I started playing TTRPGs about 10 years ago. For the first two years, I played Pathfinder and loved it. Then a friend of mine introduced me to Fifth Edition, and I loved how streamlined everything felt, both as a GM and as a player. I also loved how easy Dnd Beyond made creating characters.

I bought the legendary pack back in, I believe, 2020 and have loved sharing the content with my virtual friends. I’ve played in 8 D&D campaigns—some only a few months, my longest was 2.5 years (which is actually one of my current ones) and countless one shots. I also run two more games as a DM, so I have three weekly games filled with friends and awesome people from around the world.

I know quite a few of you will already say, I acknowledge that Wizards of the Coast has been a crappy company for years. I almost left D&D during the OGL scandal, and even after that, I almost entirely stopped buying their new books. I think the only new book I bought since the OGL scandal was The Deck of Many Things, which, I’ll confess, is a pretty awesome physical book. That said, some of the discourse over the next iteration of D&D, mixed in with more poor decisions by Wizards of the Coast, has made me decide that I’m gonna talk to my campaigns about moving to a new system in the near future.

I am unimpressed with some obviously rushed design decisions in the new revised edition of D&D. When you look at some of the issues with the Ranger, Rogue, spells, and quite a few other things, it’s pretty clear they could not meet their own deadlines. It also probably doesn’t help that they fired people like Dan Dillon back in December, who was on the design team…

I feel like I have been a D&D apologist for years now. But this announcement over forced adoption of the 2024 spells has pushed me over the edge. I think I’m done, which is hard to admit since I’m pretty embedded in the D&D community. I belong to countless Discords, and I subscribe on Patreon to many D&D content creators like D4, Dungeon Dudes, Treantmonk’s Temple, Ginny Di, and others. But I don’t know how to stick with D&D when they keep being selfish to their own employees but also their supporters. I think part of me has held on this long because I’ve spent so much money in the system, and It’s the sunk cost fallacy keeping me tied to the system.

I backed MCDM’s TTRPG back in December, and I love the playtest material they’ve released so far. I also just backed Brandon Sanderson’s new TTRPG as well. I also think that Critical Role’s new RPG is looking pretty cool, but I have not playtested it yet. I’ve played Pathfinder 2e, which I have not loved, but I recognize it’s a fun system. At the end of the day, I think we all should play something that brings us joy, and unfortunately, WotC has stolen the joy I’ve had for the game with their endless selfish and shortsighted decisions.

Sorry for the rant. This was kind of like a love letter to the D&D community because I love it—I just don’t love the system anymore or the company behind it.

Edit the number of people who actually didn’t read the post is completely staggering to me. Yes I was outraged after the OGL and Pinkerton scandals. As a result, I have only bought one book from wizards since then, and skipped all others.

And the number of people who are so angry or hostile that I spent money on a hobby that I love is also mind-boggling. I Spent less money per month over the last 10 years on DND then people spend on their Netflix subscription. If my post makes you angry, re-evaluate your life. The fact that I had fun on dnd beyond for years and years has no bearing on your life, so there’s no reason for personal attacks against my character. Go have your own fun!

Edit 2 there seems to be some confusion over why I am leaving dungeons and dragons in the near future. I’m not quitting dnd because of the “planned update.” I’ve been frustrated with dnd because of the OGL scandal, Pinkerton scandal, firing dozens of people on the dnd team including Dan Dillon, Amy Dalton, Mike Mearls and so many more just weeks before Christmas. Im annoyed that WotC pay less to contractors than Paizo, MCDM, Kobold Press, or Ghostfire Games despite making $140 million per year more than any of those companies. I’m annoyed they removed creators names from the credits to books they worked on just 3 weeks ago. And I’m annoyed that after telling us for two years that there won’t be any changes for us, they’re forcing us to adapt new spells, new mechanics, like exhaustion, and replacing some magic items all without giving us a say. So yeah, I’m not leaving the hobby because I’m annoyed over one thing wizards of the coast did. I find some of the things that they have done to be morally repugnant and in a world where we have so many options for gaming, I don’t see a reason to stick around forever