D&D 4E Looking Ahead: What's Next for 4E?

[Dice4Hire]

What I am looking forward to:

(Both announced and wishlist)

Map Packs: Paizo makes some good ones, but 6 for the price of two is hard to beat and WOTC has lots of good maps form various products I would love to see reprinted. I have a lot of faith in them being able to make some good new maps also. Yes, I know the paper quality is different. I have a couple Paizo ones.

Dungeon Tiles: They have been good so far and I think they will be good going forward. Not a 100% good thus far or going forward, but quite good.

Adventure: I have liked a lot of the recent adventures, HS1, HS2, Gardmore were all quite nice. Lotta imagination in settings like Hammerfast, Rukoth and Neverwinter. Note I do not say adventures, like modules, I mean places to adventure.

Campaign Setting: So far pretty good. Not a fan of FR and Eberron, but I think they did a good job. DS was amazing and so is Neverwinter in a different way. I am quite curious to see what will come out this next year. They have been pushing the boundries of classes and such for a while now, will be interesting to see them push the boundries of the campaign setting. I think every game company could use some work pushing campaign settings in a totally new way.

Yes, I am very optimistic. So flame me.

 

[Matt James]

Bearing in mind that I'm not a 4e customer, and there's roughly a 0% chance of me actually buying these, two things I would like to see:

This disquantifies (not disqualifies) anything you have to say afterwards. It begs to question why you even came to this thread--let alone reply :?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I believe the amount of books is very reasonable at the moment. The quality seems good. The problems of 4e are not totally adressed, but they are working on it.

The heroic tier feat ritual direction is one of the best articles for a while (the idea of bringing utility spells back, with material costs), and with so many good articles recently that means a lot.

 

[delericho]

This disquantifies (not disqualifies) anything you have to say afterwards. It begs to question why you even came to this thread--let alone reply :?

I'm interested in what WotC publish. I'm also interested in the development of any potential 5e, and the upcoming 4e products have a bearing on that in two ways: a cut back release schedule may indicate an announcement is coming, and the content of new releases is likely to serve as something of a testbed for 5e when it hits. (Although I still consider 5e premature at this time.)

It's also worth noting that while I don't buy or run 4e, I do play it occasionally; products that help my DM run a better game are certainly of interest.

I'm curious: Do you have a problem with me posting in this thread? Do you have a problem with anything in my post?

 

[Saracenus]

delericho,

Personally I have no problem with you posting, but Matt's question is valid.

You really don't have skin in the game and your first sentence basically kills any incentive for a company to listen to your request because you would not even buy the product you are requesting.

But even more to the point, this is a speculation thread on where folks think 4e is headed design-wise, not a "what I want from 4e" thread.

But then again this is my opinion and I am sure Matt will post his, he isn't shy about what he thinks.

My two coppers,

 

[Matt James]

But then again this is my opinion and I am sure Matt will post his, he isn't shy about what he thinks.

Nah, you covered it well, and I can't give you XP

 

[Doctor Proctor]

Bearing in mind that I'm not a 4e customer, and there's roughly a 0% chance of me actually buying these, two things I would like to see:

delericho,

Personally I have no problem with you posting, but Matt's question is valid.

You really don't have skin in the game and your first sentence basically kills any incentive for a company to listen to your request because you would not even buy the product you are requesting.

But even more to the point, this is a speculation thread on where folks think 4e is headed design-wise, not a "what I want from 4e" thread.

But then again this is my opinion and I am sure Matt will post his, he isn't shy about what he thinks.

My two coppers,

Yeah, this is a little like a guy saying "Lifetime Playstation gamer, never owned an XBox. But this is what MS really needs to do with the XBoxLive service..." If you play the game occassionally, then that's fine. But when you open up with how there's basically 0% chance of you ever buying any of the products, it makes your comment seem a bit uncouth.

As Saracenus said, I'm not trying to deny your right to post here... Just saying that this is the same reason why you'll never see me posting in a 3e or Pathfinder thread about changes that need to be made, because I never played (and never will, most likely) those editions.

Nah, you covered it well, and I can't give you XP

I got you covered. It's always good to see people able to express things like that without getting petty about it.


On Topic:
One thing I would really like to see come out WotC (mostly likely through DDI, since it seems to make more sense that way) is some more extensive support for existing classes and builds. New builds are great and all, but we already have at least four for most of the classes (Exceptions of course).

Examples:
Classes like the Sorcerer could use some new powers usable by the existing builds that better fit the Soul properties.
The Ardent has several builds, but the newer Impetuous build is still not available for multiclassing. There's also not a lot of feat support for the Impetuous build compared to the older two. See Heartening Surge, which only increases the bonuses for the original two builds, but not the Impetuous build.

If they released more books like Heroes of the Feywild (more fluff, fewer new races/classes/builds) and used DDI and errata to add in some more support for the existing classes and builds, I would love that. You'd still get new shinies to play with, but there'd be less of a flood (There's what, 8 or 10 Fighter builds now?) and it would allow us to work better with what we have.

 

[delericho]

Personally I have no problem with you posting, but Matt's question is valid.

Fair comment.

Nah, you covered it well, and I can't give you XP

No worries, I'll cover that!

Yeah, this is a little like a guy saying "Lifetime Playstation gamer, never owned an XBox. But this is what MS really needs to do with the XBoxLive service..."

Well, not quite, for various reasons. But fair enough - if my comment was problematic, I apologise.

If you play the game occassionally, then that's fine. But when you open up with how there's basically 0% chance of you ever buying any of the products, it makes your comment seem a bit uncouth.

That certainly wasn't my intent! I just prefer to keep my biases out in the open; don't want to be accused of a hidden agenda!

Anyway, with that, I have nothing more to say in this thread, so...

 

[Matt James]

Your post

Now dude, that right there was the best possible way to handle it. As I design for BOTH companies, find me at Gen Con (or DDXP, or PaizoCon) and you get some free swag.

I'm not being facetious either. Hella way to handle it.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

3 Upcoming Tiles sets listed on Amazon: Shadowghast Manor, Cathedral of Chaos, The Urban Underdark (non DDI, and limited piracy value)

2 Upcoming Map Packs: Haunted Temples, Vaults of the Underdark (non DDI, and limited piracy value)

Halls of Undermountain - April, looks like a second Dungeon Delves.

3 books/boxes: BoVD, Heroes of Elemental Chaos, Into the Unknown: Dungeon Survival Guide (WotC lists The Dungeon Explorer's Guide).

With monthly Official character options being added in Dragon the schedule looks fine to me. They did do a ton of surveys on monthly spending and how much crunch most folks could handle.

You make a good point of not only the wide range of peripheral products but also Dragon content. Perhaps they are finding that a broader spectrum of product (with a more moderate supply of "books") provides their customers with the right balance of product support combined with the incentive and value for DDI content.

I just prefer to keep my biases out in the open; don't want to be accused of a hidden agenda!

Obviously it's a shame that such can still be the environment. Whatever the case, I'm happy for any input regarding this thread and while it is specific to 4e, it was certainly not meant to be for 4e supporters only; I happily support both Paizo through multiple subscriptions (just about all of them actually) and WotC DDI and books. {Another guy in our group buys all the tiles, terrains and boardgames which is perhaps why I focused this thread more on books because that along with DDI is my main focus).

...Hella way to handle it.

And a very generous way to respond! Keep up the good work (especially with the May 2012 release - I'm looking forward to that one).

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise