amnuxoll
First Post
Now that 4e is out, I think it would be revealing (and fun) to review some of the things designers of 3e and 3.5e said that are relevant to 4e. Remember this interview that Monte Cook did with Skip Williams?
http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?int_dnd30_Skip
Below are two quotes from it that might be of interest. This one is about how the design of the 3e skill system:
"One example of this kind of tinkering is the skill system. The
original plan called for an extremely simple skill system that was
strictly tied to character level. Your character had a limited number
of skills, but you automatically got better at them as you went up in
level (just as your saving throw and attack bonuses got better with
level). That system proved much too simplistic for anyone's tastes,
and the debate about how to replace what we had with a workable system
often got heated, to say the least."
And this prediction about future versions after 3.5e:
"At present, we have a game that's fairly easy to learn, but somewhat
hard to master because the rules contain so many exceptions and
special cases, and because the rules allow so many different kinds of
characters. The general trend for the future, I think, will be toward
an ever more complex game. The current audience seems to crave more
rules for handling oddball situations, and there's a sub-community
that seeks ever more powerful and flamboyant characters. The challenge
for the next edition's design team will be to preserve the game's core
as something that veterans will love and beginners can handle while at
the same time offering people who want to push the envelope ways to do
that."
Does anyone else have interesting past predictions about 4e?
:AMN:
http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?int_dnd30_Skip
Below are two quotes from it that might be of interest. This one is about how the design of the 3e skill system:
"One example of this kind of tinkering is the skill system. The
original plan called for an extremely simple skill system that was
strictly tied to character level. Your character had a limited number
of skills, but you automatically got better at them as you went up in
level (just as your saving throw and attack bonuses got better with
level). That system proved much too simplistic for anyone's tastes,
and the debate about how to replace what we had with a workable system
often got heated, to say the least."
And this prediction about future versions after 3.5e:
"At present, we have a game that's fairly easy to learn, but somewhat
hard to master because the rules contain so many exceptions and
special cases, and because the rules allow so many different kinds of
characters. The general trend for the future, I think, will be toward
an ever more complex game. The current audience seems to crave more
rules for handling oddball situations, and there's a sub-community
that seeks ever more powerful and flamboyant characters. The challenge
for the next edition's design team will be to preserve the game's core
as something that veterans will love and beginners can handle while at
the same time offering people who want to push the envelope ways to do
that."
Does anyone else have interesting past predictions about 4e?
:AMN:
