D&D has changed a lot throughout its history. There is a strong old-school guard there always to remind us that today's D&D was not yesterday's D&D. The transition from 3.x to 4 to 5 has been a long arduous journey for everyone. All of the history, unfortunately, has convinced a lot of people to think they already know D&D. With 5E, things have changed, and I think more than ever, D&D can give a lot more folks the game they want.
Just the other day I was engaged with a Burning Wheel fan where he stated as a fact that D&D is a combat-based XP system and that leveling up with XP only gives combat skills. Really? Unfortunately it is a held over misconception from previous editions. 5E added backgrounds, a new mechanical hook for storytelling, which is clearly a nod to noncombat. There is no reason 5E can't be used as well as any rules-light system for non-combat encounters and character growth. It is true that a significant portion of the book material focuses on combat. However, there is no reason that a significant amount of play also needs to focus on combat. You and your group get decide what your game is going to be about.
5E has all the skills and related ability scores that you need to run a reasonable social encounter. 5E also has all the skills and abilities you need to run exploration. XP in the basic rules specifically states that XP is awarded for overcoming challenges. The word combat is nowhere to be found, except in later sections where legacy combat rules as XP for CR are outlined.
The bottom line is that the only thing keeping 5E from being a reasonable system for combat, social interaction, and exploration is a legacy of combat players and combat GMs. Any GM can pick up 5E and run all sorts of noncombat encounters with ease, award XP, and let those characters gain greater abilities for noncombat encounters in the future. That may not be the focus, but system has plenty of detail to use it that way. I know these things because that is the way I run my 5E campaigns. I write this having had my 3 latest sessions having has only one small combat encounter between them. Heavy combat is not a requirement for 5E to work.
The onus is, as it has always been, for the group to run the game they want. There are a lot of general purpose systems, any of which can be used to run the game you want. So pick one, and run it. Just because the book is written with a focus on historical ways of running games, doesn't mean you have to run them that way.
Just the other day I was engaged with a Burning Wheel fan where he stated as a fact that D&D is a combat-based XP system and that leveling up with XP only gives combat skills. Really? Unfortunately it is a held over misconception from previous editions. 5E added backgrounds, a new mechanical hook for storytelling, which is clearly a nod to noncombat. There is no reason 5E can't be used as well as any rules-light system for non-combat encounters and character growth. It is true that a significant portion of the book material focuses on combat. However, there is no reason that a significant amount of play also needs to focus on combat. You and your group get decide what your game is going to be about.
5E has all the skills and related ability scores that you need to run a reasonable social encounter. 5E also has all the skills and abilities you need to run exploration. XP in the basic rules specifically states that XP is awarded for overcoming challenges. The word combat is nowhere to be found, except in later sections where legacy combat rules as XP for CR are outlined.
The bottom line is that the only thing keeping 5E from being a reasonable system for combat, social interaction, and exploration is a legacy of combat players and combat GMs. Any GM can pick up 5E and run all sorts of noncombat encounters with ease, award XP, and let those characters gain greater abilities for noncombat encounters in the future. That may not be the focus, but system has plenty of detail to use it that way. I know these things because that is the way I run my 5E campaigns. I write this having had my 3 latest sessions having has only one small combat encounter between them. Heavy combat is not a requirement for 5E to work.
The onus is, as it has always been, for the group to run the game they want. There are a lot of general purpose systems, any of which can be used to run the game you want. So pick one, and run it. Just because the book is written with a focus on historical ways of running games, doesn't mean you have to run them that way.
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