We have lots of threads as to what people like/dislike about 5th edition but I'm curious as to why people play it.
There's plenty of gaming around where I live of all sorts of games. 4th ed, Pathfinder, 2nd edition, Hackmaster, Call of Cthulhu, Star Frontier, Gamma World.
I'm certainly not starved for choice and could play pretty much any game I wanted (and do play Pathfinder on occasion). The reason I play 5th ed when I do (rather than spend that time playing something else) is because it has everything I require of a fantasy Roleplaying game and so far I'm finding it to have the least amount of prep work required as a DM. Even less than 4th ed which was fairly light compared to other games. The things I regularly hand waved with prior editions don't have complicated rules which means less house rules as well.
For those who actually play 5th edition, why are you playing it? When it first came out many of us evaluated it. But are you really still in that phase of the game? If your not, why are you playing it?
I have my complaints about the game, but it's fun. Lots of fun. Hobby wise I gave up on D&D not long after the release of 4E in favour of other hobbies, but 5E has bought me back.
It's bought back the feeling of many older editions, yet is modern enough to live up to modern expectations of gaming.
Defintely over the evalution phase - in two campaigns at the moment.
Its fun for the most part and looks great.
It is less complex than alternatives like Pathfinder, but then I find it lacks sufficient detail. Maybe if 5E releases an options books for classes, or tactical combat, I may find a happy medium.
Because it's not awful and it's the officially supported D&D edition 
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Compared to the alternatives... Hmmm. I like more characters options than in C&C, less character options and complexity than in Pathfinder, and more available utility magic than in 13th Age. That's about all the D&D-like games that I tried.
Also because I'd like to create and sell my own adventures and there's no point in selling adventures for a game that nobody plays.
I play 5e because I enjoy playing 5e - and I can run the game the way that I prefer to (zero planning, just my DM screen and Monster Manual in front of me and let the characters lead the show while I just fill in the blanks reacting to what the players are doing) while the players still feel like there is enough customization to their characters to really make them their own, and enough character progression to feel rewarding.
I play it instead of other versions of D&D because:
- Don't play 1e because I never got into it, and I'm very much non-Gygaxian in my preferences
- Don't play 2e or BECMI because while my wife and I love them, their particular foibles spoil the fun for some of the other players at our table
- Don't play 3e or 3.5 because while some of my players liked them, I couldn't get past my disagreements with the design philosophy even after running those versions for their entire lifetime
- Don't play Pathfinder because while it was more enjoyable than 3.5 for me, many of my disagreements remained because the game was designed to be 3.5 compatible
- Don't play 4e because doing so ended up feeling more like work than play for the whole group
Of course, D&D is far from the only game that my group plays - though since 5e came out it has certainly been getting the lion's share of our attention.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
CCS wrote:
4th edition in the eyes of me and my gaming group was nothing short of a complete and utter disaster of a game. There was absolutly nothing about it that agreed with us, even the artwork was a huge turn off. After that, I honestly never thought any of us would ever try another Wizards of the Coast attempt at D&D. We simply moved on, either going back to our core roots like AD&D or moving forward with games like Star Wars Edge of the Empire.
The announcement and beta test of 5e didn't even trigger a response from anyone, we pretty much ignored it. When the game came out, no one in my group cared. I followed its progress on a very basic level but it really wasn't an event.
Than one day on an absolute whim someone in my gaming group picked up the basic set and said "lets just try it". So we did, we figuired it was a good execuse as any to get together.
It took about an hour of the first session before everyone stopped and said "this is pretty much the best D&D I have ever played". It really happened that fast. By the time we finished the basic box set story with pre-made characters everyone was cradling their own Players Handbook at the table. We haven't played anything since, pretty much every role-playing game except for one Star Wars Edge of the Empire campaign was canceled instantly and every gaming session we had available has been dedicated to 5th edition D&D.
Why do we like it? It boils down to this. Its a 1st edition feel with modern, clear mechanics. Its focused on the narrative, its balanced without making the game about balance and its extremly flexible, easy to run and fast.
Its in essence what we would have done to AD&D had we been much better at designing games. For years we have been manipulating AD&D trying to figuire out a way to have that old school feeling but with better mechanics.. D&D 5e is essentially what we wish we had the talent to create.
More than that though, after the players handbook (the best D&D we have ever played) we got the Monster Manual for 5e. Hands down without reservation in all our opinions the best Monster Manual ever made. Than we got the DMG, and again, hands down, no reservation the best DMG ever written.
So far its just been a delightful joy because with each step, 5e has topped its awsomeness with more awsomeness. Its really shocking that we went from 4e, the unquestionably worse edition of the game (quite possibly worse RPG) we have ever played to 5e, the best D&D and quite possibly best RPG we have ever played. And it came from the same company.
Its really nothing short of a miracle.
To me, 5e feels like a more polished, balanced, and clear version of 3e, while still including some of the design philosophy of 4e (I say again: balance). As someone who started with 3e and moved to 4e due to complexity and power creep, 5e is pretty much exactly what I always wanted out of D&D. Oh, and my players love it, so that's certainly incentive to keep playing.
For the moment it is fairly hackable and easy enough to show new players how we have inserted our house ruled home brew game.
I play 5E because it's what got me back into D&D during the playtest. I hadn't played any D&D since 2E, and was never interested in the 4E material I had looked at.
5E just feels to me like D&D come full circle. It has the feel of the classic game but with moderm mechanics that make it more streamlined and easier to get new players into.
Got jaded with playing too much Mathfinder, so lightened things up with dnd5.
I do play other stuff but this is my d20 game of choice now.
I've been kitbashing systems for a long enough time that it doesn't need to be functional out of the box to be playable, it just has to have the vague semblance of a system that I can fix. 5E accomplishes that as well as any other game and is wobbly enough to give a small amount of design space before I rewrite all the tables in it to remove the godawful bounded accuracy, armor class disaster, and various levels of wonky classes. It very much has the feel of older D&D in that manner.
I don't consider those necessarily bad things, I should point out. No game system should ever feel perfectly fit for a group imo.
Title almost sounds like its asking as if people only play 5th edition and don't play any other RPG's.
Compromise.
5E is a good middle ground between the kind of games I prefer (like Hackmaster or ACKS) and the kind of games other members of the group prefer (like Edge of the Empire, Pathfinder, and Torchbearer. As you might be able to tell by that list, they are the favorite of different members of the group, not one guy who loves all three.)
Because it inspired some of my old gaming friends to get back into D&D, and ultimately gaming for me is about having fun with friends.
It has the "feel" of the game we loved in the 80's, but with cleaner rules and fewer flaws.
Most fun I've had with TTRPG's in 30 years.
Well, I do play other RPGs, too, however...
I DM/play 5e because I've liked D&D since I first started playing it in 1986, and this edition, IMO, is the best edition of D&D that I've experienced and my groups and I have been having a lot of fun with it..
I play and DM 5e because it is faster, more flexible and more fun than other versions. I also like to continue playing D&D because that is the roleplaying game that got me into the hobby over 30 years ago.
I like how the mechanics of the game don't overshadow roleplaying, decision making and ingenuity, and it is very easy to keep a story flowing and have gaming sessions that delve into all aspects of the game (combat, interaction and exploration). Even in a 1 hour game, I feel as if we can keep the story moving forward even if there is combat involved.
Since combat can be either short skirmishes or longer battles, it helps me plan more variety in combat too.
I also play/DM it because I took time to give WotC feedback and I see that some of the feedback actually influenced the game. I feel as if my investment into the playtest process invested me into the edition. (I also like it because my name is credited in the Monster Manual and the Dungeon Master's Guide...he, he, he).
Noon wrote:
Of the systems that are easy to find a group for, it is the best ruleset.