How Would 3.75 Impact Your 4.0 Decision

[Psion]

What would be the point of a 3.75 edition?

To give prospective players something they can buy at the LGS to play your the game, I would think. I don't think that telling new players who want to get involved to check ebay is a winning strategy.

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.

Well, there's
- A continuation of the metasetting as it currently exists and which current campaigns are based on and are supported by
- For those who aren't impressed by the scope of some of the proposed changes (mechanical and background), it gives them an alternative and credible venue for continued support.

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.

Were I to judge anecdotally by people who I know online and at home, I bet more than 5% of the audience still plays 3.0. I have no reason to suspect 3.5 would be worse off.

I wonder 30 years after 1e's release how many people play it. Not huge by any stretch, but they seem to have a pretty significant online presence as well as the simply fact I know of real groups of such players IRL.

Anyway, might in numbers is for those contemplating supporting such a move and rhetorical posturing. For me, what the end percentage is matters less than it makes continued support of the game I would prefer to play more viable. And to me, that's a good thing.

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).

Yep. The bearer of the official D&D trademark will rule the roost. If this is about winning a popularity contest, the battle is already lost.

But for those of us who would like to see continuing 3.5 support -- something made possible by the 3.5 SRD -- it would be a good and welcome thing and would definitely improve our lot.

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.

Yes, it will. But the SRD released under the OGL remove several roadblocks those other systems have in receiving support from third party sources.

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."

That's a pretty rude characterization. Sure, there are some frothing fans, but to take that as the norm is naive.

As for me, I perfectly understand that 4e makes sense from a financial standpoint. I even understand that dispensing with baggage opens up options for D&D as a property.

But because that's what the publisher is doing doesn't mean I have to follow suit. And any support I can get in staying the course is a boon to me.

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

Yeah, probably.

Forget about 3.75 it isn't going to happen.

Probably not, but if WotC gives publishers no other choice, it could.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

I would love a revision to one the true version of D&D. Long live 3e!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I really don't understand "I don't want to buy another version of D&D, so instead, I'll buy another version of D&D."

Unless this is just about poking WotC in the eye -- and on behalf of my gnomish bard and illusionist brethren, I can't say I'm wholly unsympathetic to that point of view -- it doesn't make a ton of sense to me.

 

[Woas]

I would support a 3.75.



...just find a better name for it

 

[Aus_Snow]

I really don't understand "I don't want to buy another version of D&D, so instead, I'll buy another version of D&D."

Perhaps because the first one there might not appeal to some gamers, in terms of crunch and/or fluff and/or design philosophy and/or whatever else, and the second might.

I'm with 'some gamers' right there.

Well, I'd give this 3.75 thing a look, at least. Just as I have been giving 4e a look. . . :\

 

[jeffh]

As I find it harder and harder to get excited about 4E, this starts to sound like a better and better idea. 3.5 has a fair number of barnacles that could use scraping off, but I'm mostly happy with it and don't see the need for changes anything like as far-reaching as WotC is proposing.

 

[Gundark]

3.75 would be too close to 3.5

 

[Minicol]

Maybe its time someone asks the question no one is currently asking. We all know that WotC is busy, busy, busy and the lack of a 4E SRD may cause Necromancer and Paizo (and who knows how many others) to jointly release a 3.75. So time to say, if this scenario does happen (even temporarily) how will this influence your spending habits?

Buy 3.75, burn 4e.

Well I don't intend to even touch 4e, so I will have to burn some of my friends books, for their own good of course.

 

[Cbas_10]

Well, we already have 3.75 in a way. With the releases of the Rules Compendium, Magic Item Compendium, Tome of Battle, and Spell Compendium...3.5 has changed and evolved a bit. But that is just a personal observation/opinion. More house ruling and 3rd party alterations would seem a bit redundant and even confusing.

An off-brand 3.xxnew really would not influence my thoughts on 4e at all. If I lose my group in the future, have to find a new one, and find only 4e games....then I would certainly switch to 4e. Common Sense, there. Until then, 99% of 3e issues can be fixed (actually don't even come up in our games) because of a play style where the rules are a basic framework instead of a situation where we have to push the rules to the limit and test their performance.

To us, it is more or less, "4e is fixing what is not broken." We might switch to 4e if it knocks our socks off as being more fun. We might switch to Ars Magica version thirteen if it comes out and is more fun. No grognards, just looking for what fits our playstyle the best.

The only definite thing I know about us and 4e: one or two of our players like the idea of playing simple fighters. Hit, fight, move on. A few feats modify the hitting or damage, but all of this "powers at various levels" or maneuvers and stances previewed by Bo9S (that book is a joke book in our circle) totally seems more complex than 3.x.... But, we keep an open mind and will read the new book before final judgement.

 

[dmccoy1693]

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

Apparently my idea wasn't as dumb as I thought. A total 57% (Option 1+3) said they'd buy 4E and about 18% (Option 2+3) said they'd buy a D&Desque RPG produced by Paizo or one of the other companies with another 24% (Option 4) undecided.

Assuming this is representative of the total market (and obviously its not a perfect representation but it is definitely telling) any small overhead company could live very well off of 18+(unknown amount of undecided)% of the D&D market.