Dungeons and Dragons v.5

[Lynn LeFey]

I got the 3 core rulebooks for Christmas, and when i listed them, Harley asked what I thought of the new version. I hadn't read much at the time, so couldn't give a good answer.

As I haven't played it, I still can't say completely, but I CAN say... it is considerably different than 3.x or 4.

Or, maybe, it's a lot less 4 and a bit more 3, and not quite either.

First, it seems in pretty much every way stripped down. Less combat rules, no feats, minimal skill set, no crafting magic, a compression of the entire magic system... and yet they still retain a great deal of variety for class builds. They also seem to have aimed to remove some of the inherent min-maxing allowed at least in the 3.x version (I honestly didn't do much with v.4, as I straight-up hated it).

Combat is likewise cleaned up, and while it's probably still easier to do combat on a grid, it's now no longer quite so mandatory. A lot of options are removed, and a lot of rule minutia is gone.

I think this game would be a lot easier for a 12-year-old to pick up and learn than all previous versions back as far as red box D&D. While a lot of options are gone, a lot of those remaining are the ones that people would likely have built anyway.

This view is from giving a 75% thorough read of the Players handbook and a skim + 25% read of the DM guide and skim of the Monster Manual. I reserve the right to change any opinion without notice.

I probably won't have a chance to run the system for several months, so more report then.

And, if anyone cares, I've been playing tabletop RPGs since about 1982, and have been playing some form of them constantly since then. I still consider pencil-and-paper role playing games the best entertainment value for the money. For the $100 cost of the core 3 books (on Amazon) and maybe $20 in dice and other miscellany, you can run a game for 4 years or more. I might have spent $1000 in RPGs over my lifetime, and can't imagine any other hobby that would be that cheap over the 32 years I've been doing it.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I was very much into RPG's when I was younger, most notably D&D (or rather at the time, AD&D as it was for more discerning players), Elf Quest (huge fan of the comics) and Marvel Super Heroes, with more than a passing interest in Paranoia and Star Wars plus another space based game called Star Frontiers.

I really do miss playing them.   Plus I loved painting and building the miniatures, at least as much if not more than the games themselves. 

I'm glad to see the culture is still going strong.

Def

Sent from my smurfing hunk of techno sorcery

[Toolslinger]

I started with 3, moved to 3.5, dabbled in 4 (hated it after a couple of months) and then jumped headfirst into Pathfinder.

I'm a fan of what they are trying to do with v5. It feels like they are trying to get back to the roots of the game and has a v2 (AD&D) vibe to it.

As the DM for our group, I am a huge fan of anything that simplifies my prep time and in-session decisions/mechanics. The trick is going to be convincing my group that switching systems is a good thing. They are so used to rules-heavy systems with a mechanic for everything.

I will be interested to hear what your experiences are with the system Lynn.

[pfrsantos]

I DISBELIEVE!!!!

This was an inside joke in my group. I miss RPG. Last one I played was Warhammer 40k.
 

[HarleyXJGuy]

Thanks for the info Lynn.

Also a old school RPG player all the way back to red box. I also seem to remember a blue box?

Played D&D, Star Wars, Traveller, Gamma World, Marvel Super Heroes, Top Secret, Shadowrun, Warhammer RP and many more I am forgetting right now.

Retire soon and plan to go back home to Michigan where all my nerd buddies are. Hope to get back into it on some level.

Here is a picture for you Grsnt.

[Toolslinger]

I DISBELIEVE!!!!

This was an inside joke in my group. I miss RPG. Last one I played was Warhammer 40k.
 

"I choose to Disbelieve" is still an inside joke in my gaming group.

[Lynn LeFey]

We use 'I disbelieve' all the time in our game group as a joke.

I have an inside joke from my Champions days, 'Oratory will take care of that', for when you say something stupid that your well-spoken PC would not.

I still say 'I just lost Sanity' or just 'San' when I see something particularly disturbing. From Call of Cthulhu.

We picked up 'Ever feel like you failed a spot check?' from the Order of the Stick online comic strip.

There was an ep of X-Files, called Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space' Where a character utters one of my favorite quotes we use... "hey, I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons and not learn a little something about courage."

I use an obscure joke occasionally when I see a big pile of goodies or something. "Treasure Type Q!" referencing AD&D 1st edition's treasure type tables. It has yet to catch on.

Harley, nice paint job. 

Toolslinger... I'm right there with you about simplifying the game system. I prefer mechanics that don't get in the way of the story, and that my (one particularly difficult) player can't min-max. I'm GM about 70% of the time, but have had an extended bout of burn-out lately.

[HarleyXJGuy]

First saying from our old game groups I could think of was this.

Natural 20.

Critical hit!!!!

[Toolslinger]

We use 'looks like you just rolled a 1' anytime someone messes up in real life.

I've started saying 'there's always a 5% chance' referring to the chance of rolling either a nat 20 or nat 1 on a D20. It's really just a gamer way of saying you could get lucky or screwed. Hasn't caught on, but I like it anyway.

[Etherealicer]

We use 'looks like you just rolled a 1' anytime someone messes up in real life.

I've started saying 'there's always a 5% chance' referring to the chance of rolling either a nat 20 or nat 1 on a D20. It's really just a gamer way of saying you could get lucky or screwed. Hasn't caught on, but I like it anyway.

Its way we use 3W6 in GURPS gives a Gaussian curve, most likely to get an average result...

[Singh]

The last version of D&D I played as AD&D in 1989.  I remember THAC0 being a headache.

 

Nowadays I play board games because RPGS take too much time and people in order to get a campaign going. 

[Etherealicer]

The last version of D&D I played as AD&D. I remember THAC0 being a headache.

 

Nowadays I play board games because RPGS take too much time and people in order to get a campaign going.

Tacos? I love tacos

[Etherealicer]

The last version of D&D I played as AD&D in 1989.  I remember THAC0 being a headache.

 

Nowadays I play board games because RPGS take too much time and people in order to get a campaign going.

Well, some board games are more complex than RPG and the rules make far less sense.

Nowadays I mostly do RPG that take 2 - 4 hours. I love the story-telling element and think it cannot be replaced by board games.

[HarleyXJGuy]

The last version of D&D I played as AD&D in 1989.  I remember THAC0 being a headache.

 

Nowadays I play board games because RPGS take too much time and people in order to get a campaign going.

THAC0

Now that brought me back quite a few years.

[Singh]

To
Hit
Armor
Class
0 zero.

Old school. GURPS was a heck of lot more user-friendly.

[HarleyXJGuy]

To
Hit
Armor
Class
0 zero.

Old school. GURPS was a heck of lot more user-friendly.

Thanks but I am well versed in THAC0 and old school role playing games.

Was thinking about getting into GURPS recently because some of my firends and I are going to start a modern anti terror special ops team game. Decided to go with Spycraft 2.0, not sure why.

[Steinar]

Been playing since the late eighties here as well. Best expression from one of the gaming groups is "Åtter'n er raud!", i.e. "The (die showing) eight is red!" Why is that funny? Because the guy shouting it, with great enthusiasm I might add, was throwing 2D10 as a percentile die and tried communicating which was the most significant die/digit... I think it's over 20 years ago now.

[ducttapetech]

The last version of D&D I played as AD&D in 1989.  I remember THAC0 being a headache.

 

Nowadays I play board games because RPGS take too much time and people in order to get a campaign going.

THAC0

Now that brought me back quite a few years.

No kidding!


Nate

[HarleyXJGuy]

The last version of D&D I played as AD&D in 1989.  I remember THAC0 being a headache.

 

Nowadays I play board games because RPGS take too much time and people in order to get a campaign going.

THAC0

Now that brought me back quite a few years.

No kidding!


Nate

Did you just call me old? 

I sure hope Lynn is right about the new version of D&D being stripped down. Simple rules are how I like them, just a frame work to tell a story and spend time with my buds. If I wanted complicated I would go back to school or work.

[Steinar]

There are tons and tons of nice, simple frameworks out there. I have never seen a truly elegant incarnation of D&D. "Byzantine", "baroque", and "what were they thinking", on the other hand... 

Personally, I like the Fudge mechanics, but there are tons of interesting generic systems and great settings out there. And a lot of it is available as watermarked PDFs, so no need to wait for the mail. Tablets don't have the charm of books, but they don't have the weight either. And the truly horrid editing of a lot of RPG source books makes me very thankful for a searchable media...

A couple of links to RPG shops with PDFs: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/home.php?cat=248 (Neither an endorsement nor a warning, they were simply the first ones I found or thought of.)

[Lynn LeFey]

I use Drivethrustuff for my digital RPGs.

As for simple... I thought the 'Serenity' RPG was very simple. Almost TOO simple. In fact, our game group started calling it the 'Role some smurf and see what happens' system.

[HarleyXJGuy]

I use Drivethrustuff for my digital RPGs.

As for simple... I thought the 'Serenity' RPG was very simple. Almost TOO simple. In fact, our game group started calling it the 'Role some smurf and see what happens' system.

I have used this site a few times to get some Spycraft 2.0 and had no issues.

[Steinar]

As for simple... I thought the 'Serenity' RPG was very simple. Almost TOO simple. In fact, our game group started calling it the 'Role some smurf and see what happens' system.

Sounds good, that's how most of the people I play with treat all systems anyway.

[hiraethus]

Just when I thought this place couldn't get any geekier.

J/K. I haven't played for 20 years and really rather miss it, but just don't seem to have the time nowadays. Favourite rules were Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but favourite game were Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberspace. We seemed to end up playing AD&D 2nd edition most of the time though.

[HarleyXJGuy]

Just when I thought this place couldn't get any geekier.

J/K. I haven't played for 20 years and really rather miss it, but just don't seem to have the time nowadays. Favourite rules were Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but favourite game were Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberspace. We seemed to end up playing AD&D 2nd edition most of the time though.

2nd edition was by far my favorite. Just the right blend of rules and freedom to do what you wanted.

Not to mention the level of support it had.

[Lynn LeFey]

I think I'm in a minority, because i didn't merely dislike v2, I really rather loathed it. Not as bad as 4, but near. And man... all those 'complete' books were making me insane by the end of the run. 'The Complete Left-handed, Half-Dwarven, Half-Dragon, Dancing Sword Saint Filibusterer Guide.' Absurd crap like that.
 

v3 had it's own issues along this line with 3rd party 'support'. You know when someone releases 'Frat Bro' as a player class expansion, things have gone too smurfing far!

Before AD&D, I had one of hte boxed sets, the Red one. It was pretty bad, but fun nonetheless, and every good idea has to start somewhere. For AD&D, I liked v1, but I was too young to know any better. For instance, that armor adjustment by weapon type table was a complete nightmare. V2 bothered me, and this from someone with a good 5 years DMing experience running maybe a dozen different systems. V3 had a LOT of good, and a few bad things. V3.5 was a pretty solid tweak of 3, and Pathfinder was a pretty good tweak on 3.5. V4 made me roll my eyes and sigh heavily before slipping the books on the shelf, essentially forgotten. I have hopes for 5. We'll see.

[HarleyXJGuy]

For instance, that armor adjustment by weapon type table was a complete nightmare.

Yeah we just ignored that table, good idea bad execution.

[einherian]

Ahhh good lord!!! How I miss good old D&D. I used to play D&D and AD&D 1st and 2nd editions from the early nineties on. All those classic adventures from the Dungeons and Dragons Magazines. Weeks of playing through Undermountain. Awesome! Sadly our group dissolved slowly after 3rd edition came out. I really miss it. Hey I even met Gary Gygax once while he was invited to a fantasy festival in Rothenburg. That was great!

[HarleyXJGuy]

Weeks of playing through Undermountain.

Heck yes!

[einherian]

sadly, there's no time travelling a rewind function to bring bring back those glorious days!