Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition has been much maligned in RPG circles (including by yr. humble editor, to be fair), but the game does have its undeniable good points. For some positive discussion of the latest edition of the grandaddy of RPGs, check out "Why 5e Is Good."Much Maligned? By who? Where?
RPG.net is blocked at work, so I can't get into the thread itself.
I know there is a certain segment of the RPG population who disliked D&D5 based on (what it seems to me) the involvement of +Kasimir Urbanski (RPGPundit) and +Zak Sabbath and wished it would fail. Well, that never happened and now almost 2 more years in I notice some of those (vocal) one are now playing 5e.
Then there are also these articles. Not exhaustive, or even 100% representative but they do make a point. Read them, but for the purposes of this illustration, the titles will suffice.
- 'Dungeons & Dragons' makes a resurgence
- 'Dungeons & Dragons' Good For Writers, Says 'New York Times'
- Female-only Dungeons & Dragons club vanquishing sexism in fantasy gaming
- ‘D&D’ Fifth Edition: One Year in, Beyond the Game
- The awesome glory that is Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition
- Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition gives freedom back to the dungeon
- Reviewed: Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition: Streamlining, self-publishing, annual stories—if you left, it's time to unretire for 5E
- Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition gets it mostly right
- It's The Perfect Time To Play Dungeons & Dragons
- Five More Things I Love About Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
I could go on but hardly needed.
No I think this is much, much more a reflection of the point of view of the editor of this newsletter, "Iustum". (I admittedly have no idea who that is.) Also trying to push a particular narrative.
RPG.net lately has been more a place of cliques and overly draconian rules on what can and cannot be posted. Granted that is their right. They pay the bills they can say what they want there and control what others say. But that doesn't really make it true.
Sorry RPG.net. but D&D5 is not much maligned. Not even by die hard Grognards.
Yeah, that's ridiculous! Did he mix up 5th edition D&D with the Star Wars prequels?
ReplyDeleteMuch maligned? Now that is funny. Talk about being out of touch with the gaming community.
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ReplyDeleteSomething to keep in mind, when I stopped by there the other day there was a thread asking if "Vegepygmies were racist?" and another where a guy admitted he had a great gaming group where everyone got along, but one of the player's Facebooked him and apparently is a "gamergater" so he's asking if it's ok to boot him?
ReplyDeleteI mean those are #FantasyWorldProblems, not even #FirstWorldProblems.
There is also a segment of the online game world that pushes the narrative the D&D 4th Edition was an utter failure that everybody hated and nobody bought. When you point out that some people liked and played 4th Edition (and still do), and that there were some good ideas in it, they get very indignant.
ReplyDeleteHow is that relevant to the topic? There are also people who ride the bus. So?
DeleteI'm sure that I've maligned 5E at least a couple-three times, just on general principle. However, I believe it's well-documented that I am a notorious reactionary and "hater."
ReplyDelete; )
LOL! Oh man, these delusional cunts are just hilarious when they're all frustrated, aren't they?
ReplyDeleteRPG.net is an insular and weird community, and hard to take too seriously. I like hanging out there, but it regularly has "trap" threads (such as the vegepygmie) where you know that the community and moderators see only one "right" answer or course of discussion and even popping in to say, "No, and it's idiotic to even postulate such" would lead to a banhammer. They even tried polling ways to improve the community a year or two back and it was entertaining reading people's efforts to say, in as roundabout a way as possible, that it was hard to talk at the site without worrying about extreme thought police action.
ReplyDeleteYou missed the best part; the mods were also handing out permabans to the people that did complain about the thought policing.
DeleteThat's why you're way better off going to theRPGsite.com !
ReplyDeleteIt's the real gaming forum for anyone who doesn't want to put up with the State of Delusion.
Maybe it was just a math error...
ReplyDeleteOne industry professional, who asked to remain anonymous, said to me "RPG.net thinks they have their finger on the pulse of the RPG community but really it's stuck firmly up their own ass."
ReplyDeleteI think that sums it up rather nicely.
I'm not a regular RPG.NET forum reader (had some bad experiences), but looking in their Forum: Dungeons & Dragons / Fantasy D20 Spotlight I see the above mentioned
ReplyDeleteWhy 5e Is Good thread, as well as many many other 5e threads talking about play, which spells are best, what classes are best, etc etc... looks to me like 5E is alive and doing fine on RPG.NET.
"Female-only Dungeons & Dragons club vanquishing sexism"
ReplyDeleteThat's an awesomely Orwellian title. Very "War Is Peace".
After 4e, the bar was set so low, it's hard for the next edition not to be well-regarded in comparison.
ReplyDeleteIn response to StevenWarble: "Everybody" and "nobody" are strong words, but I think it's fair to say that not many people liked 4e, especially since copies of the rulebooks started turning up at my local Half Priced Books six months to a year after it came out. To be fair, I thought it had some ideas that could have been interesting, but that WotC botched the execution of all of those.