I'm about 1/3 of the way through the 5E Basic rules, and I'm quite impressed. There are several elements of this that I want to tweak for SSR - and many that I plan to ignore altogether, or which I feel like I already have a solution for that I prefer.
My response to this is that it's not superior to B/X in any substantial way, although it is a MUCH cleaner and user-friendly game than 3E, which was my jumping-off point.
And that leads me to ponder... what if THIS was 3rd edition? What if this had been the release when Wizards took over D+D at the turn of the millennium? General response in the blogosphere has been that this is a good game - maybe a great game - and that it is a significant upgrade over the last decade. However, the general consensus is also that people are pretty firmly entrenched with a game they love, and it's going to be hard to pull them away.
So in my what if scenario, if this game had been released 14 years ago... would we have Swords and Wizardry? Labyrinth Lord? Would I be working on Saga of the Splintered Realm?
I'm personally torn. I want Saga of the Splintered Realm to build an audience of its own. I also want D+D to be a brand that people like and play and have warm fuzzies about. Can we have both? Can we have a strong D+D player base, and a strong OSR base? Can these people all be friends and play nicely and share well?
If this game had been released 14 years ago, I don't think I'd be asking these questions... because I would have changed over to this edition and never looked back.
As it is, SSR rolls onward, and I'll be continuing to read through 5E to see what inspiration I can draw from it...
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