Like much of the active D&D gaming world, I signed up for the 5th edition playtest and downloaded the files eagerly and with some trepidation. After going over the files I was intrigued and talked to the gaming group about setting up a playtest. I figured it was good timing since our current Pathfinder campaign was just wrapping up.
The conversation was short. Not a single player had any interest in playing 5th edition — they were happy with Pathfinder and would rather start a new Pathfinder game. They didn’t want to devote a single night to this D&D Next thing, they just wanted to keep playing the game they loved playing.
And of course this is the problem with new editions in general — when you have players that are happy with their current edition, they don’t have any motivation to switch to something new — what they got now is working for them. Normally the solution is simple: when you launch a new edition of a RPG you quit printing the previous edition and they have no choice. But for 5th edition there is another choice, there’s Pathfinder, and for my gaming group at the very least it’s going to take a lot to get them to even try the game.
I’m having a similar problem with my group. There’s about 40 of us at the moment, and so far only two people have expressed an interest, and one of them was my girlfriend. Just finished the Free RPG day adventure for Only war, (will post a write up soon on my own blog) and I struggled to find space for everyone who wanted to play that one. Even had to download the extra characters the Fantasy Flight put out.
I do actually want to take a run at the play test, but two players won’t give it the workout it needs.
It happened with me and my group.
We are playing a 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign and to test the dndnext we make and break that was not well accepted by the players, just because we have no need of some thing new.