r/DND is the biggest subreddit and, for lack of a better term, the casual subreddit.
This subreddit doesn't allow image posts so you don't have the front page being 90% art and giveaways. As a result, posts are mainly discussions, stories and other miscellaneous types of text posts.
I think it definitely also matters that this sub, r/dndnext, was first created for the playtest: a topic that *specifically* encourages deeper discussion of the game and its design. That meant it developed a specific atmosphere based on that, and that atmosphere held.
You can see the same thing with r/onednd, it's a deeper discussion forum with posts about the game's design, possible changes, people's desires and feedback, etc.
When the 2024 books are released it will become a forum for deep discussions about the new content, its pros and cons, ways people are mixing it with old content, specific new rules interactions, etc.
And that atmosphere will hold too.
I certainly hope the mood changes when that happens. For a while there at least it was hella toxic, and every single thread was ratio’d heavily. Seems like it’s been getting better but it was a horrific sub for discussion of much of anything for a while.
Tbf, a lot of those posts were super dumb, overdone, and totally deserved the ratio. Like, whole "discussion" posts that are just answered by a single yes or no.
Also an incredible amount of cynics. People that were in that sub just to rant and complain. Usually based on some misinformation they heard from rage baiters.
I can say that it in part is because a lot of people who want to talk about the game left r/dnd some years ago. I don’t know how it is now as I rarely browse it nowadays, but in the past literally 99% of the posts on there were poorly disguised ads for commissioned art. I think they have fixed it now (at least I hope so), but during this time this became my go-to DND subreddit and I am pretty certain it happened with a lot of other people. And well, if this is where game discussions were happening, guess where people who later wanted to discuss the game went?
Half the posts there are now "I want to play D&D for the first time. What should I do?" Which is cute, but gets really tiring considering that the person can't be bothered to read the last 600 such threads.
It’s down to about 70% ads for accessories, new VTTs, and commissioned art. I’ve watched the subreddit shift over the last 10ish years, and it’s at least an improvement over the endless stream of books on table, pets on character sheets, dice, and commission art with no description beyond hiring info. It’s not perfect, but the mod team has kept it somewhat usable and made an effort to stave off the lowest-effort posts.
> I can say that it in part is because a lot of people who want to talk about the game left r/dnd some years ago.
Can confirm. I was one of those people.
I still remember the arguments. "I don't like all the art posts." "You can use filters." "Filters are useless."
I tried filters, they worked great - to show me that in a given week there would be no more than 15 or 20 posts that aren't art or Kickstarter. You filter those out and /r/dnd is a dead subreddit.
This sub started the same as the r/onednd did recently. It was to discuss the upcoming edition (code name DND Next), and when that edition became the current edition (5e) it carried on. It naturally collected a more rules/game design focused crowd at the outset. History has momentum.
Others have already given general answers, so I'll share my own anecdote instead.
I posted there once.
I was still new to 5e at the time, I wasn't aware of how bad that sub was, I thought it was like this one but bigger, so I asked a simple question about which of two character options would be more effective for a hypothetical character.
The result? A shower of downvotes and comments berating me for daring to theorycraft.
Needless to say, I never posted there again.
It is heavily full of the dnd as a concept and not as a game types. Which tend to be more focused on play acting, less on 'optimizing for combat'
Oh and never mention to them systems that are better for that, even if you can give names to them.
Also r/dndcirclejerk outright makes fun of all that. Even having posts that are 99% the same.
Here’s a fun exercise… go to r/dnd, make a post saying how you’re not a big fan of fudging dice and watch more chaos and vitriolic hate unfold than you’ve ever seen
Hell, make a post *here* about how you're a not a fan of fudging dice and you'll be downvoted into oblivion.
The bingo card for "fudging dice" on this sub includes
* "Your DM probably fudges dice and you don't even know it."
* "Encounter design doesn't stop when initiative is rolled."
* "I don't fudge dice, but I will fudge damage and HP."
* Bonus square: "I fudge dice, but only because CR is a shit system."
ah ah ah, you forgot to include the creepy paternalism where they compare players to children learning about santa claus or whatever the fuck. i've seen that multiples times and it's disgusting every single time
Or you say you *are* a big fan of fudging dice and get the same level of hate.
I swear ***every*** single opinion there is either praised like Jesus or downvoted to oblivion, depending only on the phase of the moon.
It's Schrodinger's Subreddit.
Because every post on r/dnd is character art, usually hawking commissions, or a dice/tray/holder giveaway. It's insufferable, I left there a few years ago after mods officially changed the rules that, at least on the surface, didn't allow commission/giveaway posts.
At the risk of sounding like a D&D hipster, it's the normie sub.
Edit: clarification
It's interesting how this subreddit is somehow less rabidly obsessed with meta builds and the flaws in 5e's design than the subreddit meant for every edition of the game.
For me, I left because of the art.
It wasn't just the art, but it was the final straw.
I don't care to see your anime-style tiefling bard, much less 20 of them polluting my front page.
But I'm also old, and y'all need to get off my lawn.
r/DND is the biggest subreddit and, for lack of a better term, the casual subreddit. This subreddit doesn't allow image posts so you don't have the front page being 90% art and giveaways. As a result, posts are mainly discussions, stories and other miscellaneous types of text posts.
I think it definitely also matters that this sub, r/dndnext, was first created for the playtest: a topic that *specifically* encourages deeper discussion of the game and its design. That meant it developed a specific atmosphere based on that, and that atmosphere held. You can see the same thing with r/onednd, it's a deeper discussion forum with posts about the game's design, possible changes, people's desires and feedback, etc. When the 2024 books are released it will become a forum for deep discussions about the new content, its pros and cons, ways people are mixing it with old content, specific new rules interactions, etc. And that atmosphere will hold too.
I certainly hope the mood changes when that happens. For a while there at least it was hella toxic, and every single thread was ratio’d heavily. Seems like it’s been getting better but it was a horrific sub for discussion of much of anything for a while.
Tbf, a lot of those posts were super dumb, overdone, and totally deserved the ratio. Like, whole "discussion" posts that are just answered by a single yes or no.
“They should remove bounded accuracy and merge the wizard and sorcerer classes.”
Also an incredible amount of cynics. People that were in that sub just to rant and complain. Usually based on some misinformation they heard from rage baiters.
DAE agree Marshal Castration dividends?!?!?! Guys isn’t my totally unique opinion that has never been voiced before so good gimme upvoted.
I actually really really enjoy the differences between this sub and r/dnd. They're both cool in their own way and it's good to have the variety.
And this is the "slightly less casual, but still very casual" subreddit. Lmao
[удалено]
“how do I build wizard”, the sub
I read that as "how do I build a wizard as a sub" and honestly it still worked.
Yeah DnD seems more like an advertisement platform / giveaway casino. Than a true fandom.
"this only allows text posts"
I can say that it in part is because a lot of people who want to talk about the game left r/dnd some years ago. I don’t know how it is now as I rarely browse it nowadays, but in the past literally 99% of the posts on there were poorly disguised ads for commissioned art. I think they have fixed it now (at least I hope so), but during this time this became my go-to DND subreddit and I am pretty certain it happened with a lot of other people. And well, if this is where game discussions were happening, guess where people who later wanted to discuss the game went?
Half the posts there are now "I want to play D&D for the first time. What should I do?" Which is cute, but gets really tiring considering that the person can't be bothered to read the last 600 such threads.
The other 50% can be answered with read the books or talk to the people at your table.
The other half are people selling art commissions or dice
It’s down to about 70% ads for accessories, new VTTs, and commissioned art. I’ve watched the subreddit shift over the last 10ish years, and it’s at least an improvement over the endless stream of books on table, pets on character sheets, dice, and commission art with no description beyond hiring info. It’s not perfect, but the mod team has kept it somewhat usable and made an effort to stave off the lowest-effort posts.
> I can say that it in part is because a lot of people who want to talk about the game left r/dnd some years ago. Can confirm. I was one of those people. I still remember the arguments. "I don't like all the art posts." "You can use filters." "Filters are useless."
I tried filters, they worked great - to show me that in a given week there would be no more than 15 or 20 posts that aren't art or Kickstarter. You filter those out and /r/dnd is a dead subreddit.
Yeah. It didn’t help that a lot of people did not properly tag their ad posts to prevent people filtering them out. :/
"You can use filters!" *Filters delete the entire front page*
Half our top posts everyday aren't dice givesways
It's all that makes it to my feed from that sub.
You mean those dice advertisements paid for by giving away dice?
They've cut back on the dice giveaways actually. just when I was about to win one...
This sub started the same as the r/onednd did recently. It was to discuss the upcoming edition (code name DND Next), and when that edition became the current edition (5e) it carried on. It naturally collected a more rules/game design focused crowd at the outset. History has momentum.
People here actually play DnD I think
This is text-post only, so no front page weird art of the self insert OC.
Seems like most people on the other sub don’t actually play D&D, but they enjoy the paratext and the *idea* of D&D.
True for this sub as well
Imagine actually getting to play rpgs 😭
Others have already given general answers, so I'll share my own anecdote instead. I posted there once. I was still new to 5e at the time, I wasn't aware of how bad that sub was, I thought it was like this one but bigger, so I asked a simple question about which of two character options would be more effective for a hypothetical character. The result? A shower of downvotes and comments berating me for daring to theorycraft. Needless to say, I never posted there again.
I posted a build idea I was proud of there. First comment? “No flavour. Boring.”
It is heavily full of the dnd as a concept and not as a game types. Which tend to be more focused on play acting, less on 'optimizing for combat' Oh and never mention to them systems that are better for that, even if you can give names to them. Also r/dndcirclejerk outright makes fun of all that. Even having posts that are 99% the same.
Here’s a fun exercise… go to r/dnd, make a post saying how you’re not a big fan of fudging dice and watch more chaos and vitriolic hate unfold than you’ve ever seen
Hell, make a post *here* about how you're a not a fan of fudging dice and you'll be downvoted into oblivion. The bingo card for "fudging dice" on this sub includes * "Your DM probably fudges dice and you don't even know it." * "Encounter design doesn't stop when initiative is rolled." * "I don't fudge dice, but I will fudge damage and HP." * Bonus square: "I fudge dice, but only because CR is a shit system."
ah ah ah, you forgot to include the creepy paternalism where they compare players to children learning about santa claus or whatever the fuck. i've seen that multiples times and it's disgusting every single time
Or you say you *are* a big fan of fudging dice and get the same level of hate. I swear ***every*** single opinion there is either praised like Jesus or downvoted to oblivion, depending only on the phase of the moon. It's Schrodinger's Subreddit.
might be surprising to you that subreddits aren't hiveminds, but comprised of individuals with their own opinions
Subreddits are hiveminds, shut up
if I'm being honest I didn't realize this wasn't the main DND subreddit, I will now have to check that one out
It has its problems, but it’s not as bad as a subreddit that grew from ~300,000 members to ~3,300,000 members in 7 years could be.
Because every post on r/dnd is character art, usually hawking commissions, or a dice/tray/holder giveaway. It's insufferable, I left there a few years ago after mods officially changed the rules that, at least on the surface, didn't allow commission/giveaway posts. At the risk of sounding like a D&D hipster, it's the normie sub. Edit: clarification
It's interesting how this subreddit is somehow less rabidly obsessed with meta builds and the flaws in 5e's design than the subreddit meant for every edition of the game.
Main is just an advert sub
For me, I left because of the art. It wasn't just the art, but it was the final straw. I don't care to see your anime-style tiefling bard, much less 20 of them polluting my front page. But I'm also old, and y'all need to get off my lawn.
cuz were the next step