Dungeons and Dragons is the most famous tabletop roleplaying game ever, and Fifth Edition is its most popular edition ever. I’ve played a lot of D&D, from 3.xth through to 5th edition, and I’ve had a lot of fun in those groups. I’m looking forward to D&D One, and planning to do a series on this very blog where I share my thoughts during that first read. But in 2024, I’ve decided it’s time to say: “I don’t play D&D 5e.”
To me, 5e is the edition of compromise. It compromises between easy for new players and engaging for experienced players. It compromises between being Dungeons and Dragons–a swords-and-sorcery TTRPG about heroes fighting monsters–and being everything everyone wants to play, from a heist game to a freeform roleplay about diplomacy to a crunchy sci-fi simulator to Magic the Gathering’s kid sibling for people who were upset that Theros’ part in the March of the Machine story didn’t make any sense. (Hi.) It compromises between being the epic five year long game for groups that know they’ll stay together forever and the one-shot you can pick up and play with strangers at a comic con. It compromises here, and it compromises there, and nobody is happy.
And worst of all, D&D 5e compromises on social justice. It’s in an awkward half-developed stage between the unchecked racism of its past, with its hook-nosed goblins and brutish orcs and primitive elves, and the powerful potential of a future that depicts a world with myriads of peoples, cultures, and traditions. But it wasn’t ready yet to slough off the things that made it famous, and those things were mired in stereotyping and bigotry. Maybe D&D One will be the stage where Dungeons and Dragons emerges, fully fledged, from the chrysalis slowly transforming a cruel past to a powerful future. But as of 5e, D&D is still a mush of progress and regression.
And that’s not to say you can’t play a game of D&D that carves away that baggage. I’ve spent a long time trying to run and play games of 5e that are everything I want them to be. But that’s the reason I’m not going to play 5e anymore. Because 5e isn’t about playing 5e anymore. The game we call D&D 5e is a ship of Theseus replaced with house rules, traditions, poorly sourced homebrew, and straight up ignoring the rules. I don’t know what I’m going to be playing when I sign up to play 5e, whether I’m playing or DMing. And especially when I’m DMing, I feel like it’s my job to create a system from scratch.
Now here’s where you might protest that that sounds a lot like the project I’ve set out for my Traveller Tuesday project: take a TTRPG with a bigoted past and whittle away at it and build onto it until I’m happy with the game I’ve created. Now I could protest that I’m actually not planning to make any large game-mechanical changes than your average setting sourcebook, and that I’m doing this as a passion project and not as necessary homework before I play a game with my friends, and that the reason I chose Traveller in the first place is because I actually fell in love with its unique character creation process.
But really, the most important explanation is I want to play things that are not D&D 5e. There are thousands of TTRPGs I can play that are not D&D 5e, each suited for their own kind of game. And there are so many games I’ve wanted to play for so long! Dream Apart and Dream Askew, Skinchangers, Engine Heart, Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish Granting Engine, A Game Called Reality… There are more games, too, that I want to put work into so that I can play–13th Age, Traveller, and my own TTRPG that I’ve been working on. I’m also participating in several freeform RPs that are as important to me as any structured game. Every game of D&D that I sigh and agree to play is a game of one of those I’m not playing. Every hour I spend trying to make D&D’s system work is an hour I’m not pursuing my own creative goals. So I’m done compromising. I’m done trying to play the most famous game rather than the best one for my needs. I’m done with D&D 5e. I’ll see you all for One D&D, or you’re welcome to join me for another TTRPG–one that might just be the game you love playing.