It's funny how the silent majority always manages to break their silence just long enough to confirm they support the point of view of the person who invoked them, then go back to being silent. Uncanny really!
I never made any firm assertions about what the silent population actually believes, because, well, I don't know. Typically low engagement players (for any game) prefer lower complexity, but that's only barely relevant to most points that have been discussed in this thread.
The "silent population" as a homogenous bloc is generally a myth. Low engagement people are low engagement.
But, "most people" do in fact prefer lower complexity, which is the big(gest) reason why 5e has been so popular, and why 5.24e appears to be doing even better.
The "silent population" as a homogenous bloc is generally a myth. Low engagement people are low engagement.
The silent population doesn't have to be homogeneous for it to be important to consider. It just needs to be enough different that responses from high engagement people are not representative.
The "silent population" as a homogenous bloc is generally a myth. Low engagement people are low engagement.
The silent population doesn't have to be homogeneous for it to be important to consider. It just needs to be enough different that responses from high engagement people are not representative.
Polling (at least, the kind that actually tries to be accurate) will still be better than hearsay.
"The silent population actually hates the new books" is doomed to be dismissed as hearsay, because there's no data backing it up. Burden of proof and all that.
Any time people start invoking the "Silent Majority" it reminds me when the "Silent Majority" was rage quitting because of Tasha's and then again when the "Silent Majority" all stopped playing when Volo's was changed and then eventually discontinued.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Mother and Cat Herder. Playing TTRPGs since 1989 (She/Her)
Polling (at least, the kind that actually tries to be accurate) will still be better than hearsay.
Better than hearsay doesn't mean good. For clarity, I'm not saying that the silent population supports any particular side in this argument, because I don't know (I have no better insights into that population than Wizards), I'm saying that only paying attention to the vocal population can cause problems for a corporation, but is also very common because the silent people are really hard to study.
Polling (at least, the kind that actually tries to be accurate) will still be better than hearsay.
Better than hearsay doesn't mean good. For clarity, I'm not saying that the silent population supports any particular side in this argument, because I don't know (I have no better insights into that population than Wizards), I'm saying that only paying attention to the vocal population can cause problems for a corporation, but is also very common because the silent people are really hard to study.
Polling isn't perfect, but it's better to listen to the people who respond than to ignore everyone.
And in WotC's case, it seems to be "working" in the sense that they make sales and grow their market, so I don't think they're gonna stop.
There are some things I wish were in the MM. Like, probably most are going to disagree with this, but I wish the Night Hag had been retooled to be a fey like the other Hags. As it stands we have fey hags at low levels CR 2 and 3 and then nothing all the way up to CR 21. If the Night hag had been made Fey with the rest we would have 2 low level hags one mid level hag and 1 super high level hag. Thankfully the DMG reminds me that I can just change it into a fey and reflavor myself anyway. In doing so they could have had 1 entry for hag and then the stat blocks of green, sea, night and arch all under that one entry like they did for so many of the other entries.
In addition, there was a lot of tips in the DMG about adding stuff to monsters and that adding things that add damage or health will make a monster tougher but there is nothing in the Monster Manual that explains how CR is calculated to give you an idea of what modifying creatures can do besides the PB of the monsters. We do see examples in the Monster Manual of creatures having higher CR's under certain circumstances (see monsters in their lairs).
Finally, I kind of wish a humanoid or a "NPC" section was in the book. Having all the humanoids in alphabetical order with the monsters feels weird and a bit jumbled to me, especially when they were really recommending you to reflavor the humanoid stats for what ever NPC you may need.
There are some things I wish were in the MM. Like, probably most are going to disagree with this, but I wish the Night Hag had been retooled to be a fey like the other Hags. As it stands we have fey hags at low levels CR 2 and 3 and then nothing all the way up to CR 21. If the Night hag had been made Fey with the rest we would have 2 low level hags one mid level hag and 1 super high level hag. Thankfully the DMG reminds me that I can just change it into a fey and reflavor myself anyway. In doing so they could have had 1 entry for hag and then the stat blocks of green, sea, night and arch all under that one entry like they did for so many of the other entries.
In addition, there was a lot of tips in the DMG about adding stuff to monsters and that adding things that add damage or health will make a monster tougher but there is nothing in the Monster Manual that explains how CR is calculated to give you an idea of what modifying creatures can do besides the PB of the monsters. We do see examples in the Monster Manual of creatures having higher CR's under certain circumstances (see monsters in their lairs).
Finally, I kind of wish a humanoid or a "NPC" section was in the book. Having all the humanoids in alphabetical order with the monsters feels weird and a bit jumbled to me, especially when they were really recommending you to reflavor the humanoid stats for what ever NPC you may need.
I agree on the humanoid bit, 100%.
one thing I had sorta hoped was that they would have had more variations for each of the tiers — even though the default game sets it up in four and I do it in five, something in each tier would have been really nice and fun.
on the CR calculations, the same table that was in the 2014 DMG still applies — so you can use that, as they certainly did based on my spot checks of notably tougher monsters.
i did figure out that they do a scaled .25 for each little feature when calculating — which is giving me all kinds of glee for my homebrew CR system. But that’s for later.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
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The "silent population" as a homogenous bloc is generally a myth. Low engagement people are low engagement.
But, "most people" do in fact prefer lower complexity, which is the big(gest) reason why 5e has been so popular, and why 5.24e appears to be doing even better.
The silent population doesn't have to be homogeneous for it to be important to consider. It just needs to be enough different that responses from high engagement people are not representative.
Polling (at least, the kind that actually tries to be accurate) will still be better than hearsay.
"The silent population actually hates the new books" is doomed to be dismissed as hearsay, because there's no data backing it up. Burden of proof and all that.
Any time people start invoking the "Silent Majority" it reminds me when the "Silent Majority" was rage quitting because of Tasha's and then again when the "Silent Majority" all stopped playing when Volo's was changed and then eventually discontinued.
Mother and Cat Herder. Playing TTRPGs since 1989 (She/Her)
Better than hearsay doesn't mean good. For clarity, I'm not saying that the silent population supports any particular side in this argument, because I don't know (I have no better insights into that population than Wizards), I'm saying that only paying attention to the vocal population can cause problems for a corporation, but is also very common because the silent people are really hard to study.
Polling isn't perfect, but it's better to listen to the people who respond than to ignore everyone.
And in WotC's case, it seems to be "working" in the sense that they make sales and grow their market, so I don't think they're gonna stop.
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There are some things I wish were in the MM. Like, probably most are going to disagree with this, but I wish the Night Hag had been retooled to be a fey like the other Hags. As it stands we have fey hags at low levels CR 2 and 3 and then nothing all the way up to CR 21. If the Night hag had been made Fey with the rest we would have 2 low level hags one mid level hag and 1 super high level hag. Thankfully the DMG reminds me that I can just change it into a fey and reflavor myself anyway. In doing so they could have had 1 entry for hag and then the stat blocks of green, sea, night and arch all under that one entry like they did for so many of the other entries.
In addition, there was a lot of tips in the DMG about adding stuff to monsters and that adding things that add damage or health will make a monster tougher but there is nothing in the Monster Manual that explains how CR is calculated to give you an idea of what modifying creatures can do besides the PB of the monsters. We do see examples in the Monster Manual of creatures having higher CR's under certain circumstances (see monsters in their lairs).
Finally, I kind of wish a humanoid or a "NPC" section was in the book. Having all the humanoids in alphabetical order with the monsters feels weird and a bit jumbled to me, especially when they were really recommending you to reflavor the humanoid stats for what ever NPC you may need.
I agree on the humanoid bit, 100%.
one thing I had sorta hoped was that they would have had more variations for each of the tiers — even though the default game sets it up in four and I do it in five, something in each tier would have been really nice and fun.
on the CR calculations, the same table that was in the 2014 DMG still applies — so you can use that, as they certainly did based on my spot checks of notably tougher monsters.
i did figure out that they do a scaled .25 for each little feature when calculating — which is giving me all kinds of glee for my homebrew CR system. But that’s for later.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds