How Would 3.75 Impact Your 4.0 Decision

[Mistwell]

Would you walk into a pub in a catholic neighborhood in north ireland and ask what their opinions are of England and hope to get an unbiased evaluation? Would an average american walk around a Bathist-party stronghold area of iraq and ask how they thought of the "Liberation" by the American military (without body armor) and expect to get an unbiased evaluation? No, of course not. It was equally a bad idea of me to goto a 4E forums and ask if people are going to not buy over something else and expect to get an unbiased evaluation. (for the record, I am not comparing wizards, 4E, or fans of either to Brits, Irish, Bathist or the current American administration, regardless of your opinions of any of these. merely comparing how bad my idea was.)

I think an awful lot of anti-4e folks (or pro-3.5 if you will) frequent this specific forum, and in particular would be attracted to this thread. I doubt your assumption about this forum being principally frequented by a population already biased towards 4e more than other forums.

A majority of current players and DMs will move over to 4e. That is a foregone conclusion. The only debate is over what portion of the remaining minority will actually follow through on their current claims that they will not move over to 4e. For me, I am betting at most 10% of currentl 3.5-folks will refuse to move to 4e a year after 4e has been out.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

This depends on what "3.75" is.

If 3.75 means a new PHB to replace the one I have for 3.5, then no, I'm not interested in it.

However, if 3.75 means an additional PHB to legally offer generic and unified versions of the non-SRD mechanics put out by WotC, then I would be very interested.

As far as the DMG goes, if there was a 3.75 DMG that worked better than the one I have now, I wouldn't mind replacing it.

And for the MM, I would really like to replace my 3.5 MM with a 3.75 that uses the updated stat block format.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I would be interested.

 

[Shroomy]

I don't play OGL variants today and I don't plan on doing it tomorrow. If I want to play a system that evokes 3.5, I will play 3.5. So I am not interested in a 3.75 edition.

 

[ptolemy18]

No impact at all. If I wasn't going to upgrade to 4e, why on earth would I upgrade to anything else- I would just continue playing 3.5.

Frankly, this is how I feel too. I'm not too enthusiastic about 4E, but a 3rd party pseudo-D&D would have to be AMAZING for me to not just use all my 3.x stuff instead. Unless it were pretty much totally compatible with my old 3.x stuff.

On the other hand I absolutely love Green Ronin's products... frankly I mostly play variant versions of D&D3.x like "Mythic Vistas." So if they (and Paizo) want to continue supporting 3.5 in some fashion, I might stick around in the small pool. It all depends on the campaign setting and the products. In terms of actual system mechanics, I am very happy with 3.x, which is the reason I'm not playing, say, Castles & Crusades (no offense).

 

[Doug McCrae]

Would you walk into a pub in a catholic neighborhood in north ireland and ask what their opinions are of England and hope to get an unbiased evaluation?

You're right there's a bias in favour of 4e here, but it's not as strong as that.

The latest poll showed 65% yay, 35% nay.

 

[Roland55]

Virtually none. A '3.75' wouldn't have enough changes to make it worth bothering it, and more than likely they'd just be changes in print that I could make myself if I wanted to take the five or six hours it would take to make those changes.

The reason no-one is asking that question is because it's a fantasy that some people have allowed themselves to believe would ever come to pass. Did anyone think there would ever be a '3.25'? No. Anyone who thinks that any significant company will not move to 4.0 - even if it stinks - is just denying the lessons of history.

RuneQuest 3.0 was very poorly received. Did that prevent people from producing supplements for it? No. Did anyone continue producing RuneQuest 2.0 stuff? No. DId anyone of note continue producing 3.0 D&D stuff? No, they all moved to 3.5.

I like a man who is sure of himself! And WL is very sure of himself.

I agree. Not as firmly, not as surely, but I agree. I've been around far too long to see the world in black & white. Neither will WL, once he has accumulated a few more nicks and dings.

Still. I like a man who is sure of himself!

 

[Roland55]

However, I will only support one, since I need the rest of my funds for the Tavern of Infinite One-Night Stands.

HA!!

I love that. Wit enlivens every form of discussion.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

You're right there's a bias in favour of 4e here, but it's not as strong as that.

The latest poll showed 65% yay, 35% nay.

That poll doesn't show if there's any kind of bias here. For all we know the typical response of D&D market is 95% pro 5% anti, and we have a very strong anti-4e bias on this board.

 

[Sundragon2012]

What would be the point of a 3.75 edition?

Besides just polishing up the 3.5 rules a bit and desperately clinging to an "officially" doomed cosmology there is no benefit to doing a 3.75 edition of D&D. I would fall off my chair if after 2yrs of 4e's release even 5% of the market plays 3.5. It isn't going to happen. The market moves according to the newest, coolest things whether or not they are qualitatively better (I think 4e will probably be a better game than 3.5). 3.5 will eventually fall into the niche that OD&D, AD&D, and 2e do now, a game played by those who love the system and feel no need to change anything. These are also the rare folks who don't mind playing games that receive no further support.

3.75 would initially be played by some die hard Paizo (or whatever company decided to support the system) fans but would eventually only be played by the "thumb your nose at the evil corporation" gamers who play it partly out of enjoyment and partly out of resentment at WoTC for "destroying D&D."

In a few years there will be 3.5 grognards who bemoan the fact that the One True Game(tm) died in 2008.

The wisest thing that companies who don't want to be beholden to WoTC's choices could make is to create their own game system or throw their collective power behind an existing OGL system like Mongoose's Conan D20 (incredible game) or Runquest where there is a fan base in existance that has no desire to follow WoTC's lead.

Forget about 3.75 it isn't going to happen.



Sundragon