As someone who’s first TTRPG was 4e: people just like to complain. 5e is a perfectly fun game, as is 3rd, 3.5, PF, or PF2e

The real issue I noticed is that people tend to expect D&D to be the "best " system for THEIR game. And D&D (and by extension Pathfinder) have never been the “best” system at anything besides BEING D&D and Pathfinder.

I look at it as the traditional system. D&D has a ton of old, basically unusable rules that simply exist because… We expect them to exist. We remember these rules existing in old editions so they basically HAVE to exist in the new edition. And this expectation has led to a system that is just really good at emulating itself and not much else.

People who expect D&D to be the best for their horror game, or their survival game, or their political game often complain because that’s not what it’s for. People who expect D&D to be the best for their old 1st edition game complain because it’s that’s not what it’s for.

It’s just meant to LOOK like the old edition.

You’ll definitely enjoy playing 5e! A good group of friends and a solid starting adventure will get everyone rolled back into the swing of things quickly.

I only ever heard folks complain about it

If you only talked to 3e players, maybe that’s why. Most people are critical of 5e because it has its faults, but it’s not actually bad.

Its actually a great system overall. Not perfect but good enough while still being a great system newbies can understand.

I think its just easier for many to go from 5e backwards due to how 5e has more “freedom” while earlier editions rely on additional rules and mechanics to determine a lot of the bloat. I started with 2e because my group was very stubborn and took years to adapt. congrats on joining the modern world though!!!

I absolutely love 5e. However, I’m sure that’s because I’m so comfortable in it. I have books upon books of resources and literally hundreds of gigabytes of resources for it. I can run any kind of game I want at any time.

I started with 5e, so I’m obviously lacking context and experience, but I’ve always loved it.

Tbh it’s not a bad game… People just like to complain. Especially about D&D. Everyone has their own specific (and houseruled) idea of what D&D is or should be, and as a result no version is ever good enough.

5e has plenty of good content you can have plenty of fun with.

My personal journey went 3.5 -> Pathfinder -> 5e. I would be happy as a pig in poop to play any one of the three at this second. For me, the table’s more important than the game.