Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition - Now your playing with Playtests!

[king.com]

I dont know how many people out there who are interested in this stuff are like me and have not really played D&D before but from my reading of the documents, this is the first edition of D&D I really want to play.

I don't think too many are interested in my particular point of view (and in some cases perhaps actively against it) but I figure it cant hurt to put it out.

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I like the way it is written, definitely room for confusion and misinterruptation but ultiamtely I read through it and understood what is going on. I feel as if I could grasp and learn these rules rather than being bombarded and humiliated the way 3.X ed does it or told what to do and how to do the way 4th ed seems to do it. I wanted to play 3.5 but didn't ever feel confident enough to do it (delayed my entrance to roleplaying for a good 4 years).

I like systems when your character creation process gives you a fleshed out person rather than a stat block and the themes/background seem perfect for this.

I got to the DM Guidelines and the second paragraph really got my intention, the one beginning with "The first rule of being a good DM..." (not sure if we are allow to quote blocks of text or anything). I can see people hating this but I adore this GM philosophy. The GM is in charge and in control, his/her job is to make sure everyone is enjoying themselves, if a rule stops that its a bad rule no matter what it does. GMs can hurt characters, even kill them and its okay. Everything is an opportunity not a result.

I LOVE the advantages/disadvantages system. I literally never need to know or understand modifiers if I dont want to. Its a catch all method to allow a GM to create entirely new rules and effects completely on the fly based entirely on their own fluff and it has a clear mechanic benefit without any approach to numbers.

Their example of a cloak of fire resistance could have damage reduction from fire or something else but instead a GM can create something of a mysticsm around the object and seems to absorb all the warmth around it and radiate a gentle glow of this heat outwards. It doesnt need to have any number attached to it at any point but simply provides an effect when fire would hit the player giving a disadvantage if they were casting a fireball spell while wearing it or an advantage while they are being hit by the fireball. This to me allows the prioritisation of the creative magic items rather than the blunt force '+3' kind of items.

The one danger I found is that the wording doesnt really say if a higher number of advantages or disadvantages still applies or not. Say 2 advantages and 1 disadvantages = advantage or nothing? I hope its the former.

I like the lack of skills but simply field of interaction you can work on. I hope theres not set skills in this system or atleast an option to run without them. Some people hate this idea and like to degrade it by calling it DM-mother-may-I? I understand not liking this style but the DM is not like a mother but is there to explain if that is possible in the world. Your asking if in this fictional world and story, can and how is my character able to do X? Maybe thats counter to what people like about D&D.

I like the saving throws goings off your stats. They are always there and again allow a DM to apply rules and logic on the fly and use it the same way you would a skill check - pick the relavent stat and have the player roll.
Makes a smoother mental transition than creating 3 whole new stats you need to worry about.

I'm very glad improvise is included as a standard action, also combat looks really fun to play, being able to throw advantages and disadvantages into the fight as it becomes relavent rather than learning a number of fringe case rules.

I like that a rogue is the only one to be able to use thieves tools, its part of what makes them who they are as an archetype. I've not really understood the perspective of 'so we must have a rogue in a party or use a pole'. If theres not a rogue, why are there so many traps around to deal with? Hopefully someone can enlightenment

Im sure someone is going to point out the many reasons why these change are dangerous/bad for D&D etc but I thought I would share an outsiders perspective.