I think most people (myself included) really like the idea of DnD more than the game itself.
DnD is a fine game.
But in my opinion, there are so many better roleplay systems.
Also, D&D has a lot of baggage these days.
A friend has been talking about starting a D&D group ever since BG3 dropped and I already have a matching character concept complete with partial backstory. However, between the OGL fiasco and the dubious plans WotC have for D&D 6e I really don't feel like buying the required book or pushing my friend to get his campaign worked out.
DnD somehow tries to sell itself as a combat simulator. And yeah, it's combat system is more fleshed out than many other roleplaying systems, but at the end of the day a lot of the combat interactions are down to the DM to decide so it ends up being a normal roleplaying game with the occasional stumble into a waste-deep muck or rule interactions for what ended up being almost no reason.
I love the idea of DnD, but every group I've ever played with just made it such a drag. I've never had fun actually playing it. So now I follow the memes and that's about it.
Oh, and the Mann Shorts videos about DnD. I would totally play with those guys.
20ish years of never saying no, and not once was it worth the time and effort. no matter the group or system, it's always three hours sitting on an uncomfortable chair waiting for people to stop cutting up, playing handheld games, scrolling their phone, throwing all their skills at a random piece of scenery, or whatever it is they're doing to waste literally everyone's time instead of actually engaging with the game in a good faith attempt to have fun in a group, so that I can verify that I'm going to do the expected and obvious thing to do before waiting twenty minutes to do it again because now everyone has to be filled in on what JUST FUCKING HAPPENED because none of them were actually paying any fucking attention to anything but their next stupid fucking joke. it's like a high school group project with random partners except they're all useless drunk on top of everything else. if good games are that rare then why would anyone bother in the first place? fuck tttrpgs with a rusty rake.
