5th edition D&D and my return to roleplaying games

[williamsond]

I've not delved down to this area of the forums before but as i've recentley started DM'ing D&D again I thought i would discuss it here. I've played D&D probably as long as as I've played any other game I think my first taste was aroung 1989 playing in a AD&D party (my first character was a fighter called Sir Caltan).

Over the years I played and ran quite a bit of 3rd and 3.5 but it always felt too focused on character building for me. Also I ran a lot of 4th, while it had some nice ideas and some really great published adventures it alway felt to much like a board game with too many MMO style powers involved. By this point I was kind of finished with D&D and had finally burn out with it and moved back to playing wargames exclusivley (all my books were consigned to the loft of doom).

So one day acouple of years ago I hear about D&D next, and that open playtesting that was going on I remember thinking "that sounds good idea" I even signed up for the playtesting and looked at some of the early stuff, but alas my heart just wasn't in it and my goup had disolved so it drifted to the back of my hobby mind.

Then on christmas morning 2014 I opened up one of my presents (it was from my little girl) and it was the new D&D starter set. I must admit i was a bit disapointed with the content of the box compared to the red box but I sat down on boxing day to read it and my whole perception of 5th changed, It was like a breath of fresh air it reinvigorated my DM brain and before you know it i had rounded up some of my old buddies and started playing again. I loved it and they loved it and the adventure in the basic game is fantastic too.


The fact they put all the basic rules and many resources on the wizards of the coast site for free was the icing on the cake. It ment that my buddies could get back into the game without spending a penny, I think it was a brilliant tactic by wizards of the coast, as it let me and my buddies get a feel for D&D 5th and gained back a lot of good will too.

While the free rules are complete enough that you could easily play forever using the rules on the website and never buy any thing else, it got us all hooked again and before you know it I had bought all the core books and the two written adventure suplements and most of my buddies had bought a players handbook at least.

If any of you guys are like me and had dismissed 5th as not nessesary I would say get the free stuff and give it a go it really captures the spirit of the AD&D days but with a rule set that is not too complicated to bog down the adventure while being complex enough allow great play and character building. the combat flows better than 4th ever did and playing the game is much less of a rules hunting exercise than 3rd or the open d20 sytem was.

All in all they have hit the nail on the head and produced the best version of D&D they ever have, all the playtesting really seems to have paid off.

What's every one elses 5th edition experience been? I'm interested to see if there are other like me who have been reinvigorated by it.

Dave

[New Cult King]

I love it. I started with AD&D in the mid 90s, but was happy when things were simplified with 3rd. Then 3.5 came out so quickly, which I felt was a poor money-grabbing move, and then 4th left me all

I picked up 5th on a whim, more than anything, and am very pleasantly surprised. I've yet to play a proper game or campaign, but I'm very excited.

[williamsond]

I started my second D&D group last night, most of them have played several editions including pathfinder and I'm glad to report 5th edition was happily embraced by everyone. It keeps amazing me how well it flows and how the stripped back nature doesn't take anything away from the game. I've definatley caught the D&D bug again as it seems have quite a few others, someone on his shops blog said that 5th is out selling evry other RP system 2-1 at the moment. my only bit of feedback is that when the basic game adventure ends there's nothing official and pre-written that follows on the tyrany of dragons stuff restarts back at lvl 1 and my guys are already attached to their characters and there's no way they will want to start new ones.

[Princey]

well, currently playing in a 5th campaign and woah...sooo much better than fourth (though i still find the idea of flying barbarians a bit funny . fourth went down like a lead balloon around here and eventually 3.5 just ended up with far too much paperwork...this edition seems to have so far struck a really nice balance between simplicity and options. Ps...Gotta love being able to be a cthulhu worshipper

[Kahadras]

I always find it interesting how many people didn't seem to like fourth ed. I wasn't a fan but I've found that I'm pretty meh when it comes to D&D in general.

[Teh Real New Girl]

I've always liked 2nd ed myself. I may get around to trying 5th but I think with RPGs you often tend to find a edition you like and stick to it?

Thoughts?

[Kahadras]

I tend to think it's when you see a radical shift in a game that you get people who stay with an edition rather than move on. WFRP is a good example in my case as I really didn't like what FFG did with third edition.

[Bergen Beerbelly]

I liked 1st edition with a few bits from 2nd edition thrown in. I think you are right. Most of the gamer's I've met have stuck to whatever edition they started with and really don't want to move to another one.

I know I was not very happy when 2nd edition came out and it took me about two years to actually even look at it. But over the years I've played all of the editions of the game and I've been finding there are things I like and do not like about every edition. Feats for me were the worst. I feel it made characters in 3rd edition WAY too powerful. Well, certain builds anyway.

[williamsond]

I've always liked 2nd ed myself. I may get around to trying 5th but I think with RPGs you often tend to find a edition you like and stick to it?

Thoughts?

I was achild of 2nd edition and one of the things I love about 5th is its goes back to what made 2nd so good, its all about story and less about "toon" building than 3-4 th were.