Dungeons & Dragons is the biggest role-playing game in the world, and frankly, it’s our game of choice. But that doesn’t mean it does everything great. There are design choices, and in some cases design shortcomings, that shape how a game of D&D plays and separates the experience from other systems. From D&D’s own basic roots (and the old-school renaissance — OSR — games recreating it) to the 3.5 spin-off Pathfinder to investigative games like Call of Cthulhu to completely different systems like FATE, Cypher, Marvel, Warhammer, Kids on Bikes and a hundred more, every RPG system creates a different feel of game. The better you understand what D&D does well and doesn’t, the better you’ll be able to DM it.
In this podcast, we dig into what makes D&D 5E different: The experiences that define the system, what it does well and what it doesn’t do well. Along the way, we’ll talk about how we lean in to the best of 5E while adjusting and homebrewing the aspects we wish worked differently for the styles of games we want to run.
1:00 What does D&D 5E do well?
2:00 Plus #1: 5E stopped letting players hose the boss monsters!
3:00 Plus #2: Accessible ruleset has built the widest player base yet
6:00 Plus #3: D&D 5E is a very good encounter-oriented game
7:00 Plus #4: Gives players and the DMs cool “toys” to play with (PC powers, DM monsters, etc.)
9:00 Plus #5: Entire system supports encounter-focused style (at the expense of exploration)
10:00 Plus #6: Simpler to learn and DM
15:00 Plus #7: D&D is now optimized to teach to generations who understand video games
17:00 Plus #8: How 5E got rid of all that spell-stacking bullshit
19:00 Plus #9: The most balanced system D&D has produced yet
21:00 What about Lucky?
22:00 What doesn’t D&D 5E do as well?
22:00 Minus #1: Make travel and exploration exciting. “You can do it, but the system doesn’t embrace it.”
25:00 Minus #2: Investigations can drag
26:00 Minus #3: It’s too hard for characters to die for real
30:00 Minus #4: Grappling and unarmed combat are shallow
33:00 Minus #5: The skills system is mushy and limited compared to other systems (complexity vs. playability is always a compromise)
37:00 Minus #6: Weapons, armor and equipment are too simplified and limited
41:00 Minus #7: Lack of mass combat mechanics
42:00 Minus #8: Not enough to do with your time and money (including Tony’s instant long-rest tent, training and other things he lets players buy in his campaigns)
51:00 Why add this stuff into 5E when you could just play another game that’s made for them?
59:00 Minus #9: The limits of D&D strength and the hard boundaries on D&D’s so-called high fantasy setting
67:00 How DMs teach players how to play in their games (and why you can’t help it)
79:00 Would Strahd care if the PCs stole Baba Lysaga’s Hut and partied through Ravenloft? (an aside)
80:00 Minus #10: Encounter balance is delicate, and the CR system doesn’t work well at higher levels
82:00 How to keep encounters challenging
86:00 How we’re building the stuff 5E is missing into our games
90:00 Final Thoughts
We mentioned that we talked about these across some of our favorite Facebook Groups. We really appreciate that they let us have the conversation! Check these out:
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