I haven't shared any ideas in forever.
I'm quite surprised to see how long ago the last post was, first because I hadn't thought about writing much, second because time seems to have kind of morphed and warped oddly since 2020. I think the break was good, and I'm back to having ideas and things I want to share, so, let's start things off again.
I haven't played Dungeons & Dragons, or any other tabletop rpg, in a few years.
Crazy statement from someone who was posting ideas and writing about it quite a bit, but it's true. Now, I've spent a lot of time playing other games and examining different gaming hobbies (painting, anyone?), but overall, the entirety of game night planning, getting people together, etc, has fallen by the wayside. There's also a big reason that led to the burnout:
5e is not my favorite way to play D&D. I'd rather stick with the 4e rules system.
I know this is somewhat of a controversial opinion, but it's not meant to demean 5e in any way, shape, or form. Play the D&D game (or any other game) that you want to play. Help others learn it, share your experiences, and ultimately be a positive ambassador for other gamers in allowing them to experience the thing you love.
That being said, my desire to play D&D is back to focusing on 4e.
5e is about to launch the new Player's Handbook (5.5e, 5R or whatever people want to call it), and it's not a book that I plan on picking up. The Monster Manual? Not too sure either. The Dungeon Master's Guide is the main thing I would be interested in seeing, especially with the Greyhawk chapter, but overall, I don't plan on running 5e games anytime soon. I burned myself out too much. I also had some reflections from the games I was able to play in, both at tables with friends or at conventions with strangers.
I'd say the break has also given me new confidence in my thoughts and ideas as an amateur designer. I worked with some other excellent authors on some DM's Guild 5e titles, I won a campaign design contest for the Marvel Champions game, and I've had some good discussions and insights with other players on board game forums. So, while in no way do I feel my thoughts are correct, they are what's leading me back to focusing my D&D experiences on 4e. I think some of these discussions will be separate posts, as there's a lot to unwind, but maybe before I get back to 4e stuff, let's talk about the status of my 5e collection.
I started 5e feeling the need to purchase everything. When Descent into Avernus was announced, I realized I had no interest in the title and chose not to pick it up. Same with Van Richten's Guide, among others. I started selling off some of the older adventures as well, like Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Out of the Abyss, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Those adventures and books didn't speak to me, nor did I feel the need to retain them.
My top 5e books include Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Theros, Dragons of Icespire Peak, and Tales from the Yawning Portal (specifically for Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury). My games through 2019 through 2021-ish were based around a region I had designed that smashed together Phandelver, Icespire Peak, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Sunless Citadel, Forge of Fury and Evil Tide, a non-5e adventure that sits at the top of my favorite adventures (I've written about it before). The environment was great, my plans were a blast, but when it came time to play I had struggles.
As a DM, I really disliked running combat in 5e, and to some extent, I think the players did too. Even as a player, I found many of the combats repetitive and struggled to make it so that the veil of gameplay became "roll d20, roll damage, subtract damage, monster still survives". Even movement felt relatively tame. It's possible that this is on me, but overall, I just felt like combat was fairly unexciting, or required more bookkeeping than I really wanted to do. Monsters that were spellcasters? Extra prep as I needed to take notes - not that note taking and prep is bad, mind you, just that it felt like extra pressure.
I also did not enjoy trying to design combat encounters in 5e - the math always seemed fiddly, like my players would get whalloped on what I meant as an intro encounter and make short work out of what I considered to be the high point of the evening. The pacing was just off, and the options seemed limited. So, instead of continuing to try the same thing over and over and over again, I decided I needed a break.
This isn't to say that I won't ever DM 5e again, but it's not high on my list at the moment. If I did go back, I would probably stick with the same mash-up ideas I've been touting around over the last few years - I feel strongly about said ideas, which means I should write a post outlining these for other people to borrow and use.
It's also quite possible I'm missing something major that many other DM's have figured out. I've never pretended to say that I know it all and am always ready to learn something new. I just know that the attempts I had over the years slowly fizzled to the point where I didn't want to play at all.
The sudden re-interest in playing all started as I perused my 4e books again (much like when I previously left off). My group of friends all have played D&D with me, though some have only played 5e, while others played both 4e & 5e. The original group expressed interest in going back to 4e - one DM is burned out as well and misses the tactical excitement. They also suggested we get together and play a one-shot, in order to alleviate pressure to keep meeting, playing, and see some big story unfold.
Ironically, this entire pursuit of 4e has given me a few new ideas and overall plans, but those will be tackled in future posts.
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