Albions_Angel
2016-10-11, 03:31 PM
So this is an odd one, and I am not looking to start an argument. I have a small sample size and may have just been unlucky, but I wanted to ask about 5e games played by people I consider more experience than your average player.
In my (limited) experience, it would seem 5e games are more predisposed to slapstick comedy or overly fanciful caricatures. Here is my questionable, anecdotal evidence.
As far as 3.5e goes, I have been with one group for 4 years, and been in the same club as 2 other groups during that time. The tables were full of laughter and fun but the content of the games was serious and the laughter was more like campfire jokes and comments than laughter at the game.
With that group, we did play a brief 5e premade 3rd party campaign. It wasnt to our liking and we stopped, but before we did, we all noted that the grey text seemed to have a LOT of slapstick. The mayor of the town was farcical. The Orcs were dimwitted and moronically clownish. The grey text made light of orcish raids, and storming the orcish encampment included an "encounter" with orcish toddlers in a brightly coloured orcish playpen. We were all a little uncomfortable about that (even the DM) but the grey text seemed to strongly hint that we were supposed to kill the toddlers, retrieving a plot-important ring from one of their nappies. We were a good only party and the grey text asked that all players be good or neutral. Very odd. But it was 3rd party.
I also played a longer 5e campaign with a housemate as DM. His first time DMing and his second ever game. It was full of slapstick, and if you could make him laugh, your character could do it. At one point a party member broke a staff and basically nuked a city. Thousands died. No consequences and the players fell about laughing (all 5e players of at least one game) while I was sat there in some confusion.
I also watched the above DM as a player in another game. Different group of people save for him. Again, very comedic. They snuck up on a sleeping Wyvern at one point. I was expecting them to creep into ideal battle positions and get a surprise round of combat, maybe 2 if the DM was nice or the rolls were good. Nope, the Wizard asks if he can see the Wyverns bottom. The DM considers for a long time, then says "Yup" and the wizard announces he rams his hand up the dragon and casts shocking grasp. Everyone falls about laughing and when the DM recovers he announces that the electricity travels up through the dragon and stops its heart. Queue the rogue yelling "We fisted a dragon to death!" and more laughter.
But that was all overlapping groups, right?
Well now I have a new group in a new city and I am about to start a 3.5e campaign. They are all first time 3.5e players but have all played at least one 5e game each. 3 from the same group, one from a different one who has played several 5e games.
In a break in character creation, I ask them about their other games, and all of them trot out stories, lots of stories, of mistakenly getting married to an orc due to a language barrier (oh ho! Interesting plot developing, maybe an escape, or a jail break, or getting kidnapped by a rival orc faction or...) and having to fake enjoying the first night of the marriage. Or accidentally hiding from the town guard in the brothel as concubines, only to be sold to a passing trader for use in his harem. Or getting into a literal pissing contest with a giant. All toilet or sexual humor.
It sort of confuses me. Its the sort of thing I would expect to see from 12 year olds who have found the "Book of Erotic Fantasy", not "seasoned" D&D players. Sure, sometimes that can be fun, but my memories of campaigns are rarely the comedic moment and often the heroic ones, or the desperate ones, or the ones where I died saving the party or they died saving me.
Am I just (un)lucky in my experiences of 5e? Is 5e written in a way that suggests a more cartoony version of D&D that breeds this kind of thing? Is it a more causal system? Do you guys have ANY idea why my experience of 3.5e games (both IRL and over on the 3.5e boards) seem to be more serious than 5e ones? Those of you that were 3.5e before 5e, have you noticed a change?
I should say, I have no issue with other people playing the game like that. Its not for me, but each to their own. All power to them. Just curious if there genuinely is a trend.
In my (limited) experience, it would seem 5e games are more predisposed to slapstick comedy or overly fanciful caricatures. Here is my questionable, anecdotal evidence.
As far as 3.5e goes, I have been with one group for 4 years, and been in the same club as 2 other groups during that time. The tables were full of laughter and fun but the content of the games was serious and the laughter was more like campfire jokes and comments than laughter at the game.
With that group, we did play a brief 5e premade 3rd party campaign. It wasnt to our liking and we stopped, but before we did, we all noted that the grey text seemed to have a LOT of slapstick. The mayor of the town was farcical. The Orcs were dimwitted and moronically clownish. The grey text made light of orcish raids, and storming the orcish encampment included an "encounter" with orcish toddlers in a brightly coloured orcish playpen. We were all a little uncomfortable about that (even the DM) but the grey text seemed to strongly hint that we were supposed to kill the toddlers, retrieving a plot-important ring from one of their nappies. We were a good only party and the grey text asked that all players be good or neutral. Very odd. But it was 3rd party.
I also played a longer 5e campaign with a housemate as DM. His first time DMing and his second ever game. It was full of slapstick, and if you could make him laugh, your character could do it. At one point a party member broke a staff and basically nuked a city. Thousands died. No consequences and the players fell about laughing (all 5e players of at least one game) while I was sat there in some confusion.
I also watched the above DM as a player in another game. Different group of people save for him. Again, very comedic. They snuck up on a sleeping Wyvern at one point. I was expecting them to creep into ideal battle positions and get a surprise round of combat, maybe 2 if the DM was nice or the rolls were good. Nope, the Wizard asks if he can see the Wyverns bottom. The DM considers for a long time, then says "Yup" and the wizard announces he rams his hand up the dragon and casts shocking grasp. Everyone falls about laughing and when the DM recovers he announces that the electricity travels up through the dragon and stops its heart. Queue the rogue yelling "We fisted a dragon to death!" and more laughter.
But that was all overlapping groups, right?
Well now I have a new group in a new city and I am about to start a 3.5e campaign. They are all first time 3.5e players but have all played at least one 5e game each. 3 from the same group, one from a different one who has played several 5e games.
In a break in character creation, I ask them about their other games, and all of them trot out stories, lots of stories, of mistakenly getting married to an orc due to a language barrier (oh ho! Interesting plot developing, maybe an escape, or a jail break, or getting kidnapped by a rival orc faction or...) and having to fake enjoying the first night of the marriage. Or accidentally hiding from the town guard in the brothel as concubines, only to be sold to a passing trader for use in his harem. Or getting into a literal pissing contest with a giant. All toilet or sexual humor.
It sort of confuses me. Its the sort of thing I would expect to see from 12 year olds who have found the "Book of Erotic Fantasy", not "seasoned" D&D players. Sure, sometimes that can be fun, but my memories of campaigns are rarely the comedic moment and often the heroic ones, or the desperate ones, or the ones where I died saving the party or they died saving me.
Am I just (un)lucky in my experiences of 5e? Is 5e written in a way that suggests a more cartoony version of D&D that breeds this kind of thing? Is it a more causal system? Do you guys have ANY idea why my experience of 3.5e games (both IRL and over on the 3.5e boards) seem to be more serious than 5e ones? Those of you that were 3.5e before 5e, have you noticed a change?
I should say, I have no issue with other people playing the game like that. Its not for me, but each to their own. All power to them. Just curious if there genuinely is a trend.