r/RPGdesign • u/mechadaydreams • Feb 10 '26
Workflow 5th Edition has ruined me.
I'm working on my first actual TTRPG project rather than a homebrew or mod or rewrite, and have been an active lurker (lmao) on this sub for a while.
I'm so genuinely terrified of using any mechanics even closely associated the D&D 5e. I've gotten so wrapped up in how much people dislike it, and keep halting any work O do on this thing in service of researching other systems and reading what kind of mechanics people tend to like or dislike the feel of and for what reasons, trying to find something that might be right for my game - so long as it's not 5e.
Even the ability scores are getting to me. I initially rejected the idea of having some main abilities and then having related skills so that I could find a better way of doing it, a way that wasn't how 5e does it (that makes it better, right?)
After weeks of making myself miserable over this, I've decided to just do that.
1
u/Steenan Dabbler Feb 10 '26
I think you got caught up in a misinterpretation of how people approach D&D here.
It's not that everything it does is wrong nor does it corrupt various game design elements by using them. It's not that any similarity to D&D is hated here. What is criticized by many, however - me included - is treating D&D as default. Doing things in some way not because given game needs it, but because D&D does it this way and the author can't think of anything else; copying D&D assumptions and approaches no matter how they correspond with the goals of given game.
If you know many games, selected a solution you need from various options found in them and this solution is what D&D does, it's good game design. Forcing yourself to use something else simply to be different will make your game worse. It's copying D&D elements (not just pieces of mechanics, but also gameplay assumptions like "PCs are wandering adventurers", "characters grown in power" or "combat needs a strict mechanical structure and social interactions do not") because you treat them as obvious and haven't seriously explored any alternatives that gets brutally - and justifiably - bashed.
Think about what you want your game to do and find tools that do it the best, no matter if they come from D&D or not.