For this stuff I tend to think of the Editions as a way to demarcate the associated eras in Dungeons & Dragons, rather than the specifics of the ruleset. So more like a fast and loose shorthand the same way people speak in generational terms. I mean also how the reference tomes can be used as a signifier, with the specific art direction there to sort of define the age (whatever it is) that's helpful. Of course it's silly to do that, the same way it's silly to split generations into cohorts and then we leave like one half of the Highschool class on a cusp, just cause they happen to born in the Fall half of the school year rather than the Spring. Like say someone born in 1980 vs 1981 a few months later. It's not all that useful outside of marketing/grifting right? Very similar with the Editions in D&D, especially when a new one comes out. I'm mildly annoyed at the new designations with a year/date - 5e 2014 compared to 2024. I think it will get awkward in the same way as generational cohorts, if they just start doing this where every decade we get a new Edition, or every 5 years or whatever. Like as if it were the Olympics? Should have just been a 6th Edition probably, cause 6e is more expansive as a term and just sounds cooler hehe.
Sorry digressing, basic point was, instead of thinking about the DMG or the PHB publication dates, I gravitate more towards the actual campaigns or games or cartoons that are floating around at the same time. So like not just the books, but the modules or the PC games that hit around the same time. BG3 as a capstone for whatever 5e was makes sense, sort of the culmination of that. Again not for the ruleset 5e specifics the way Solasta works, but for all the inuendo or pop cultural stuff or slang code switching that floats along in the aether during whatever D&D Era.
Also there's a lag time on the current moment, always, so it's really the 2020 game as much as the 2023/24 game. it just felt like BG3 tapped into that somehow as an exemplar for the era. Now it is also a shorthand. People gripe about it's meme-bility, but then look at how much heavy lifting that's done too. We have all these new ways to allude to D&D and FR using the special code that we are all now totally conversant in. You can just say Gale-like and Lae'zel-eqsue I get an immediate impression. It can be cartooned and turned into a kind of language. I think that's also why it would have broader appeal, maybe than one might have guessed. The theatrical element just adds to the collective vocabulary there, cause now it can be referenced like a popular movie or television show as much as a game. Also maybe the idea that it might be the last of it's kind, first and last I guess. I think it still has legs, and that helps as well.
If I had to choose crystal balls, I'd probably go for Dwigs. If they made it, thing would sell like hotcakes probably and peeps would tune in for sure. I think someone just missed the boat cause clearly BG3 pretty much was the 50th anniversary. Like they can talk about it now, and sell new books and all the rest, but now it's here and still the only D&D thing I care about at the moment is BG3 heheh. Go figure
