5e - Sell it to me.

[finarvyn]

So, again, why 5e, and not other games?

I am not sold yet.

I'm not sure if we'll get an answer to this question for a while. In the old days, "Dungeons and Dragons" had the brand name and if you didn't play D&D you were playing something inferior somehow. I'm not sure if the D&D name is enough to sustain the hobby any more.

Twelve years ago was the OGL announcement, and many folks thought that it spelled doom-n-gloom for D&D because now others could make D&D-style products to compete directly with WotC. I think that we finally are seeing the result of this OGL thing, when the D&D folks are trying to reunite the fan base but there are already so many products out there (DCC, C&C, etc) to compete with them.

Even worse, WotC's own actions in creating 4E turned off many folks who complained but reluctantly joined the 3E craze. While there are many 4E fans, there are an equal number of anti-4E folks out there. All they did was further split the fan base.

Bottom line is that I don't know if the D&D name is strong enough any more to lead the pack. I'm willing to look at the playtest stuff as long as it's free and as long as it follows an "old school" philosophy, but the instant they turn their back on their roots many of us will turn our back on them and go to the alternates. I was a playtester for C&C and for DCC RPG and both products are (to me) far superior to the current 4E.

I'm not sure I can "sell you" on 5E because I can't say if I'm "sold" on it myself. The game has some good parts and I have a lot of great memories about old D&D so pure nostalgia gives me the motivation to give them another chance, even though the people who own the D&D name aren't even the same folks who pioneered the game I love 35 years ago.

Heck, I may have just talked myself out of 5E.