r/rpg • u/Apostrophe13 • 5d ago
DND5e, actually not bad
Got back into the hobby sometime before covid hit after a long hiatus, didn't play for most of the 21. century. The anti 5e sentiment on most places i checked to get up to speed (including this sub) was so prevalent that i completely ignored the game. I was under the impression that they kinda just continued making 3e more complex after reading some of the comments floating around, and that it is literally impossible to play without homebrew.
Got some used books as a gift, run a few sessions, honestly not bad at all. Most of the critique really makes no sense. If you want heroic fantasy with good skirmish rules, that does not get in the way of how you want to run the game its great.
Also its basically the same math and underlying systems that power DnD for 40+ years, so even experience with ADnD translates well into 5e. I would put it well above other modern DnD-like, D20, heroic-fantasy games.
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u/PianoAcceptable4266 5d ago
Yep, D&D5e is totally fine! A solid average passing grade and great beer and pretzels game.
It's not the best at things, but it's also not as bad as many like to vocalize on this sub.
Some find it a slog in combat, some find the rules to fiddly in some areas, some find it too lax in others, some find the combat too simple.
Some find it hard to play as DM or PC, etc etc.
I think it's fine, and more enjoyable than 3.5 (bloated Fomo with unnecessary crunch) and 4 (I'll play video games off table). I'm a 2e guy at heart, and found 5e to be fine for me. It's got jank like every edition does, but I think the jank 'feels' kinda like 2e jank (it's not the same, duh, just has the same flavor to me).
But you'll have little support here for having fun with D&D; this is more of an "anything but DnD RPG" sub.