What do you want to see from 4E Publishers?

JoeGKushner said:

The different roles make for some "generic" bits but the massive lack of background/details make them... boring and generic.

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I have to admit, I'm sick of seeing kobolds and the like myself. When we do revisit monsters, am I right in assuming you'd rather see the heavy fluff that came with Denizens of Avadnu as opposed to the format from the 4e Monster Manual?

More monsters

Stuff that I can pillage for other settings/games

A theme song. If you really want to cement 4e as being the newest and best D&D ever, it's time to give it an official theme song.

JVisgaitis said:

I have to admit, I'm sick of seeing kobolds and the like myself. When we do revisit monsters, am I right in assuming you'd rather see the heavy fluff that came with Denizens of Avadnu as opposed to the format from the 4e Monster Manual?

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It's like WoTC just... gave up. Hell, when they made "new monsters", they just updated old standards like the duegar that should've been in the Monster Manual in the first place.

Quite so.

Hell, have Denizens come out as a PDF. Quick reuse of art and background text and tweaking of the old game mechanics.

JoeGKushner said:

Hell, have Denizens come out as a PDF. Quick reuse of art and background text and tweaking of the old game mechanics.

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I can say that has definitely come up in conversations here more than once... As a buyer though, wouldn't you be pissed that you were getting practically the same thing you got in 3e? Our other worry is that we become a company that is stereotyped as a monsters only company.

Honestly, this is what would catch my attention for 4e...

A big book of alternate Paragon Paths, powers and builds for the classes available in the PHB 1. I think if someone produced a big book like this, with quality material and at a fraction of WotC's 3 books@ $34.95 price tag...I'd be all over it. IMHO the core PHB is severely lacking in options when it comes to differentiating characters in the same class, and I think the above would help to flesh out the core for those who don't want to jump on the supplement train.

Next, would be a cool campaign setting. Honestly, I think WotC may have dropped the ball here with the FR being drastically changed and released in two books. Personally I have no interest in the FR...I'm not keen on generic high fantasy unless it does something original. Now I would have been all over Eberron if it had been released this year (actually I wished they had done this and seen which one sold the most...then supported that one with books and the other in DDI), but it wasn't...so now is the prime opportunity for a company to create a campaign setting that will grab those who aren't interested in generic high fantasy.

Finally, Monster books...unless you do them like WotC's MM. Make a MM that someone really wants to sit down and read, that also inspires adventure ideas and the imagination. Don't do a book of pure stats with pictures.

JVisgaitis said:

I can say that has definitely come up in conversations here more than once... As a buyer though, wouldn't you be pissed that you were getting practically the same thing you got in 3e? Our other worry is that we become a company that is stereotyped as a monsters only company.

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That depends on if you believe that only players of 3.5 are buying 4e material.

And... I apologize ahead of time if I'm sounding like an ass here, but wasn't one of the problems was that the book didn't have fantatic sales? And in many of those cases, it was on a near clearance price latter on it's lifetime? LImited sales versus pissing off 4e buyers that may never have bought the book?

JoeGKushner said:

I apologize ahead of time if I'm sounding like an ass here, but wasn't one of the problems was that the book didn't have fantatic sales?

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No apology necessary and that's a good point. I'll start a new thread, I don't want to keep thread jacking.

JVisgaitis said:

No apology necessary and that's a good point. I'll start a new thread, I don't want to keep thread jacking.

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Use the Fork Luke!

Adventures that aren't just dungeon crawls, and that feel more organic than what WOTC has released so far. The WOTC and Dungeon 4e adventures seem to emphasize tactically interesting combinations of adversaries, sometimes with some handwaving explanation about why these monsters are helping one another. I'd like to see more logical, "realistic" adventures.

I also like the earlier ideas about single-page encounters, towns, etc. that can be dropped into any campaign.

JVisgaitis said:

I have to admit, I'm sick of seeing kobolds and the like myself.

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Me too. I've been sick of kobolds specifically since BECMI. The 4E designers seem to have a kobold fetish, however.