Shadowdark is the best outcome for 5E. This is the way the system survives. By "Open 5E," I mean D&D 2014 compatibility, not rules-light versions of 5E. So it is tough to see Shadowdark as "the way out" but here we are. I get the feeling that "Full 5E" is so horribly overwritten and complicated there is no way out for the system.
The way 5E is currently implemented is a mess. From the SRD, the fighter class, and Action Surge:
"Starting at 2nd level, you can push yourself beyond your normal limits for a moment. On your turn, you can take one additional action on top of your regular action and a possible bonus action.
Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again. Starting at 17th level, you can use it twice before a rest, but only once on the same turn." - Wizards of the Coast, LLC; SRD 5.1.
The bonus action system in 5E is hosed, and these are some of the worst rules in a game. Instead of keeping the "action economy" clean and straightforward, it gets muddled, introduces extra possibilities for actions on a turn, which takes up a lot of time at the table, introduces "double cast spells" in the previous 2014 edition, creates all sorts of situations where we need to make rules for how many of these can be used in a row, how they are recovered, and how many uses you get.
And part of the reason D&D got so popular were because of these exploits. Close them, and people see the 2024 version as "less fun" to play. Personally, I don't see a need to even have a 2024 edition, and the censorship and strange decisions in the books turns me off.
The action economy is messed up. You end up "stutter stepping" on every turn trying to decide "what else to do" before you get back on your phone for the next 30 minutes. Wait. Stop. Can I do something else? Hold up, let me reread my character sheet. The table is making suggestions, some of which are incorrect, and people are flipping through the rule books again for an answer.
I am beginning to dislike the phrase "action economy" in a role-playing game, as it introduces an expectation that actions require an economy. It was so much easier when these games were "you get to do one thing" on a turn. Additionally, the above is written like a tax form.
- You can take
- one additional action
- on top of your regular action
- and a possible
- bonus action.
What? Regular actions? Is that a new action type? Additional actions? Is that another type of action? Possible bonus action? I had this confusion when I started 5E, and I was trying to look up the terms "bonus action," "regular action," and even "additional action" in the 8-point type index.
"Wait, on top of my bonus action, I take my additional action this turn. In addition to my regular action. Is there a normal action in this game? If so, I take that, too."
Every time the rules try to describe a concept, instead of keeping it simple and in a bullet-pointed format, they twist the game rules into a pretzel. The rules for bonus actions (2014 PHB, p. 189) go for three paragraphs of text and clarifications.
5E made mistakes. D&D needs to admit that and move on. In a world where YouTube shorts, of 15 seconds to 3 minutes long, are getting billions of hits, what chance does a game have to be read through and understood if it takes days to get started? I know parents with kids in school, and the kids no longer watch full-length YouTube videos; instead, they're addicted to Shorts all day. How do you reach them?
D&D needs a Shadowdark-like version now. Simple, straightforward, easy, and classic. Not tomorrow, but now. Yesterday. And fire those paid-by-the-word writers; they will ruin it by overwriting and overthinking every single thing. Only the indies have the talent to write a game like this. By the time a one-sentence rule gets through the corporate sausage-maker, it will be twelve paragraphs and two pages.
D&D YouTube tends to overlook the systemic problems of giant companies trying to write games. These things have multiple levels of writers passing over them, everyone trying to justify their existence in the budget. With every pass and revision, it gets longer and longer. Sensitivity readers need a look, too, and that adds a few more paragraphs.
What was supposed to be a one-line bullet-point rule (can't use the word bullet there, may offend someone), turns into twelve paragraphs of overwritten fluff that mostly says nothing or "make up a way of handling it yourself." The old "make up a way to handle it yourself" will be defended as "empowering" but it is a cheap excuse to keep three extra paragraphs of fluff in the document written by a consultant. Whatever. At a certain point the middle-manager does not want to fight about this anymore and the game designer loses. The cries of "keep it simple" are silenced. The game is worse off, again, at every meeting on the chapter content.
Giant companies over a certain size and market cap are incapable of writing a simple game that appeals to a mass market. Sorry.
Tales of the Valiant does a better job at describing the same thing, but we are trying to patch 2014 rules here:
"...On your turn, you can activate this feature to gain another action—in addition to the action and possible bonus action you regularly get on your turn.
Once you use this feature, you must complete a short or long rest before you can use it again. Starting at 13th level, you can use it twice before a rest but only once on the same turn. At 18th level, you can use it three times before a rest but only once on the same turn." - Vales of the Valiant, Players Guide, page 48.
Tales of the Valiant is the best way for "full game" 5E to survive. The game is simplified and beginner-friendly. They use easy-to-understand language. "Another action" in addition to "the action and possible bonus action" is much better written. What is still a terrible rule is at least easier to understand.
ToV is written by a company fighting to survive in a world gone mad, and preparing for a future without 5E on the shelves. They needed to do this right so they can keep selling books, old and new. I don't blame them.
Still, nothing beats old-school gaming. One turn, one action. Movement does not count as your action. It takes one sentence to describe that, and you can do it once and move on. Shadowdark's rules for what happens on a turn? Shadowdark, page 83:
- The player counts down any personal timers for spells and other effects.
- The player takes an action and may move up to near (split up in any way). The player can move near again if skipping an action.
- The GM describes what happens as a result of the player's turn.
What is near movement? Up to thirty feet of distance. That is the only thing I needed to look up. What is an action?
"On your turn, describe an action you want to do. For example, you could say you’re going to shoot your bow at a troll." - Shadowdark, page 8.
Oh, that is simple.
I have seen instances of 5E where a player took 30 minutes to decide what to do during a turn, including how to spend an action surge and a bonus action. That is half of a Shadowdark torch timer, and when you think about it, an insulting waste of time for everyone sitting around the table who came here to play the game. The 5E rules go out of their way to encourage this disrespectful behavior, wasting people's time.
This is not a problem the 2024 revision can fix.
D&D needs a complete rewrite that the company is incapable of doing.
ToV does that job well, but it is limited by the mistakes made in 2014.
Shadowdark does it the best.
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