Support for older editions?

[Echohawk]

I was most fascinated to see that an article in the latest Dungeon magazine (Adapting "The Lich-Queen's Beloved") has a section on converting that adventure to 1st or 2nd Edition AD&D. It might be a once-off thing for that article, or it might be a sign that WotC is planning on offering some support for older editions on a more regular basis. But at the very least, I think we just got the first new AD&D stat block published by WotC since L3: Deep Dwarven Delve came out in 1999! And it's for Vlaakith, the Lich-Queen

I'm quite happily playing 4e at the moment, and don't have any plans to take my 1e books off the shelf, but seeing an old-style stat block still brightened up my day. Kudos to WotC for that!

 

[Jimlock]

or it might be a sign that WotC is planning on offering some support for older editions on a more regular basis.

i would definitely not put my money on that one...

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Commendable. I approve, but do not expect this to be ever the majority of wotc's periodical output.

 

[Treebore]

If they started doing that on a regular basis I might actually subscribe.

 

[The Shaman]

That's cool.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I think that is what fan sites are for, or 3pp.

 

[Treebore]

You know, this is the digital age, so even if they don't want their employee's doing such conversions on company time, all they have to do is agree to add fan conversions of any edition submitted. So once they post their 4E version within days or a couple of weeks, they would have fan conversions for every other edition submitted, and then all they would have to do is update the adventure or article.

Sure, they may think it threatens their sales of the current edition, but it will only be for subscribers, and it will get people to at least look at their 4E stuff every month.

 

[El Mahdi]

Interesting.

If they are testing the waters on this, I think it's an inefficient way to do this, but I applaud the effort. Sliding it into an article without any fanfare or advertisement means the only people that will see it or appreciate it are those who already subscribe. I guess it may be something that could help keep an old school fan subscribing, but if they've stuck with DDI this long they'll probably continue a sub whether this is included or not.

The place where this could bring in more subscriptions is with old school fans that do not have a sub. Since they haven't advertised this at all, I'm not sure what the usefulness of testing the waters like this really is. Unless it's just to see if they could do it without excessive cost or work...

But, if it does indicate a shift in thinking, then I'm all for it. If it became something provided more consistently and hitting up all previous editions (but not necessarily in each article), they might have something.

Though without some kind of support for older editions like what 4E has (character/monster/encounter builders, compendiums, etc.), the return of electronic books, and likely an apology - I don't see it making any real difference. Testing the waters or providing token support won't cut it. Only a significant and visible expression will have any real impact.

 

[Ron]

Mike Mearls kind of promotes the idea of mending the whole D&D community. His latest Legend & Lore column even mention his ideal D&D combat would written in such way to satisfy more story driven players with simple rules and would offers options that would scale it up to please the tactical minded fourth edition fans.

I am not sure it is feasable, as the D&D community was pretty much fragmented with the introduction of third and later fourth edition. Still, I applaud the effort and I only wish they can do it.

 

[Treebore]

They could. With fan support they could do it cheaply too. They just have to want to do it.