New D&D Rules

[Scott]

I see the new 'Basic' rules are available as pdfs. I haven't read them yet. Maybe I'll zip through it this weekend. Gene, I've read your Wiegelian review.
Anybody else have thoughts?

[geneweigel]

Yeah, its not even worth looking at if you're not into all the "editions".

That said, it can be summed up as a player introduction to make a character with no actual playability. Besides there being no monsters described at all for anything ready to play, if you read the details the characters are broken enough to serve as a gateway to buying a Players Handbook which seem to lead to piles of skills and feats. In the spell area, you can tell the remnant baseline classic spells are the only reminder of "successful fantasy" think before going into that "game mechanic" think. There is a splash area about "the weave" being the way spells work. In addition, the race descriptions are baseline T$R junk with references and quotes from Weis, Hickman and Salvatore.

[GRWelsh]

I haven't looked at them, but I'd be willing to give them a try if you want to run a playtest or something. There could be some salvageable ideas in there, who knows.

I realize that for the most part, I'm like a fossil that's fused into the 1982 stratification.

I still think of UA as the "new rules" which I'm still skeptical of! Drow player characters? Weapon specialization? Barbarians as their own class? Don't get me started.

[geneweigel]

You might want to just check out the crime scene to roll your eyes though its got some crap rolled over from other games. One thing that is radioactive for me is this:

ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE
Sometimes a special ability or spell tells you that you have advantage or disadvantage on an ability check, a saving throw, or an attack roll. When that happens, you roll a second d20 when you make the roll. Use the higher of the two rolls if you have advantage, and use the lower roll if you have disadvantage. For example, if you have disadvantage and roll a 17 and a 5, you use the 5. If you instead have advantage and roll those numbers you use the 17. If multiple situations affect a roll and each one grants advantage or imposes disadvantage on it, you don't roll more than one additional d20. If two favorable situations
grant advantage, for example, you still roll only one additional d20.
If circumstances cause a roll to have both advantage and disadvantage, you are considered to have neither of them, and you roll one d20. This is true even if multiple
circumstances impose disadvantage and only one grants advantage or vice versa. In such a situation. you have
neither advantage nor disadvadage.
When you have advantage or disadvantage and something in the game, such as the halfling's Lucky trait, lets you reroll the d20. you can reroll only one of the dice. You choose which one. For example. if a halfling has advantage on an ability check and rolls a 1 and a 13. the halfling could use the Lucky trait to reroll the 1.
You usually gain advantage or disadvantage through the use of special abilities, actions, or spells. Inspiration (see chapter 4) can also give a character advantage on
checks related to the character's personality, ideals, or bonds. The DM can also decide that circumstances influence a roll in one direction or the other and grant advantage or impose disadvantage as a result.

Add this to feats and skills and it sounds like a game breaker for sure. Unless you want to nitpick rules half the time.

[Scott]

Talked to Eric Bachman today about them. They're a big power down, so he loves them! You SHOULD be able to play a 1E module with them, and vice versa.

[GT]

I had heard that some 1E spirit had entered the new rules. Of course, I'd heard that before... ^__^

[geneweigel]

Its right here if you want to check it out:

printer friendly Basic Rules for 5th Edition

I'd hate to see what the monsters are going to look like. I think this going to be yet another D&D game where everyone is going to be in the village tavern because the combat is too weighted.

[geneweigel]

Had a chance to check out the 5th edition PLAYERS HANDBOOK. The designers are disconnected from D&D so much that there is a feeling that they're never going to get this thing grounded back to the formula again. At best its a lesser 3rd edition manual as for useful towards anything I would want to use in a game I couldn't find anything. Even the layout of the planes looked like something that someone annoying put together.

A friend of mine read an online article mentioning how usable this thing was here:

io9.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-5th-edition-d-d-p-1624519882

So I checked out the book.

The monster samples are simple in a third edition manner. I didn't see anything there about scroll creation which must be a later "add-on feat". The style here for a fantasy handbook is a bout as D&D as a hotel's information guide. Ability scores are now saving throws. This is really bland sauce.

The illustrative joie de vivre of D&D is lost totally. There are illustrations of quasi-americans and its pure garbage. The elves are all enfemme with a typical drow wearing ermine. The halfling will make you beg for the 3E halfling. The gnome is so fruity it looks like what used to be considered a halfling. The half-orc to put it in AD&D terms looks like a barbarian man, sexy sorceress and an orc got in a teleporter and were fused together into a single individual. Some are laughably bad especially the PC ones which I won't mention.

[maximus]

Has anyone played 5E yet? I checked out the MM yesterday. Looks like most of the basics are there, but some of the more powerful ones (demons/devils) seem watered down. Also looks like Orcs became more powerful and Hobgoblins weaker. No big deal I guess, but just seemed strange.

[Scott]

Nah. I'd play if somebody was running it, but nobody I know is. I have no interest in running a campaign.

[geneweigel]

I've seen all three 5E "core" books and its nothing interesting. To me me its like the same crappy Second Edition with part 4 of an update. Until they get rid of the stylized monsters and bring it back down to "this reflects folklore" it won't feel right. As for the feel of the text, it is overworked with too much filler and the system might as well be D&D flavored PALLADIUM FANTASY or GURPS in the way they've made it a "different edition". Overall, too many chefs have spoiled the recipe. I can't play this. I wish I could because it would be an excuse "HEY, ITS NEW!", etc. but its too weird.