Mearls interview on 5E and how it fell apart

Ruprecht · February 26, 2025, 05:35:11 PM

If 5.5E isn't selling well they can plan to make a 6E in a few years and claim 5.5E was just a compatible bump. I know if I took over Wizards that's what I'd do. I certainly wouldn't wait out the normal 10ish year life of a new edition.

honeydipperdavid · February 26, 2025, 09:53:17 PM

Quote from: D-ko on February 26, 2025, 03:12:58 PM
QuoteD&D doesn't like its current customers and wants new customers

I mean, it's been years now since "white people can't leave soon enough", right?

Hasbro did fire Kyle Brink about 6 months later but they never apologized nor clarified Brink's stance. It's ok, America is going back to the norm and all these fucked up gender faithers are being looked at as if they have shit for brains and syphilis for eyes. Hasbro will have to adjust D&D or they will have a Disney Star Wars situation on their hands very soon.

honeydipperdavid · February 26, 2025, 09:55:37 PM

Quote from: Horace on February 26, 2025, 05:07:05 PM5.5E doesn't seem to be selling well, based on Mearls's interpretation of the latest Hasbro earnings report. That wouldn't surprise me. Not many people want to learn new rules that are not different enough from the old ones to be interesting, but just different enough to be annoying.

IMO, 5.5E was a mistake that should have never happened. A re-organized PHB with an improved layout would have been fine. But changing just enough rules to break backward compatibility was a bad idea that will end up biting WotC in the behind.

We were already at 5.5E when WotC fired Mearls using the race riots of 2020 to justify firing him, putting up racist warnings on all pre 5E content, removing books that had racial or extended lore present (volo's and mords). This is just the gender neuter faith element of WotC showing their ass begging to be fucked by corporate.

S'mon · **Today** at 04:47:09 AM

I enjoyed his Prof DM and Questing Beast interviews. He definitely emphasised mechanics and gameifying of 5.5e as a reason for its failure, only referring obliquely to Woke as a reason. I think he's right that 5e was successful in 2014 because it was very welcoming to new players compared to 3e and 4e, he and Pundit etc did a good job. And the lack of any design ability from Crawford and co is evident. Still I think Woke plus general Evil (OGL scandal) is the main reason people really hate WoTC now.

honeydipperdavid · Last Edit: **Today** at 07:27:26 AM by honeydipperdavid

Quote from: S'mon on Today at 04:47:09 AMI enjoyed his Prof DM and Questing Beast interviews. He definitely emphasised mechanics and gameifying of 5.5e as a reason for its failure, only referring obliquely to Woke as a reason. I think he's right that 5e was successful in 2014 because it was very welcoming to new players compared to 3e and 4e, he and Pundit etc did a good job. And the lack of any design ability from Crawford and co is evident. Still I think Woke plus general Evil (OGL scandal) is the main reason people really hate WoTC now.

This is how bad Crawford is at knowing the 5E ruleset. Crawford ruled you can summon familiars through walls. The exact same ruling if a DM used it would allow players to summon elementals through floors of the dungeon. Crawford should only be allowed to edit and create 5 room dungeons, that's what he's competent at. I had to deal with a rules lawyer jack ass who used this ruling and when I told him no he flamed out. Pain In the Ass, but hey that's what Crawford is all about.

finarvyn · **Today** at 08:50:06 AM

I watched the video and enjoyed it. I didn't know most of the guys who run 5E but found Mearls to sound rational and have an interesting viewpoint on how 5E was designed. While I'm a big fan of the really old D&D versions, my family enjoys 5E so that is most of what we play now.

honeydipperdavid · **Today** at 10:13:11 AM

Quote from: finarvyn on Today at 08:50:06 AMI watched the video and enjoyed it. I didn't know most of the guys who run 5E but found Mearls to sound rational and have an interesting viewpoint on how 5E was designed. While I'm a big fan of the really old D&D versions, my family enjoys 5E so that is most of what we play now.

Mearl's appears to have input up to but excluding Tasha's. 5E content excluding Tasha's was fairly based mechanically and generally worked well together without breaking character options.

Horace · **Today** at 11:22:03 AM

Quote from: S'mon on Today at 04:47:09 AMI think he's right that 5e was successful in 2014 because it was very welcoming to new players compared to 3e and 4e, he and Pundit etc did a good job.

Agreed. Mearls gets it. The simplicity is what made 2014 5E great. Every class and subclass was roughly equal in power, so a new player could make a character without fear of being a gimp. They didn't have to research "builds" in order to be useful. Since then, though, 5E has only added more feats, spells, classes, and subclasses -- way more than was ever needed -- to the point that the options are overwhelming once again. System mastery is almost as much of a thing as it was in 3E, thanks to power-creep and broken multiclass combinations. It's enough to ruin the game, in my opinion.

Steven Mitchell · **Today** at 04:31:59 PM

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on February 26, 2025, 10:49:27 AMI'm surprised no one watched the video or commented.

I already know it's a multi-car pileup with police, fire, and paramedics on the scene. No need to slow down to a crawl to gawk.