8 Problems with Dungeons and Dragons (+1 Discussion)
Channel: Plus One Pencil
Date: 2018-08-09

8 design issues that Dungeons and Dragons struggles with and ideas on how to solve them.
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With its long history, the world’s oldest roleplaying game is bound to have picked up a few bumps and scratches here and there. Many of them make the game unique and interesting but some can be detrimental to your group and impact the fun.
I’ve focused on the last couple of editions under WOTC; 3.5, 4th and 5th but some mistakes have persisted since 1st Edition AD&D and are yet to have been exorcised.
 
This is a critique of some of the game mechanics that I don’t think work as well as they could. 
Several OSR and Indy roleplaying games have identified the same problems and have actively tried to fix them. 
Happily 5e is flexible enough to allow you to cut and paste their solutions directly into D&D or just house rule things to make your game more fluid and easier to learn.

Designing a successful game is hard. The designers have done well to balance conflicting priorities like trying to appeal to old and new players with each edition and getting the right amount of complexity and simplicity, roleplaying and gaming. Perhaps when sixth edition comes out they will have resolved these issues too.

Want to go further? Here’s some related content on this topic you might enjoy!

Matt gets sneaky:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dScrFJdcb5s

The Web DM boys on doing admin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx4d3_76scg

Nerdarchy gets nostalgic about previous editions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIH0MNsuR5s

Dorks of Yore consider HP (for science!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH_CNcSv5TM

Thanks for watching. More +1 Discussions very soon.

Music Credits:
Crunk Knight by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) 
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1400044 
Artist: http://incompetech.com/ 

Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) 
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1600058 
Artist: http://incompetech.com/