My grievances concerning 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons: a final statement

Let me start with some background about what “fantasy” means to me and hence what I generally look for in fantasy role-playing games (FRPGs).

I saw The Lord of the Rings animated movie when I was 9 or 10 at a repertory theatre. Then I read The Hobbit. That got me really interested in fantasy stuff. It’s what motivated me to then ask my parents for the Dungeons and Dragons Basic Set for my birthday. (It was the one written by Dr. Holmes – hence it had those annoying chits instead of dice.)

As an adolescent I became interested in other works of fantasy – especially, in the early-mid 1980s, Michael Moorcock and Robert E. Howard (along with a lot of related pastiche “Conan” stories) – because of D&D and AD&D. The “Melnibonéan Mythos” in the Deitites and Demigods was one of my favourites in the book even before I read anything by Moorcock. 

 

Given these influences, I would say that Tolkien, Moorcock, and Howard had the most influence in shaping how I interpreted D&D/AD&D when I got into FRPGs in the early-mid 1980s. (I eventually would go on to play games directly based on the writings of Tolkien and Moorcock; indeed, these eventually supplanted AD&D in my high-school group.) Perhaps this is why – more than any particular set of rules – the more recent Wizards of the Coast versions of the game leave me cold. Over the past 25 years the game has felt more like “fantasy superheroes” than the kind of fiction that I had associated with it – and, I suppose, still do, when I think of “classic D&D.”

Turning to my experience running a “World of Greyhawk” campaign using the fifth edition rules – and leaving aside the game’s overall “ethos” and “aesthetics” (including its unfortunate recent turn towards “twee”) – there are three elements of the game that especially came to vex me:

a. Its “superhero” “no-wounds-are-serious” system of rest and recovery; 

b. Its “unmagical” magic system; and

c. Its flavourless, often tedious combat system.

(For further explanation of each of these points, go to the posts to which I’ve linked above.)

I recently managed to sell most of my WotC 5e D&D collection (I kept the core rules and a few books I liked, such as Saltmarsh and Yawning Portal). I used a local used bookstore for the sake of convenience. It felt good to free up the shelf space. I don't know why I bothered getting most of those books originally – even when I was playing 5e, I barely used most of them. (I stopped buying WotC stuff years ago when I realized this, as well as the declining quality of the line.)

I will say this for 5e D&D: it’s far better than 3e was. I mean, if 5e D&D were the only FRPG available, I would play it – whereas I would just abandon the hobby if 3e was the only option. And I would not rule out occasionally playing 5e D&D in the future (say, running a game for a friend’s kids or something like that). And I would be happy to play the Middle-earth variant, The Lord of the Rings RPG (indeed, I greatly enjoyed that game’s predecessor, Adventures in Middle-earth, having run a successful campaign about seven years ago).

But as for my “main” FRPG, I’ll never use 5e D&D again. Hence, I don’t have any interest in the new 2024 books. There are just too many superior alternatives (including, of course, earlier editions of D&D/AD&D, and related “retro-clones” and “near clones”).

Moria Kickstarted x30

Not that the Free League needs any additional support for this – the project (at the time that I’m writing this) has exceeded its funding goal more than 30 times over – but since I’m a Middle-earth fan and write about it regularly here, I thought that I would mention the Moria Kickstarter.

The Free League is coming out with versions for both The One Ring (2nd edition) and The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying. The latter game (LoTR) is a revised version of Cubicle 7’s earlier Adventures in Middle-earth system. That system is based upon 5th edition D&D, but helpfully introduces many “Middle-earthy” elements from TOR – and thankfully replaces entirely 5e’s standard “rest” and magic systems (among other things).

The TOR 2e version is called Moria: Through the Doors of Durin, whereas the LotR version is called Moria: Shadow of Khazad Dûm. (For some reason, different names are applied to all the books in the TOR and LotR lines, even though the non-rules contents are identical, as far as I can tell.)

The One Ring 2e looks interesting. I have the core rules and the introductory box set. (I also have the LotR versions.) Going forward, though, I plan to stick simply with the LotR 5e line, so I’ll be getting Moria: Shadow of Khazad Dûm. I don’t have any deep system-related reason for doing so. It’s just a matter of familiarity and convenience. I ran a great campaign using AiME a few years ago, so I know the system reasonably well, and am happy to stick with it for my Middle-earth gaming. (At least when I’m not using Against the Darkmaster to run my old MERP stuff. Oddly, Moria is one of the few ICE Middle-earth books that I don’t have in my collection.)

The TOR 2e books do have better covers than the LotR books for some reason…

The Unmagical Magic of 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons

Time for another “airing of grievances” with respect to 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons!

I previously complained about the way resting and healing work in 5e – as well as noting some options for ‘fixing’ these problems, including options from the 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Into the Unknown 5e variant. (I suspect that 99% of 5e players either ignore or are ignorant of these options in the DMG. But it’s only fair to note that they are indeed there; the designers of 5e were not oblivious to the possibility that some groups might not like the default “cartoon superhero” mode of the 5e rules.)

My other big complaint about 5e D&D concerns the magic system. Magic, and spellcasting in particular, is laughably common and easy. Spellcasters can cast cantrips without end, as well as the “ritual” versions of spells, including ones like “Identify,” “Detect Magic,” and “Alarm.” Moreover, magic-users … er, wizards, recover a number of spells following a short rest (one hour in the standard 5e rules) thanks to their “Arcane Recovery” ability.

The upshot of this is a game in which spells are ridiculously common. In my experience, no magic item goes unidentified for more than a few minutes, characters communicate via magical iPhones (the “Message” cantrip), campsites are surrounded with “Alarm” spells (making it almost impossible for the party to ever be surprised, except for attacks from the air or from below), and so forth. I certainly don’t blame my players for using their characters’ spells in these ways – they’re making intelligent use of the resources available to them! I applaud their excellent playing of the game – it’s the game itself that annoys me.

Hence its spell system is another reason why 5e D&D does not resemble at all “old school” D&D or AD&D, wherein spells were a precious commodity (at least until characters were of very high level) and “short rests” did not exist. 

If I were to “fix” 5e D&D so that it had more of a classic feel, I would: 

• Either eliminate cantrips altogether or allow them to be cast only a limited number of times per day (perhaps equal to the character’s proficiency bonus).
• Require that spells with the “ritual tag” be cast as “rituals” (i.e., take 10 minutes to cast) and take up spell “slots” (so no endless casting of Alarm, Identify, etc.). 

I note (yet again) my positive experience with the Adventures in Middle-earth roleplaying game based upon 5e D&D (the second edition of which is called The Lord of the Rings RPG). That experience led me to have a high opinion of the 5e core mechanics. And I do think that the core of 5e can make for an excellent game. But the way in which 5e D&D handles rest, recovery, and spells – all elements entirely reworked by AiME/LotR – has made me conclude that I never want to run 5e D&D RAW again.

[Trampier's classic "Emirikol" picture from the 1e AD&D DMG]

[2023-08-01: Edited to add the reference to wizards’ “Arcane Recovery” ability in the third paragraph.]

Tales of the Variants

As I noted back in February, following the great “OGL Crisis” of Janurary 2023, a couple of companies that produce materials for 5^th edition Dungeons and Dragons decided to produce their own versions of the game in order to avoid being subject to any future deleterious decisions by the Wizards of the Coast (even after WotC backed down on scrapping the old OGL).

 

One of those companies, Kobold Press, recently announced a kickstarter for its 5e variant, Tales of the Valiant. If you’re curious about it, there is a free preview PDF that you can download from the kickstarter page (available even if you don’t want to be a backer).

 

The name is terrible in my opinion (I think I preferred its previous name, “Project Black Flag”), but the company is solid. I'm mixed on what I’ve seen of the system so far. (I mean, it’s 5e with tweaks, but I'd rather have something more stripped down.) Nonetheless, I’m more likely to use it as a resource in the future than the revised 2024 version ("5.5e") of D&D that WotC is currently working on. 

 

Cubicle 7 is also coming out with its version of 5e later this year. C7 did very good work on Adventures in Middle-earth – indeed, in terms of the rules, I liked running it a lot more than standard 5e. And I’m going through C7’s Uncharted Journeys book now (which adapts the AiME travel rules to standard 5e fantasy). It also is very good, and I’m thinking of using it in future games. So I’ll be interested in checking out “C7d20” whenever it’s released.

 

(Regarding AiME: as mentioned last year, the game is now the Lord of the Rings 5e. The system has been revised and is now published by the Free League, just as the Free League also has taken over publishing The One Ring 2^nd edition. I just got my "physical" version of the LotR 5e core book, and it looks excellent. AiME/LotR shows how 5e can be used to create something better than the original WotC 5e game. But I digress…) 

For 5e D&D, I remain very happy with my version of it: Into the Unknown with some houserules. However, I do sometimes wish that ItU had similar production values to TotV and the like. But, well, it's only an “indie” game. The kids these days sadly prefer fantasy super-heroes to gritty old-school dungeon delving.

C7d20 and Black Flag: the coming 5e Clone Wars?

 

During the recent “OGL Crisis” – caused by WotC’s recent, almost cartoonish, avarice and arrogance – a number of third-party publishers announced plans to create systems “fully compatible” with 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons – but not dependent on the OGL (instead, alternative licenses would be used, such as the forthcoming ORC).  

 

Kobold Press is pursuing what it calls “Project Black Flag.” The system will be compatible with 5e while refining elements of it: “Kobold plans to revise and sharpen familiar mechanics while offering new, streamlined options for a core tabletop game.”

 

While 5e is a vast improvement over 3e in terms of reducing its “fiddliness” (and overall gratuitous complexity), it definitely could use some further streamlining in my view. So I’ll be interested to see what the Kobolds come up with.

 

Cubicle Seven also is developing a 5e-compatible system: “C7d20” (not the most evocative of names, alas). Their announcement mentions the version of 5e that they designed for their excellent Adventures in Middle-earth game (now in the hands of the Free League, revised and renamed The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying 5e). As I’ve mentioned before here, I am a huge fan of AiME – I ran what I thought was a very successful campaign using AiME a few years ago – and think that it’s a better system overall than “core” 5e. I expect that C7 will incorporate elements of AiME into C7d20 (I read somewhere that C7 already has revised the excellent “journey” rules from AiME for their forthcoming “Broken Weave” setting).

 

Among the growing family of 5e compatible systems I should also mention ENWorld’s Level Up: Advanced 5^th Edition system. It’s been out for at least a year now, I think, so it was not created in reaction to WotC’s recent mischief. However, since it introduces additional complexity to 5e – hence the “Advanced” part of its name – it is not something in which I’ve been interested. Nonetheless, it’s a freestanding system, compatible with 5e, and seems to have its supporters.

 

Finally, at the other end of the spectrum from Level Up, is Into the Unknown. Inspired by the Basic and Expert rules for D&D from the very beginning of the 1980s, Into the Unknown simplifies and streamlines many elements of 5e while introducing a few mechanisms (especially concerning dungeon and wilderness exploration) that resemble those from earlier editions.  Like Level Up, Into the Unknown has been out for a while now (it was released in 2019). But it’s a freestanding 5e-compatible game that (hopefully) will continue to be available in the future. (I’m using a house-ruled version of ItU for my current Greyhawk campaign.)

 

Even though WotC has abandoned its attempt to “de-authorize” the OGL 1a (which is good news for ItU) and has “CC-ized” the 5e SRD, the projects by C7 and Kobold Press are set to continue. I’m genuinely curious to see how they turn out. 

 

 

The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying 5e (Dungeons & Dragons)

I was wondering whether the Free League would be revising and re-releasing Adventures in Middle-earth (AiME), the 5^th edition Dungeons and Dragons rules developed by Cubicle 7. In addition to incorporating many elements from The One Ring (TOR) roleplaying game into the 5^th edition D&D framework, AiME also radically reworked a number of core elements of 5e to fit Middle-earth (most notably the magic system and classes). I used AiME for my “Spider Cult of Mirkwood” campaign a few years ago and think quite highly of it – in fact, I think it’s better than “core” 5e DnD, at least for “low magic” settings.

 

 

Wisely deciding not to leave money on the table, the Free League is coming out with their version of AiME, now called The Lord of the Rings 5e. Here’s their description:

Middle-earth is opening up for new adventurers! The pre-order for the 5E adaptation of the award winning second edition of The One Ring™ RPG, entitled The Lord of the Rings™ Roleplaying, alongside the Shire™ Adventures compendium and a 5E Loremaster's Screen, has been launched today. The pre-order gives immediate access to complete PDFs.

 

The Lord of the Rings™ Roleplaying is 236-page hardback volume that contains what you need to create 5E adventures set in the world’s most popular fantasy setting: six original heroic cultures from the land of Eriador, six new classes, a host of terrifying adversaries, and comprehensive rules for journeys, councils, wondrous artefacts, and the subtle magic of Middle-earth.

 

Shire™ Adventures is a 104-page hardback volume that describes the Shire in great detail, as well as five short adventures and seven pre-generated characters, including famous Bagginses, Tooks, and Brandybucks! The contents of Shire™ Adventures are adapted from the Starter Set for The One Ring™ RPG.

 

The official retail release of all items is planned for early 2023, but the pre-order in the Free League webshop gives immediate access to complete PDFs of The Lord of the Rings™ Roleplaying and Shire™ Adventures. You can even report your feedback on these PDFs on our forums before they go to print!

 

Note that PDFs of the 5E Loremaster's Screen and Rivendell Compendium will be shared at a later date.

The art is stunning – I would buy this book for the pictures alone!

 

It can be pre-ordered here.