4 ms·

Adding meaningless chaff like this to the rulebook has a near 1.0 correlation with entirely in-module railroad campaigns, avoidance of house rules and homebrewi

Adding meaningless chaff like this to the rulebook has a near 1.0 correlation with entirely in-module railroad campaigns, avoidance of house rules and homebrewing, and by-the-book rules play. The new D&D audience only knows how to color inside the lines. Case in point: Celebration and debate over tiny rules changes any group could have made themselves. Really jogs the noggin.

zanderwohl 2y ago
It's nice to have a better core game. D&D is perhaps the only TTRPG known to have such sparse content that players have to fix the rules themselves to make the game playable.
- mnky9800n 2y ago
  I gave up learning new systems after I spent lots of money on 3.5e books and then 4e came out. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to spend money it just seemed that another big overhaul of all the rules felt like the beginning of the end for the game being anything more than cardboard and paper for sale. My imagination seemed to be able to fill in any gaps that wizards of the coast seemed intent on selling me.
  - herewulf 2y ago
    I have a vast library of 2e books that I promise you are still "good enough". WotC is good at churning out paper but it's certainly in the interest of that particular entity's continued existence. Debatable if it is for anyone else but I'm sure that anyone consistently playing simply gets dragged along with the trend of "the new shiny".
    - mnky9800n 2y ago
      I always thought the writing was better in 2e but the mechanics were better in 3.5e. But 4e just seemed like the mechanics were different but not better for some reason other than they could sell new books to old players.
Gigachad 2y ago
Getting angry about the change also makes no sense by the same logic. You can continue calling it whatever you want in your own game. It’s not like the company is sitting there policing your speech in your own house.
rcxdude 2y ago
D&D is so dominant it's more or less the only system you can count on any given TTRPG player knowing, and often there's a lot of resistance to learning any other system. It makes sense for it to evolve into more of a blank slate system that is flexible by default so you can add your own spin on top, and that's a lot of how it's been evolving, because it adds to the ease of playing and running a game. A really good DM barely needs a system at all, and a terrible DM will be awful even given a great system, but the ruleset makes a difference for the majority of DMs that are somewhere in between.

zanderwohl 2y ago

It's nice to have a better core game. D&D is perhaps the only TTRPG known to have such sparse content that players have to fix the rules themselves to make the game playable.

mnky9800n 2y ago
I gave up learning new systems after I spent lots of money on 3.5e books and then 4e came out. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to spend money it just seemed that another big overhaul of all the rules felt like the beginning of the end for the game being anything more than cardboard and paper for sale. My imagination seemed to be able to fill in any gaps that wizards of the coast seemed intent on selling me.
- herewulf 2y ago
  I have a vast library of 2e books that I promise you are still "good enough". WotC is good at churning out paper but it's certainly in the interest of that particular entity's continued existence. Debatable if it is for anyone else but I'm sure that anyone consistently playing simply gets dragged along with the trend of "the new shiny".
  - mnky9800n 2y ago
    I always thought the writing was better in 2e but the mechanics were better in 3.5e. But 4e just seemed like the mechanics were different but not better for some reason other than they could sell new books to old players.

Gigachad 2y ago

Getting angry about the change also makes no sense by the same logic. You can continue calling it whatever you want in your own game. It’s not like the company is sitting there policing your speech in your own house.

rcxdude 2y ago

D&D is so dominant it's more or less the only system you can count on any given TTRPG player knowing, and often there's a lot of resistance to learning any other system. It makes sense for it to evolve into more of a blank slate system that is flexible by default so you can add your own spin on top, and that's a lot of how it's been evolving, because it adds to the ease of playing and running a game. A really good DM barely needs a system at all, and a terrible DM will be awful even given a great system, but the ruleset makes a difference for the majority of DMs that are somewhere in between.