Today? I'm Frustrated at 5E

My faith in 5E was shaken recently by a level 14 character sheet. The sheet was 16 pages long. Now, I don't normally play via a VTT; I like playing on a tabletop with minis, pencil, and paper.

There is no way in hell I am flipping through 16 pages during a turn to figure out what my character is going to do. I imagined running four of them solo, and my brain melted. There is no way to play 5E except on a VTT with "digital content support," and I am sorry, I am not being forced to do that anymore.

The terrible design of 5E forces those who do not pay for a VTT out of the game by level 8 or so. Instead of "pay to win," the 5E game is designed to "pay to play."

Low levels? Fine, that is the free tutorial and demo. High levels? You'd better pay up, or the game will kill you with complexity.

I still like 5E, but it feels hopeless. I will be forced to play it "as a solo computer game" on a VTT, and I have MMOs that compete with that.

D&D is sadly becoming a game written only for VTTs or streamers. Sorry, tabletop and miniatures gamers. You have been written out of the game when they dropped the dungeon exploration rules and turned the game into "Dungeon Boss Battles, the RPG."

I sound bitter, but I am. I am sorry. But seeing a 16-page character sheet generated pissed me off, and there is no way I am printing that out and wasting that much paper. Nor am I playing via PDF.

Dungeon Crawl Classics? My level 10 character is still on a single side of a sheet of paper. Castles & Crusades? The same thing, a single-sided character sheet for a level 24 character. Old School Essentials or Swords & Wizardry? The same thing. One-sided character sheets, yet still near-infinite depth.

Wizards of the Coast will write rules and rules and rules, and those will bleed over onto your character sheet, and you will be expected to support them.

It is not impossible to design a game that plays off one side of a character sheet for the entire experience.

And the emergent play of DCC proves it is never boring to do that, either.

I am more frustrated than angry, though. But 5E is now on my secondary game shelves. I love Tales of the Valiant, but the length of the character sheet, digital support, and double-purchase requirements make it hard for one person to support and play. Even GURPS is easier for me at this point.

I feel like I loved 5E, but the game walked away from me for the VTTs and streamers.

I don't know how to square that up without packing the game up and putting it in storage again.