I was sent a link to a post on the D&D subreddit (/r/dnd). The contents of the post aren't important, but my eye was drawn to the header. A beholder with the LGBTQIA++ BIPOC Trans flag and multicolored rainbow eyes.
To the mods and members of that subreddit, about Dungeons & Dragons, THAT'S the most important thing?
Also, of course, "No AI" is in the top 5 rules.
I know there are quite a few tabletop players here--is the entire community like this? I haven't played in some 20 years, and the last time I did it was mostly nerdy and edgy white and asian dudes. What happened??
D&D 5e happened. Critical Role happened. Stranger Things happened.
Yes, it's all gay and lame now. All of the "problematic" aspects of D&D have been gutted or shuttered. Alignment is effectively gone, race is effectively gone.
The theater kids have taken over, D&D is far more about amateur improv than it is wargaming nowadays.
We live in a theater kid occupied world.
Technically, the rule changes aren't the problem.
The lack of stat bonuses for races actually does allow for more creativity in role-playing and less min/maxing. Same with the changes to alignment.
The more power in the hands of the PCs for creativity in the role-playing game, the better, imo. It ultimately always comes down to the DM, anyhow. A good DM will evaluate the choices players make in real-time (the alignment of decisions) and change the reactions of the story to suite this alignment. A good PC will act "in-character" in the manner that suits his character rather than act how he himself would act while not role-playing. Less restrictions (more freedom and less min/maxing traps) allow for better role-playing in-the-end.
What has truly changed though is the quality of the players. The D&D community isn't all 110-120 IQ nerds (like it once was) who've read and watched tons of fantasy content such that they wish to add to the story. The average member of the community now is some 90 IQ mouth breather who cares more about promoting his LGBTQ+ radicalism in the fantasy world he's role-playing a PC for.
With high quality players and DMs you still have racism, you still have characters making decisions that align with the personality of the character they've decided to role-play as and you still have significant differences in the interactions between PCs, NPCs and monsters, given inherent biases toward certain characteristics such as sex, race, appearance and behaviors.
At the end of the day, the rules don't matter much. You can play any edition and have tons of fun without any "woke" nonsense, given the rules. It's the quality of the players that ultimately matter and that is truly what has gone downhill in the last 20 years.
I would fundamentally disagree, respectfully. I think restrictions in fact breeds better quality roleplaying. Freedom from my experience tends to result in bland same-y characters with no conflict. Things like stat bonuses and alignment represent genuine points of contention within worlds. Making a half-orc wizard isn't interesting if there is no mechanical reason why that would be unusual. Making a good drow isn't interesting if Good/Evil are just matters of perspective instead of objective forces of reality. The rules fundamentally do matter, because its in some ways the difference in rules between editions that attract different people.
I will agree that good DMs can salvage something from 5e, but the other aspects of 5e is going to be an issue as well. The far less robust character options and progression compared to 3.5e, the general decrease in complexity and power. These too are aspects of the edition that are a conscious push away from the autism of yesteryear and towards the 90 IQ mouth breather.
You are 100% correct. Constraints breed creativity. Total freedom, unbound by the fixed rules of a proper setting, enables retardation. DnD is like collaborative creative writing, and having shared standards is like a blanket de facto editor - it keeps everyone somewhat in line.
“Muh good players” is a cop out, a thought-terminating cliche, in any tabletop rules discussion. Besides, finding like-minded people in that cesspool of a community is challenging enough without also disqualifying a ton of players who get “too creative”.
I have heard this argument since the beginning and in practice, I've never found it to be true.
Good players are going to be good players regardless of the rules and bad players are going to be bad players regardless of the rules. But when you have more hard-fast restrictions, you (as DM) end up having to play for the bad characters (correct them) because they're just bad. Letting them do whatever they want leading to "same-y characters" is how it was always going to end with bad players regardless of what any book says. You think bad players read through the manuals and especially the lore? You think bad players even know what Forgotten Realms is or have even read one Drizzt Do'Urden book? Even if the 5.5e books described the Drow in intricate details, you'd still get bad players role-playing a Drow in some ridiculous fashion and end up as some "same-y character". That's what happens every time in practice because at the end of the day, a few paragraphs in a book can't dictate the entire person's ability to role-play for the entire adventure. People can only role-play what they know and most bad players hardly know enough to role-play anything.
On the other hand, when you have good role-players, it doesn't matter what the book says because the DM will control the setting. If a good role-player plays a good aligned Drow and doesn't realize Drow are typically evil, he will soon find out because a good DM will incorporate that into the behaviors of NPCs such that the Drow PC will get the hint and adapt around that. As they gain experience, they'll ask those kinds of questions with regards to the setting the DM is creating.
But this is where the freedom actually is useful, IMO, now the DM can create a setting where High Elves are evil and Drow are good if he wants to without having to deal with people who know complain about the races ought to act. PCs telling the DM to do his job better because that Orc was unrealistic or there have been too many good Drow given how Drow are supposed to be, etc... Or PCs that think they understand the races of the setting acting a certain way to gain an advantage but then not gaining such an advantage then complaining to the DM's lack of adherence to the lore. All these behaviors and biased you believe you've lost because of the rule changes aren't lost. In some ways you've actually gained far more with a competent DM and good role-players because now you yourself aren't boxed into the same sorts of biases already set by books or previous lore you know. This is especially true for the new players. I think it gives far more freedom for DMs to be more original with their settings with less conflict between players and DMs.
At the end of the day though a woke LGBTQ+ DM that wants a ONE RACE THE COMMUNE RACE theme because he's woke irl and wants to role-play his activism is never going to create the setting you want even if the 3E rules say Elves are racist and are skeptical of outsiders because those will be the evil fascist elves in his setting.
The new rules are good for new players with little understanding of any of the past "lore" and with a competent DM, they actually are useful to ensure cohesiveness and less "anticipation" in player's expectations of behaviors which leads to a better playing experience with more creative settings, if you have a competent DM and good role-players.
Role players are faggots and I hate them. Having set bonuses strengths the lore. Orcs are strong so they get a +2 to str. The mechanics of the game and lore both now work in hand in hand to make it feel more real. Orcs are strong so they get no bonuses because a faggot role player wants to be a big strong guy but actually a weak wizard because that makes him creative weakens lore.
Now get this! I’ve played a half orc wizard and having a 5% lower save dc on my spells didn’t make my character sheet burst in flames. Nor did a “manic pixie dream girl” descend from heaven to suck me off for being so creative.
It really was the youtubification of the hobby, wasnt it? Im quite sure the subreddit censored AI submissions because the stories were almost entirely race-based