Thread by @BottleAndBlade

Okay, so maybe some unpopular things I'm about to say about #dnd5e and #pathfinder2e . This is just from my experience and I wonder how other people feel.

The first game I played in was in 2016, it was Pathfinder and it was being run by a World of Warcraft Guildmate. My wife and I joined and it was a terrible experience. He was a bully, allowed the experienced players take advantage of us.

The rules changed depending on who did what. The Ranger grabs my Halfling Bard, puts him on the bar counter and forces a bottle of mead down my throat - that's fine. I try to defend myself, but the checks I was trying to do were not allowed.

My wife never played again and I foolishly remained in the game because I wanted to experience Dungeons and Dragons. The straw that broke the camels back was the DM allowing another player to break my Lute, he then had the instrument repair guy curse my lute and then disappear.

Actually, there was one more thing. I desperate tried with our Barbarian to pull an Evil NPC through a portal with us. Nothing I tried was allowed and he had this NPC curse me. If we didn't do what he wanted my character's head would explode in 3 days

I became depressed. There was this wonderful game I wanted to love and I was being treated like trash. I asked the DM to erase my character, just make it so that I was gone. That wasn't allowed. It was obvious that at this point I was being made an example of.

I walked out of the game anyway. I abandoned my first character. He was an annoying little guy, but he was mine, and I wasn't going to sit around to watch him die. There was no way I was getting out of that curse. I hated Pathfinder. There was no wiggle room for my feeling on it

I made a decision. I am going to DM. I'm going to learn the game inside out. I'm going to help my players with the rules. No bullying. The rules aren't concrete. We're here to have fun together. I'll work with you, check in with you, and make sure you're comfortable.

I discovered 5e. It was beginner friendly, easy to teach, and fun. I couldn't help but compare the system to PF. I know people are very passionate about PF so I'm sorry about the following

I couldn't help but compare them. 5E made PF feel overly complicated, and not beginner friendly. It made me feel like PF was elitist - not saying it is. 5E made me feel welcome and gave me the tools to make others feel welcome.

Since that I've run 2 homebrew games for 2 groups of players and I think it's been successful. I've also finally gotten to play again, both in CoS and RotFM. I've had an excellent DM that I could not possible be more grateful towards.

Full circle now: RotFM is winding down and we all decided to do PF 2E. The DM is very experienced in it and another one of the players has been clamoring for it. I had vowed never to play PF again, but I now know that not all the community is the way my first experience was.

Even after all these years I'm nervous. I'm also excited to give my Bard a second life. He's a half-elf now, his experiences are different, as is his outlook on life. He different, but still the same. He's mine. I guess this became a lot less about 5E vs. PF than I thought it.

Honestly, I kind of just started typing this not knowing where I was going to end up. I guess if anything it's to let new players know that even if your first game is terrible, there can be a lot of good after that.

There are some pretty mean DMs and players out there and I hope you don't meet them, but if you do, there's better out there, I promise. This game is for everyone, especially you. Go roll some dice, your first nat 20 is waiting for you.
#dungeonsanddragons

I realize now why people use apps to order their threads: threadreaderapp.com/thread/1493675…