When comparing Basic Set ("BECMI") / Rules Cyclopedia vs Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, the Slant community recommends Basic Set ("BECMI") / Rules Cyclopedia for most people. In the question“What are the best editions of Dungeons and Dragons?” Basic Set ("BECMI") / Rules Cyclopedia is ranked 2nd while Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition is ranked 3rd. The most important reason people chose Basic Set ("BECMI") / Rules Cyclopedia is:
Basic D&D is 6 ability scores, a few skills, a character's saving throws, some equipment and, if a spellcaster, some spells; and that's it. This makes the game more about what's happening in the game rather than an exercise in firing off various powers on your character sheet.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Focus on the game, not the character sheet
Basic D&D is 6 ability scores, a few skills, a character's saving throws, some equipment and, if a spellcaster, some spells; and that's it. This makes the game more about what's happening in the game rather than an exercise in firing off various powers on your character sheet.
Pro Vibrant online community
As with AD&D 1st Edition, Basic/Expert D&D is one of the favored editions of the Old School Renaissance community, who regularly offer wildly creative material for it and have published several retro-clone editions, all of which are currently available online either for free or for low prices. OSR blogs on Blogspot and Google+ communities serve as sources of considerable materials that can be used without modification for this edition, and some of these materials break far away from the "standard vanilla fantasy" flavor of Wizards of the Coast's publications.
Pro Character balance
Warriors with weapon mastery and wizards with spells at higher levels feel more on par with each other than in other editions, where the wizards easily overshadow the warriors of the party. Magic is the best in other editions whereas in BECMI they had a place in the party and it was usually in the face of some monster.
Pro Lamentations of the Flame Princess
Lamentations of the Flame Princess is a horror/fantasy game (not for kids). Fully compatible with Basic D&D material, it features a few non-breaking adjustments such as a vastly simplified encumbrance system.
Pro It goes with grimtooth's trap handbook
Pro Feels mysterious and gritty
Pro Minimal rules though somewhat clumsy
5th Edition strikes a balance in keeping the rules simple in some areas, confusing and poorly thought out in others, while limiting the creativity of players and any real choice.
Pro Free basic rules PDFs
Wizards of the Coast provides free PDFs containing the complete core mechanical rules of 5th Edition D&D (combat, exploration, spellcasting, etc.) and a selection of iconic character options, monsters, magic items, etc. drawn from the full game. Though short on variety, the basic rules are almost playable and accurate to the full game.
Of course far more is free in older editions as well as cheaper, 5e is by far the most expensive edition, and it is almost as bad as 4th edition.
Pro Slightly encourages character immersion
Few core aspects of 5th Edition exist solely to encourage thinking in-character, including mechanical rewards for good roleplay and detailed character backgrounds with lasting effects in the game.
Pro Bounded accuracy
Bounded Accuracy is a core design ideal of 5th Edition. In short, it means the numbers don't get too big; this lets weak challenges remain relevant for longer, and strong ones become survivable sooner. In practice, it also places more focus on a character's inherent stats and less their class or on magical equipment than has been the case in recent editions, which is a another major downside to 5e.
Pro OGL content
As with other editions of the game, much of the content is released under the Open Game License (OGL) allowing custom modification, extension and alteration of the game.
Pro Advantage rule
Rolls 2d20 chooses best. This dramatically makes all classes feel the same and moves away from distinct, interesting classes.
Pro Lacks granularity
Overuse of lazy balancing systems such as concentration spells and advantage mechanic.
This removes player choices, fun and creativity.
Pro A good mix of the best rules of the previous D&D editions without the worst things
Pro New, popular & growing
This is the most recent edition of the game and is the only one for which official content is being produced. Do not expect to see new official adventures or splatbooks published for any of the older editions of D&D.
Cons
Con Lack of granularity
Due to the simplicity of the rules, responsibility lies with the GM to govern the game rather than hard and fast rules.
Con Lacks the soul of older versions
Con It's too combat-oriented
It's meant for fight-y campaigns. Way too simple too.
Con Bland classes and races compred to other versions of DnD
Overuse of concentration mechanic, no racial stat modifiers and hardly any differences at all between races and classes, compared to previous editions.
Con Only popular because most people playing it have not tried any other systems.
Only justification for the system is to let critical role bring more people into the hobby. Once players try Warhammer, Vampire or AD&D 2e, they will have no need to return to 5e.
Con Worse mechanics than other versions of DnD
Especially spells, races and classes are dumbed down with lazy attempts to balance them, blocking player creativity.
Con Too shallow
Easy to learn, but not much to the game overall. Limited character depth and customization.
Con Very unbalanced
Thieves and Rangers are pretty much useless.
Con Casters are more powerful than noncasters
Con Almost no published material for 5e
WoTC has been super lazy since 3,5 and even that had only a third of the material available that TSR published for AD&D 2e.
Is is sad that WoTC after 7 years has not supported 5e or other versions better.
This is a great reason to look into 2e or 3,5e systems instead of 5e.