5E Here We Come!

Our group is officially returning to D&D.

Aaron will be running the kickoff campaign, and I believe it will be Hoard of the Dragon Queen.

It appears it will initially just be Dale and I as players, but that’s fine. I’ve put notes on internet forums and we’re looking at alternative options to get new players.

If we have to play 2 PCs a piece, so be it. It’ll give us a chance to learn the classes and races a bit quicker.

Nonetheless, we’re returning to D&D.

Will 5E fix everything that 4E ruined for us?
I doubt that. It’s too tall of an order, but so far the general consensus I’m getting from players of it is that D&D is “fixed”.

We’re hoping that D&D will return being fun and not a miniatures wargame like 4E was and what we as a group allowed 3E turned into.

My biggest hope for 5E to fix is combat speeds, at all levels, and the removal of the 5 minute adventuring day (or 15 depending on who you ask).
I’ve read that there are a few hiccups in game where PC power and monster defenses cause for longer fights, but I severely doubt it will be as bad as 4E was at any level.

Note: Five minute adventuring day will be known hence as “5mad”.

With shorter combats the return of the random encounters to the game will ruin the 5mad.

As for PCs, I don’t know exactly what I’ll make. I’ve narrowed down the list of combinations to five.
LG Hill Dwarf Cleric of War with the soldier background
NG Wood Elf Cleric of Life with the acolyte background
CG Wood Elf Archer Ranger with the noble background (the snootiest elves of all)
CN Half-orc Two-weapon Ranger with the survivalist background
CG Half-elf Wild Sorcerer with the folk hero background

Dale says he is going to make a tiefling infernal pact fire warlock. (Say that ten times fast.)
He doesn’t have the PHB yet, so he may not be able to do it.

We may end up making two PCs each, unless we get more players soon, which is in the works.

FYI, trying to get new players that meet our requirements (they have to be human and have reliable transportation) is a bit hard.

We might start playing tonight, I don’t know.

Aaron played in a pickup game a few days ago so he has a basic grasp of the rules.
I’ve only played in a beta test game, which probably means nothing.
Dale has played nothing of 5E.

If we play tonight, maybe I’ll have a write up soon.

Us Playing 5E

We’re enjoying board games, though it’s actually more expensive than D&D (provided we don’t buy a new book every week).

We try to give every person a chance to play every game, which allows those who spent their money on the game to get some fun out of it.
The one we all seem to like is Settlers of Catan, so it’s kind of our go to game when we can’t agree on what to play.

But when you play the same board games with the same people, the games start to repeat themselves. So you need to buy a new game or get new players.
New players are few and far in between, so we get new games. The cost to that is a little much when the games start at $40, and the pool of games left to choose from is shrinking a bit.

We research games we buy to make sure it’s something we will all enjoy. It’s pretty disheartening to buy a game to only play it once or twice because it wasn’t to our liking (I’m looking at you Small World), or one player just hates the game (Dale hates Munchkin, and I won’t play Arkham/Eldritch Horror again).

That’s not to say that we haven’t bought any RPGs that have been played (or one that has only been played once).
For Dale that would be DCC, Mage, and 4E Essentials.
For me that would be Basic D&D Rules Cyclopedia, Mechwarrior, and Pathfinder.

Nonetheless, board games may be unsustainable as we are now.

This brings us to D&D 5E and whether or not we want to return to D&D.

When I joined this group 15+ years ago, AD&D 2E was being played (2 campaigns alternating every three weeks and one used the Skills and Powers options).
A couple years later 3E was released and we switched to it after we finished the current campaign.
Switching to 3E was a bit of a learning curve, but we enjoyed it.
Then the people in the group changed drastically. One of our core members moved away and some new members were trying to control the group (rarely a smart thing to do), making it easy for me to say bye. The group then collapsed because my leaving gave others an opening to bow out.
Not six months later Dale and I started to get the D&D itch and got a few new people, and that went well for quite a while.
Yes we had the usual cycle of people joining and some leaving. If someone lasted for more than 3 months they usually left because of work.
We were a stable group with several core members that all enjoyed the game and our friendships.
I created the blog and wrote about our various adventures.
We had fun for years.
Even when 4E came out we enjoyed it.

At some point I saw 4E D&D as an exercise in doing something that I had to do rather than I wanted to do. And you’re reading/hearing this from a guy who has spent hours creating spreadsheets, making electronic maps, spent a lot of money on making game aids. It stopped being fun.

I tested the waters to see if the group wanted to switch to another game or fix 3.5, but that went nowhere. After a while I ensured the group had enough people, and then I left.

I don’t regret that decision, but it was about a year or so later that I wanted to play again.
I love fantasy roleplaying, and I get the itch to play often enough to keep me interested.

So I sent an email to several of the group and asked if they wanted to play.
After a lot of back and forth, we compromised on 2E, and were able to get a few others who wanted to go back and play it for nostalgic reasons.
We had fun for nearly a year, but work once again hosed us when I had to stop running. Dale volunteered to take my place, but he then had a series of cancellations due to sickness.
So we called it quits on D&D.

I think we had kind of burnt out on the nostalgia, the trouble of getting the group to play consistently, and trying to get new players.
It had become too much work.

Thus we switched to board games.
And now 5E had begun its rollout.

Is our burnout over?
Is six months and a new edition enough to lure us back?

I’ve read that 5E plays like older editions (as in not like 4E), so that’s a plus.
Being a new edition may make it easier to get new players, so that’s a plus.
I’ve read that the combats are fast, so that’s a plus. Hell it’s a big plus to me.

Our current plan is to wait until January to determine if 5E is for us.

First we want to wait and see if people’s positive opinions of 5E change after the shiny newness have worn off, like it did for 4E.

Three months is usually enough for that, but add the holidays and that would bring us to January.

That brings us to five months of others’ experience for us to listen to, longer if you account for playtesters’ opinions.

It’s all really up in the air.
I want to give this edition a fair chance.
I don’t relish looking for players again.

Also, I feel if WotC released an SRD (even more than what they have now), it would be a good faith gesture to the player base that they all but scared away with 4E.

License to Game: An Hour With Ryan Dancey

A video interview by ENWorld with Ryan Dancey. Arguably the person who saved D&D from years of bank-controlled affairs.

Or you can watch it here:

Mike Mearls is a...?

We’re going to make some generalizations and assumptions for this entry.
I don’t have the data in front of me so I just have to go with the anecdotal data I have.

Assumption: MMOs are a growing market. So for 4E, WotC wanted to emulate MMOs to appeal to younger players and rejuvenate the player base.
Result: It worked. More new players started playing than ever before.

Assumption: 4E was a flop with established players.
Result: This created a schism among D&D players. The older players played an older edition of D&D, Pathfinder, or an OSRIC-type game.

Assumption: The original OGL/SRD of 3E got other publishers to support D&D (or more specifically the D20 system).
Result: It created a new golden age of D&D. Huge numbers of D20 books were written with almost every group playing D20.

Assumption: Pathfinder and other game systems have pulled once-D&D-players away from D&D.
Result: The lowest number of actual D&D players in recent memory.

Assumption: A new OGL will be established for 5E. It will be less restrictive than 4E’s SGL, but more restrictive than 3E’s OGL.
Result: Some gamer confidence may be restored.

Assumption: 5E is going to lure old players back and keep the 4E players.
Result: Mike Mearls will be seen as a savior to D&D.

If 5E fails, then I don’t see WotC/Hasbro doing anything more than barely maintaining D&D enough to keep it going as a springboard for the novels and board games.

If 5E succeeds, Mike Mearls will be credited with saving D&D.

Personally , I see it more as Mearls doing everything he can to get the game profitable again while his back is against the wall due to competition from Pathfinder and the ever-hounding demands from shareholders.

But, I don’t like Mike Mearls because made the pussified version of the rust monster in 4E. It’s an unforgiveable sin. Worse than creating 4E even.