is supposed to feel like. It sets the wrong kind of precedent for the TTRPG hobby as a whole, that tabletop games are a lot of work and heavy-duty commitment; so many games don’t have near as many rules as D&D 5e does or require that 4-hour-one-a-week-for-two-years commitment.

I hear time and time again from people who love D&D5e who say that trying a new system sounds hard. They say that it’s hard because they look back at all the work they’ve put into learning to play 5e (or 4e, or 3.5e, even) and think they have to put all that work in again. It’s not fair to say ‘most people don’t have the time to invest in a new system’ because often the systems being recommended actually have a very low cost of investment to start. To quote a friend, “there are some vicious cycles going on in this space too, where the thing is popular, so people play it, and because people play it, it becomes popular” and I think that discouraging anyone, especially yourself, from trying other systems under the premise that it’s ‘too much work’, or that D&D’s popularity and rapport are more important than anything mechanical, doesn’t help break that cycle, is setting a poor standard with D&D 5e, and it doesn’t help the hobby grow.