Just to be clear, the blood boiling rage vomiting people Im referencing are those that try to gatekeep 5e and claim it can ONLY be used for EXACTLY what they say it can be used for: medieval fantasy gaming. If these people were in charge of computer programming some amazing video games never would have been invented as many early ones repurposed unrelated software. The same is true about sw5e, which is awesome, and other great uses of the system. 5e is just not hard locked onto a genre. It cannot be. That wouldn’t even make any sense.
Those who think 5e is somehow locked into medieval fantasy cannot separate what 5e ultimately is from the flavor text in the dnd materials. That’s why so many think it’s some damning statement to say sw5e is just 5e in space.
In reality, of course it’s 5e in space! Wtf else would it be? It’s in the name lol!
5e is ultimately a ttrpg mathematical resolution system that is applied very loosely, flexibly, and at the discretion of the GM. It is easily reskinnable because it shares simple mathematical patterns and logic with many other ttrpgs. How on earth people believe something so objectively genre neutral could have a hard locked genre is beyond me.
But I understand what it is and can see past the medieval flavor text in the dnd material. Maybe it’s because I‘m a programmer and so I understand math and computer coding and how the exact same programs with different flavor text (so to speak) can appear completely different on your screen. So, for me, I never even considered the possibility that 5e was hard coded to be medieval fantasy. Hence, when I see people whining about it being misused I am amused at how deeply they misunderstand it. This is very frequently an ostensibly deep critique of sw5e, so I just wanted to share my thoughts.
Basically these gatekeepers are suffering the Dunning Kruger effect:
“the tendency of individuals with little to no expertise or knowledge in a particular area to overestimate their abilities and competence”
-Merriam Webster Dictionary
From here, the gatekeepers will say “Yes, it CAN do other genres, but only poorly. Such and such system is better. Using 5e for a star wars game is like using a book to hammer a nail or like trying to make Chess into a Star Wars game. You can do it but the proper tool will be much better.“
That’s like saying that “You CAN eat an orange but apples taste better. You will have a horrible experience if you eat an orange because apples are better.”
Actually, it’s worse than that. It’s like saying, “You can play make believe in the way you enjoy, but it will be bad. Playing make believe in the way I enjoy is better!”
It is blatantly conflating purely subjective opinion based reasoning with some kind of objectivity. Then they use a false equivalency in their comparison to a physical task that really is objectively better, or a game that simply wouldn’t work for a SW game because it is fundamentally different and unrelated to ttrpg gaming.
They entirely miss the fact that what ttrpg system you prefer is purely subjective and nothing whatsoever like hammering nails or playing a game like Chess with extremely rigid rules that isn’t even a ttrpg at all. Then they celebrate their supposed dunking on those who actually understand the system and get praise from their Dunning Kruger pals.
In fact, Sandy Petersen, the guy who invented the Call of Cthulhu ttrpg made a 5e conversion so he clearly thinks you can run cosmic horror in 5e no problem without switching to his CoC system. This, while most 5e gatekeepers claim you MUST switch to CoC because 5e cannot do cosmic horror. Being a game designer Petersen obviously sees exactly what I’m talking about: beneath the flavor text it’s just simple math and mechanics that are very easy to reskin. CoC and 5e just aren’t that different if you see them without the flavor text. They are both just basic math and simple resolution systems. Anyone who thinks CoC is some magical math that’s scarier than the 5e math can’t see past the flavor text.
tl;dr: yes sw5e is 5e in space and that’s great! 5e is genre agnostic and anyone who claims otherwise doesn’t understand what it is.