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D&D Older Editions
Mike Mearls on how 4E could have looked
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<blockquote data-quote="Cergorach" data-source="post: 7520927" data-attributes="member: 725"><p>Let me be blunt, most people can't handle that much freedom, either creatively or mentally. Besides D&D having certain 'holy cows' which create a certain expectation in it's customers, there is also a balance that needs to be reached. D&D doesn't work for the majority of the players as either a total freeform game or a completely codified game. If you disagree, just look at the sales/revenue in the 4e era and now in the 5e era, sales say so much more then hypothetical discussions on an Internet forum.</p><p></p><p>As for 'creative spellcasting', there is a big reason why Vampire The Masquarade was so much more popular then Mage The Ascension, sure Vampires attract a certain kind of Goth and with attractive Goths follow the nerds, but the spellcasting system was much more relatable then in Mage. I'm a very creative person who also sees interesting things in codified rules, but due to my creativity I had such an advantage in Mage over my fellow players that were purely 'rules lawyers', it wasn't funny and in the end not fun. Even in something like Vampire there are so many opportunities to creative power usage that it requires a creative, smart and overall good DM to run a good game it creates a pretty big hurdle for most gaming groups. The same is true to a certain extent for D&D, it's far more forgiving for DMs...</p><p></p><p>D&D is simpler in this regard, especially with the introduction of 3E or even the 2E tactics books D&D could have certain sections of the game that were heavily codified, effectively making combat a kinda boardgame like HeroQuest with more options/complexity. For the groups I've been part of that often was a good compromise between codified vs. freestyle gaming.</p><p></p><p>There are of course markets for extremer versions of either type of game, but both are far more niche. 3E and 5E was able to settle in the middle and get a large portion of the consumer base. 4e was too much too one side to get that large consumer base. I would even go so far that the true adoption is even far lower then the sales numbers seem to indicate because a lot of folks started buying it anyways because it was D&D before giving up on it, and some (like me) even continued to buy it because it was D&D (just not playing it).</p><p></p><p>As for changing anyone's mind, not the objective. I can't (or want to) make a pro codified gamer a pro free form player. The objective is that there are multiple points of view that are valid to a certain extent. The only 'truth' is that 4e was selling badly, 5e is selling extremely well.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cergorach, post: 7520927, member: 725"] Let me be blunt, most people can't handle that much freedom, either creatively or mentally. Besides D&D having certain 'holy cows' which create a certain expectation in it's customers, there is also a balance that needs to be reached. D&D doesn't work for the majority of the players as either a total freeform game or a completely codified game. If you disagree, just look at the sales/revenue in the 4e era and now in the 5e era, sales say so much more then hypothetical discussions on an Internet forum. As for 'creative spellcasting', there is a big reason why Vampire The Masquarade was so much more popular then Mage The Ascension, sure Vampires attract a certain kind of Goth and with attractive Goths follow the nerds, but the spellcasting system was much more relatable then in Mage. I'm a very creative person who also sees interesting things in codified rules, but due to my creativity I had such an advantage in Mage over my fellow players that were purely 'rules lawyers', it wasn't funny and in the end not fun. Even in something like Vampire there are so many opportunities to creative power usage that it requires a creative, smart and overall good DM to run a good game it creates a pretty big hurdle for most gaming groups. The same is true to a certain extent for D&D, it's far more forgiving for DMs... D&D is simpler in this regard, especially with the introduction of 3E or even the 2E tactics books D&D could have certain sections of the game that were heavily codified, effectively making combat a kinda boardgame like HeroQuest with more options/complexity. For the groups I've been part of that often was a good compromise between codified vs. freestyle gaming. There are of course markets for extremer versions of either type of game, but both are far more niche. 3E and 5E was able to settle in the middle and get a large portion of the consumer base. 4e was too much too one side to get that large consumer base. I would even go so far that the true adoption is even far lower then the sales numbers seem to indicate because a lot of folks started buying it anyways because it was D&D before giving up on it, and some (like me) even continued to buy it because it was D&D (just not playing it). As for changing anyone's mind, not the objective. I can't (or want to) make a pro codified gamer a pro free form player. The objective is that there are multiple points of view that are valid to a certain extent. The only 'truth' is that 4e was selling badly, 5e is selling extremely well. [/QUOTE]
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