The Fifth Edition Revival (5ER)
Ben Riggs, a D&D historian, caused quite a stir this week when he pronounced The Golden Age of TTRPGs is Dead. Riggs describes the 2010s as a booming period for tabletop role-playing games, marked by a massive influx of new players and innovative game design, primarily fueled by the success of D&D 5E. But, with the death of the OGL and the fracturing of the fantasy RPG market, he thinks the "grand era" of Fifth Edition is sputtering out.
I won't deny that it feels like something has died in the Fifth Edition ecosystem. The attempt to change the OGL rocked the confidence of those third-party game designers who relied on it for their livelihood. Many abandoned the 5E system. With trust in Hasbro at an all-time low, it was a poor moment to try and build excitement for the next edition of D&D, which is consequently being treated with trepidation. Compared with a few years ago, new Hasbro books now often meet with indifference on release, and it seems every move from the company is criticized. Regardless of the game content, it does seem that Hasbro believes “the future is digital” for D&D, which means the content locked to a proprietary platform, the threat of subscription fees, and an increasing emphasis on micro-transactions. For many folks, this is not the D&D experience they want.
But, if there has been a death, there is also the possibility of a rebirth. Many of you will be familiar with the Old School Revival (OSR), a movement within the RPG community that embraces the style, mechanics, and aesthetics of early D&D. It is a thriving and innovative space with numerous blogs, vodcasts, podcasts, and published books, all recognized as part of the same broad scene. This ecosystem exists despite no official source of rules and no central authority.
In the same way, some game designers have started discussing a Fifth Edition Revival (or 5ER, a term coined by heavyarms). It is a “revival” in the sense that we are bringing life back to the game that so many of us have loved. This movement would be bound together, not by official material from Hasbro, but by the core 5E mechanics, a few common play styles, and an active conversation with the rest of the community. In an ideal world, the 5ER would gain a reputation for work as fresh and innovative as the material we see from the OSR, with DMs incorporating what works at their table. In this scenario, Hasbro's new releases are no longer canon-defining pronouncements but optional rules each table assesses on their merits. Hasbro cannot “ruin the game” with a new release, anymore than Kobold press or EnWorld could “ruin the game” with a new book. In the world of the 5ER, Fifth Edition belongs to you.
There are a couple of objections. First and most obvious, you might say that Fifth Edition is far from dead, so it clearly does not need to be revived. To be clear, Riggs talked about the “Golden Age” being dead rather than the whole game. I like the word “revival” because of it’s parallels with the Old School Revival, but let’s not get hung up on the word. We can call it the Fifth Edition Renaissance or the Fifth Edition Refresh or the Fifth Edition Reimagined or the Fifth Edition Remixed or the Fifth Edition Reclaimed the Fifth Edition Revitalized or the Fifth Edition Reawakened. Whatever works.
Next, you might point to wonderful books like EnWorld's A5E or the many Kobold Press products and say we are already there. We already have a thriving third-party ecosystem, and most DMs house-rule to some extent. So, doesn’t the 5ER already exist? I’m partially convinced by this. But I'd respond that the 5E community is still very Hasbro-centric and creators feel constrained to remain in step with them, resulting in a rather siloed ecosystem. It doesn’t feel like there is much interactivity between designers, and there is certainly very little “building” upon each others material. That is almost taboo in the 5E community.
The inability to publish material on D&D Beyond is also an enormous barrier for third-party publishers (3PP.) Anecdotally, 3PP products tend to be more read than played, maybe because of this. To have a true Fifth Edition Revival, we need many more Dungeon Masters willing to explore and incorporate 3PP, whether published by professionals or amateurs or even rank beginners. More so, we need a 5E creator community that cultivates new mechanics and experiences in an open and ongoing dialogue. And we need a consumer community that is engaged with the space. Even if we have all of the former things, I’m not sure we yet have the latter. It is very challenging for new creators to find an audience for 5E material on DTRPG, for example.
Even if we achieve all that, Ben Riggs might object that it will not replace what we lost. After all, the most popular third-party D&D books "only" acquire from 10,000 to 30,000 supporters when they crowdfund. In contrast, the original Fifth Edition PHB has sold an eye-watering five million physical copies (estimated), not to mention numerous digital copies. It is hard to see Hasbro, let alone anyone else, repeating this success. So, perhaps we have to concede that the Golden Age of 5E is indeed over. However, a Fifth Edition Revival might be a vibrant and worthy Silver Age successor.