Why did 5.5e fail so completely? There's no hype, no one plays it, it's just a total letdown.What went so wrong? How did they obliterate all the goodwill and excitement from original 5e?
>>98086547I predict about 200+ replies and your thread will linger for 2 months. Great for (you) farming.
>>98086587With all those (you), he'll be allowed to post on restricted boards, like /po/ and /qst/!
The types of people who like 5e enough to still be playing it are not the people who give a shit about numbers tweaking and don't see a reason to buy the same book again when they already don't read the one they have and play it anyway. Anecdotal evidence but for the three casuals at my one table it pretty much only served to make things more complicated for them, as dire as that sounds. It really doesn't add anything for them besides making pure healslut PCs more viable5.5e was for attracting the 3.x gamers who still kept tabs on 5e back to the game for another round of "surely this time it'll be good", but all it did was sprinkle a bit of math and add some more throwbacks like Greyhawk to nostalgiabait grognards, without fundamentally making 5e the game they want to play anyway. It's ultimately a cashgrab aimed as widely as possible, thus appealing to almost nobody
No rizz.No real ideas either.Except to purify the game of racism.
>called the Pinkertons on some nobody to threaten him over playing cards>OGL crisis fucked over dozens of third party creators>hard pushing a poorly made digital ecosystem that charges you to breathe>I think they mentioned wanting to do AI DMs at some pointThe only reason it's still in the top spot is because it's already so successful. I doubt anything short of the fall of capitalism will ever truly kill D&D, but it's a much harder sell to people now.
>>98086547Well they nerfed everything, stripped put features, ignored playtest data, tried to tie it to a live service digital system with AI integration, attempted to issue copyright claims against all fanmade and homebrew content, and sent mercenaries to some guy's house. I think that about covers it
>>98086975>I think they mentioned wanting to do AI DMs at some pointAI DMs were something they were promising in investor chats, with Cocks himself talking about how they planned to go all in on AI, and how he the dozens of people he plays with all use AI, somehow. Then there was also the job opening for AI guys to staff their new video game division, which they had to come out and assure people that they weren't going to use AI in any D&D products.Given the timing and wording of the OGL shit, the prevailing theory to me is that WotC was trying to rope people into an agreement that would allow them to fully legally training a D&D content-spewing AI on all of the third-party content that would be legally theirs to do whatever they wanted with under the new OGL they proposed.
>>98086547They made a bad half-ass remake that didn't fix any of the problems and made new problems. Thinking they could change the OGL so they can basically take control over everyone homebrews/3rd party work. That and they also were hoping to make their own digital system with gacha mechanics hoping to move from the books. However, that failed
>>98086547They're charging full price for what is basically a balance patch.Its also still new, so it may take some time before it becomes the norm, if ever.
>>98087610What is preventing the big mass switch from 5e to 5.5e.
>>98087629It's trash. It doesn't fix anything it should have fixed as well as it loses features, races, and classes from 5e people like and loved. When you make a new system you got to be better or at least at the same level and have everything together in 3 books over 10+.
>>98086547>all the goodwill>5eThreadly reminder that 5e was made because WOTC surrendered to a greater product (pathfinder) so they decided to make a shit system just because no one else did it.
>>98086737>to purifyThat's racist.
>>98087629DMs will need to first want to switch, but why would they when they're comfortable with their current tools and if they have any homebrew, they need to rebalance all of it.
A bunch of business missteps and unrelated bs (Hard push to VTT, OGL fuckup, alienating influencers, people getting back to real socialization after COVID, and stupid culture war BS) followed by a release that wasn't significantly better or worse in any real way. 5.5 isn't dead, I'd say about 1/3 - 1/2 of the games running are using it, but nobody cares. It's just what's out and easy to get material for.
>>98086547critical role fans
>>98087415>gacha mechanicsWait, wut?
>>98086547All lfg forums and websites have a majority of users opting to use the new rules so it’s just people who hate wotc who won’t switch (they also won’t stop playing 5e so they’ll switch eventually)
Because it's expensive.If it was only that wiki they're hiding from the general public made it would make more sense...
>>98088381I guess it'd let them make ephemeral content that people will buy in small chunks which then later gets errata'd or rotated away by a new 5.X edition?In general, the strategy since 3.5 has been to make splats of player options that players will buy in the arms race to make ever-more exotic, unique, and optimized characters, because there's more players than DMs, which then all get erased with the new edition so they can explore the design space again with new splats that repackage some of the concepts from the old splats.Look at Hexblade, a curse-based 1-4 martial caster released in Complete Warrior, the arcane equivalent of a paladin or ranger, notoriously underpowered but also beloved of edgelords. Now its a Warlock pact that got added in whatever-the-fuck 5e book.If anything, WotC is exhibiting restraint these days; releasing big hardcover adventures. Unfortunately, some of these adventures are marketed as "Made by Queer Women of Color" or recycled Dungeon Magazine adventures.
>>980865476e (FTFY) failed because very even-numbered edition of D&D is a bomb.
>>98088381They wanted you to pay a subscription fee for the digital character sheet and then still pay to unlock everything that goes on it. So you can pay another 30 USD for the digital phb (no, your DM’s copy doesn’t count) or you can pay 1.99 and just unlock the Two-handed Weapon Mastery feature. Then you find the horn of blasting, if you want to add that to your character sheet you can pay another 1.99 or you can buy a DMG. It was supposed to come with a fully integrated digital tabletop but I suspect that’s gone the way of Gleemax.>>98087671Ok, what’s your beef, what did they take out that you miss? I didn’t know that they removed any classes.
>>98086547What hard evidence do you have that it has failed? By what metric are we declaring failure
>>98089406You could also just homebrew all of that without paying any money, if you want anything on beyond for free, it just costs your time.
>>98086547They went all woke when the fad was disappearing.
>>98089644But 5e was woke too? Strahd is bisexual for example
>>980896575e when it first came out wasn't particularly woke and felt like a "Please come back" to the playerbase that had left for Pathfinder.Then Critical Role happened and suddenly the hobby was flooded with Theater Kids who brought with them all their own aesthetic demands (so, rabid leftists).
>>98089657WotC has always been a left-wing company, but the incidence of they/thems and the shoehorning IRL current year identity trends vastly increased after the Theater Kid invasion. apart from being clingily diverse, all the art has become "cozy."I always try to get in at least one 5e game when I go to a con; it's always my worst experience.
>>98089422Sales and lack of playerbase.
>>98087698No, 5e was made because of internal WotC politics. Hasbro wanted impossible performance from 4e and replaced the design lead with a brown-noser who made essentials that ended up performing worse than base 4e. 5e was then the result of the brown-noser brown nosing so hard to not get fired that D&D ended up with a skeleton crew with him in charge.
>>98089657Curse of Strahd was released twice with a 2016 version and a "revamped" 2020 version that made a lot of woke changes.
>>98090249Okay, let's see your numbers.
>>98087698Pathfinder is an inferior 3.5
>>98088574>If it was only that wiki they're hiding from the general public madeThe fuck are you talking about?
Not one mass rape or genocide discussed in the core books. We should have gatekept harder; we don't need no stupid pinko theater kids in our violent graverobber simulations.
>>98090474He's talking about that wiki they're hiding from the general public made, obviously.
>>98090493Based.
>>98089657Strahd is a Vampire. He's Bi by default. Read the Uncensored version of Dracula, the motherfucker was going to turn the main cast into his harem.
>>98086547It didn't "fail so completely," it's just basically 5e and designed for cross-compatibility so people are still playing their 5e games, mixing and matching stuff between editions, etc. If you look at LFG sites there's plenty of 5.5e games. People obviously aren't switching systems in the middle of the campaign.People aren't talking it up because a) WotC burned a lot of good will with the OGL debacle, and it doesn't just instantly come back, b) this is /tg/, nobody talks anything up, and c) it is just a patch on 5e so what's there to compliment? That they made subclasses more balanced against each other? Waow. Let's make twenty threads about that guys.
>>98090493All we can do at this point is make our own game
>>98090924It doesn't help that Wizards has taken 5e's already glacial release schedule and somehow made it even slower for 2024.
>>98090249So, you don't have any actual proof, then?
>>98090926>genocide>in a medieval/renaissance setting
>>98091019History is full of genocides.
>>98091019Didn't the Mongols fundamentally alter the dominant ethnicity of China through mass rape and murder?
>>98086547Someone post the collage of the Pathfinder community losing their shit about the 2nd edition
>>98090377Anon I have the 2016 version in print. Strahd's bi, he has a twink bf.
>>98088598>beloved of edgelordsPlayed one once, was fun.>Made by Queer Women of Color>>98089406Holy shit, what sort of fresh new hell is that? Granted there was a murder, but if they failed during 4e vtt development how did they expected to make it for a less videogamey system?>>98090926A table where you roll which war-crime your god wants you to commit whenever you land on a herectic settlement.
>>98087415There are some concrete improvements like streamlining area attacks
>>98091983Wasn't the whole point of Strahd was he was a SiMP to his brother's girl that he murder his brother and she kills herself over marrying him and now stuck in a personal hell where she keeps rejecting him.
>>98092219Yes and he's also throwing himself into hedonism with a harem of vampire fucktoys, both male and female
>>98092287Vampire's gonna vampire. While his brother's girl will always be his primary obsession, he will indulge partly because of the power it gives him over other and because of the hedonism. Why else wait with Gertrude until the pcs are in that bedroom?
>>98092287>>98093012So they made him "Vampire Freddy Mercury." Bi just because he couldn't marry the girl he loved.
>>98089406Micropayments, subscriptions and DLC aren't gacha/lootboxes. The former give you exactly what you ask for, the latter have random variable rewards and try to trap gambling addicts via the dopamine rollercoaster cycle of constant losses mixed with occasionally good stuff happening.
>>98091585Yeah, the mongols committed several genocides. That poster must not have heard of the people that don't exist anymore which is understandable.
>>98090493>>98090926I can't tell if this meme is forced or not. It is pretty accurate description of how some parties play D&D.
>>98093563That poster, I called it a simulation rather than a game to really get under some people's skin with it. I don't care if anyone else posts this copypasta I'll post it where ever it is relevant.
The quality of 5e supplements had rapidly declined towards the end, and they weren't that good to begin with, so the hype for DnD was practically dead. Then they marketed 5.5e with "no new edition", basically telling everyone that they should keep playing the stuff they already had.
>>98086547not enough children to teen plays it. Dungeons & Dragons primary players are age 30 to 60 year old. No matter how much LGBT it gets or much African influnce it absorbs, as long as they can't get actual American kids to play their D&D, it can't survive for long.
>>98093754My nieces and nephews are gen alpha and they don't have the best attention spans but they are not the worst Ive seen. I can't imagine them playing D&D though. The youngest obviously just won't get it but the 3 oldest probably could play a short session. That said my sister is a Christian type who doesnt let them read Harry Potter so I doubt she would let me teach them D&D.
