The big announcement: 4dventure

Falstaff said:

Okay, I'm just kidding!

happy gaming!

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I am not sure that this was appropriate.

Some thoughts:

1. I wasn't expecting 4E before 2009, since
a) WotC said that all major D&D announcements in the future will be made at D&D Experience
b) I believed them when they said just a few months ago that 4E is still a "long way off". (These probably weren't the exact words, but the basic meaning of what was said.)

Wizards certainly lost quite some credibility with me, but that's I think something they can live with. (See also: "Ending Dragon & Dungeon has nothing to do with an upcomming new edition." Sure.)

2. Am I understanding it right that the Digital Initiative (now called D&D Insider) will only feature 4E (and edition independent) content? Will it be launched only in the spring of 2008?

I would have thought that there would be a year or two of 3.5 DI time, and only then a switch. As I see it now, there will be two "entry barriers" to the DI: you must be interested in online content + you must switch to 4E. I'm sure some people would have tried a 3.5 DI (and than stayed for a 4.0 version), but won't join now.

The impact of this is probably not to big though.

3. My first impressions - based on the small tidbits of information available at this point - aren't that positve. It seems that the rules are getting "simplified" (in other words: dumbed down), that's not necessarily something that I was looking for. Also I'm not getting this whole focus on "encounters". It seems so gamey. And looking back at some of my groups, I know that we would have had lot's of arguments when one encounter ends end when the new one starts. (I never warmed up to the new adventure format either.)

But I don't think that I'm really Wizards target audience anyway: I'm absolutely not interested in any online content (at leats not the form Wizards seems to have come up with), and am even less interested in miniatures. (Counters, coins or dice are doing the job fine, for a fraction af the costs.)

I think my gaming dollars in the future will go to Green Ronin's upcoming A Song of Ice and Fire books. I get the first two issues of Pathfinder for my remaining Dragon and Dungeon subscriptions. I'll probably by the rest of the first AP if it's any good. (I don't have much doubt that it will be.) After seeing the first previews, I really liked the setting material Paizo came up with for their new world, but I'll probably hold my purchases of it untill I see the future of the Pathfinder line (3.5? 4.0? something completly different?)

4. I wonder whether there will be introductionary prices for the new core books. When 3.0 came out, the PHB, the MM and the DMG cost only 20 dollars for some time, not 30 as later. Such a step by Wizards would increase the chances of me buying at least the new PHB.

5. What's up with the two "preview" books? Will people really pay 15 dollars just to staisfy their curiosity? Maybe it's just me, but this seems a pretty lame idea.

Bottom line: Good luck to Wizards. What you came up with is probably not what I'm looking for.

GreatLemur said:

Anybody thinking "tieflings as a core race", yet?

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Tieflings are indeed going to be a core race:
http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/inquest/005672645.cfm

By the way: I find it somewhat funny, that Wizards has such great online plans, but when I go to their "countdown page", I can only see half the page, and there is no way to scroll down.

This is the same in IE and Firefox.

Klaus said:

Unending adaptability.

In WoW you can only do the tasks, go on the quests and make the characters built into the game.

In D&D (4e or otherwise), you can do anything, go anywhere, be anyone.

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That's not the reality of how the game, now and in the past, was actually used.

"The game will remain the same! The game will remain the same!"

I don't allow laptops at my table. The suck the fun out of the room. Everyone gets distracted by them.

My game will remain the same ... without D&D Insider.

For what it's worth, the highest tech at my 4E playtest table right now is...the three-ring binder. (At least it's got moving parts, right?)

I'm really looking forward to the prep-time I'll save with all the digital stuff, but I'm still rolling dice, talking in funny voices, and moving little dudes arounds on Thursday nights. And I wouldn't want it any other way.

--David Noonan, game designer, Wizards of the Coast.
...who wishes he had time to reply to every thread.
...who is vaguely aware of the irony of typing the above on a wireless-enabled laptop.

WotC_Dave said:

For what it's worth, the highest tech at my 4E playtest table right now is...the three-ring binder. (At least it's got moving parts, right?)

I'm really looking forward to the prep-time I'll save with all the digital stuff, but I'm still rolling dice, talking in funny voices, and moving little dudes arounds on Thursday nights. And I wouldn't want it any other way.

--David Noonan, game designer, Wizards of the Coast.
...who wishes he had time to reply to every thread.
...who is vaguely aware of the irony of typing the above on a wireless-enabled laptop.

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Hmm ... that's good to know, David.

Still, I wish that the bulk of this putatively fabulous online content was available in dead tree form since D&D is, at its heart, a game best played in meatspace, not webspace. Having tools online makes sense I suppose (it would be nice if they could be downloaded and used offline)... but I don't want my game or even prep to be chained to a computer.

Corinth said:

That's not the reality of how the game, now and in the past, was actually used.

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????

What game are you talking about?

WotC_Dave said:

For what it's worth, the highest tech at my 4E playtest table right now is...the three-ring binder.

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Good to hear. D&D Insider looks good, but I'd hate for it to be mandatory (by rules or de facto).