An Opinionated Analysis of a "Not Good" 5e Game (Part 1)
I recently got the opportunity to join a Dungeons and Dragons 5e game as a player, a experience I've only had briefly in the past and one I've not had in many years. I generally run games of many different systems, some of which have been 5e, so I was excited to see what it was like being on the other side of the table for once.
It's only been a few sessions. 5 or so, but that's enough to understand the general direction of the game.
I'm not having a good time, and I intend to use this post (or posts) to vent the reasons why.
I imagine this is going to be a slightly all-over-the-place post, so forgive me. There's a lot to talk about, but I'll try and maintain a focus.
Now, I would posset that all 5e games should be what I would refer to as "sandbox" games. To be clear, this is not the same as a video game that is referred to as a "sandbox" or "open-world sandbox".
D&D 5e is a game that is at it's best where the DM presents scenarios that inform the players what to do, but not how to do it. A puzzle may only have a single "solution" but it's down to the players to find a way through that may involve anything that seems reasonable and providing they roll well.
By "sandbox", I mean the above.
I digress.
The game I'm talking about is not one of those games. It's a game within which the DM has the plot gripped so tightly, there's barely any wriggle room for the players to have a meaningful impact on it.
The premise of the plot is: there has been a murder in a small island nation and the party have been hired by the islands ruler, a silver dragon, to investigate.
A fairly innocent initial hook, but with a few issues.
The first is: I personally do not believe that 5e is capable of running mysteries. It puts a lot of work on the DM to do so and, in doing so, increases the margins for failure. I have lots of opinions on using game systems to run games they weren't intended to run, but that's a topic for another show.
The main issue with using 5e as a system to run a mystery is that there's no support from the system to do so. Past an investigation roll or situational magic use, the PCs don't have a lot of capacity to actually "investigate" anything. I'm firmly of the opinion that actually making your players solve a mystery at the table is a not-great way of doing things. Sure, the right kind of table might get a kick out of it, but most players will just get frustrated at having to actually deduce the mystery at hand.
If I'm at a murder scene and I roll a high number on a Investigation check, what should the DM actually reveal to me? Again, the system has no mechanical support for this, so it creates margin for error on the DM's part. Give too much away, the players solve your mystery faster than expected. Keep your cards close to your chest and the players feel frustrated or, worse, don't have enough information to actually deduce where to go next or what leads to follow, forcing NPCs needing to involved to lead the players gently by the hand.
Additionally, locking clues in a mystery behind dice rolls in the first place is a self-made trap. If you banked on your players finding a particular piece of evidence and nobody can roll higher than a 5, what then?
In the campaign itself, this issue is worse still. Players will roll highly, in the low 20s, and the DM will give a piece of information that should, reasonably, be obvious to anyone with a moderately well functioning set of eyes. Not hidden, simply there and something that wasn't noticed until a dice roll said so.
What a mess.
Secondly, the premise doesn't pass the "If a high level NPC is here, why don't they just fix this problem." test.
The Silver Dragon is the "owner" of the island but has seemingly deemed it appropriate to hand over governance to the denizens of his realm as he doesn't wish to be a tyrant.
On the surface, this is a good thing.
Unfortunately, the DM is unable to help himself from inserting the Silver Dragon into situations with the players.
Often, he appears in a human form, masquerading as a liaison from the Dragon to the players. Other times, he has appeared in full form when called, happy to end a combat that was already won.
This creates huge holes in the already fragile verisimilitude of the game world. If the dragon is willing to intervene with no pushback when called with a sending stone and can turn into a human at will, why isn't he fixing this problem himself?
This isn't railroading. There's nothing inherently wrong with a linear game. In fact, most 5e games are linear in nature. The DM prepares something and the PCs run through it. Linear.
The issue starts and ends with the premise itself. Within such a rigid investigative structure, there is no wiggle room to begin with. Players can't engage with the adventure in any meaningful way outside of rolling dice.
Perhaps this game is doomed from the start. I have reason to believe that the DM is about to pull a "gotcha" and change everything anyway.
If you've gotten this far, you have probably correctly identified that I'm not enjoying myself very much. You'd be right.
Normally, I would engage out-of-game problems out of game, talk to the DM about this. I intend to, but the root cause of the issue is the entire framing of the game itself, and that's not fixable.
Eventually, I'll most likely quit. Who am I to tell people how to have fun correctly? But for now, I'm going to see if this "gotcha" is going to change anything for the better.
I'll definitely write a follow-up to this at some point, but for now, I'm tired.
If you want to talk to me about this post, I welcome it. Email me about it and we can chat.