A warrior faces off against a fire-breathing red dragon

Screenrant published an article about the departure of two key figures on the D&D design team, Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins. They’ve been helming the creative side of the franchise for over a decade and have overseen the development of 5E and what I guess we’re calling 5.5E.

The latest versions of D&D have brought in an avalanche of new players. (It might also have to do with the rising popularity of actual-play streams as well) More people playing TTRPGs is good for the hobby, no matter their entry vehicle. But I can’t say that I’m happy with the overall trajectory of D&D specifically. I’ve been trying to put my finger on precisely what bothers me about the direction of the franchise.

At the heart of my issue is the ever-increasing power levels of characters and the lengths a DM has to go through to challenge players. That sounds like a simple problem as a DM since you have control over the force you apply to the party. But it can get tricky very quickly.

Encounter levels

For starters, I never want to create an overwhelming encounter. That’s as much fun as having players annihilate their opposition in every battle. I want there to be an opportunity for the players to win, but with heavy costs. That balance seems very difficult to strike in 5E. (I’m including 5.5E in my references to 5E. I hate writing 5.5E) Either you’re coming on too strong, and you wipe the party or find some unsatisfying excuse to keep them from dying, or the encounter is an exercise in hit-point bookkeeping. The challenge rating system is broken, but many people in the community have devised ways to try and correct it. But even with those tips, it’s hard to nail down consistently.

Another wrinkle for balanced encounters are the different power levels of characters when playing with min/maxers or broken builds of characters. (The Monk class is ripe for exploitation) Now, you have a character that requires more of a challenge, sandwiched amongst squishier characters who can’t handle the increased intensity of the confrontation. Do you make it challenging for one at the expense of the others? Or do you make the encounter level with the rest of the party and let the min/maxer have a field day? The other option is limiting people’s ability to min/max, but now you’re applying a subjective set of rules and possibly preventing a player from playing the character they want. You have to pick one thing to optimize for and go for it. It’s all about trade-offs. There are no free lunches here.

Character Death

This extends my encounter problem, but killing characters is hard. I’m not the DM who wants to murder characters regularly. I think character death should be rare but still a possibility. In 5E, it’s arduous to have a character die as part of the natural flow of a battle. Sure, I can kill a character intentionally, but that doesn’t seem fun or fair. The specter of death always increases the tension and the stakes of a battle. (Yes, I know, there are other ways to create that as well) But it often doesn’t feel that death is an actual risk during an encounter.

An aside on this. If you look at the roots of D&D, you don’t want to go back to that, where characters were a collection of stats with a name. Character death was frequent and a non-event. It wasn’t until The Hickman Revolution that we started to get stories with overarching plots and player character motivations taken into account. But you can’t have a cohesive narrative if the characters die every third or fourth session. You’re stuck. You’ve got to find a middle ground of some sort. There are no free lunches.

Simulation vs Abstraction

The D&D game has become (again) highly tactical. The game transforms as you transition from roleplaying to combat in what feels like a different game. (This feeling has steadily increased since 3rd edition and the move away from theater of the mind combat.) I’ve become keenly aware that D&D is not a simulation of the real world in any facet.

This isn’t a knock on the system at all. It’s a deliberate design choice you either like or don’t. But I’ve spent countless hours at tables debating the “real world” impact of spells like Darkness where you’re effectively blind. You’d think you couldn’t attack a target you can’t see. But in the game, you can attack but with disadvantage. Some people take issue with that. Let’s say they’re hiding from the blinded attacker or they’re not making any sound. “How can they attack me? They’re blind!” The game rules don’t handle that real-world logic leap. Because it’s not a simulation. Realism gives way to the mechanics of the system. You can house-rule it, but then you might find yourself in an endless loop of exceptions and “whatabout” type of arguments. Narrative-based games like those inspired by the Powered by the Apocalypse system have an advantage here but come with their own problems. There are no free lunches.

Wilderness Adventuring Takes a Back Seat

Exploring the wilderness has taken a back seat in 5E. I started to put together a hex crawl adventure for my table and quickly realized how 5E has dismantled a lot of the challenges of surviving in the wilderness. An argument can be made that players don’t find those types of survival adventures enjoyable, which is fair. But I miss that aspect of the game. Getting to the location was just as dangerous as exploring it. It created a need for a diverse set of skills and abilities. Now Create food and water generates 45 pounds of food. The Natural Explorer class feature eliminates a lot of the troubles of exploration. And these are just items in the Players Handbook! Again, wilderness exploration might not be your thing, so I recognize that I could be in the minority here.

What to do?

All this rambling is to say that some of the core aspects I remember of the game growing up have slowly changed to a point where D&D isn’t the first place I want to go regarding TTRPGs. The franchise still has a special place in my heart and should continue on its current path because it’s bringing a massive new audience to the hobby. And when new people enter the hobby, we all win. But it might be time for me to get off the D&D train and start exploring other systems. I’ve already mentioned the PbtA system of games. A few others that I’m interested in.

There are a ton of options out there. I’m looking forward to exploring them!