What's really at stake in the Edition Wars

[Raven Crowking]

Frankly, Schrodinger's Cat is dead to me.

Only because you peeked.

 

[Piratecat]

To this I can only offer my own-eyes evidence:

This is cool, but (as you said) wholly anecdotal. I have the opposite experience with 4e. I suspect that an area's edition preference often revolves around the skill and preference of the people organizing and running games; a superb GM running system X will mean that a disproportionate number of players in that area will also be playing that system.

This suggest to me that as D&D advances editions, more fragmentation is inevitable regardless of the quality of any future editions. I think 3e might have been an aberration, converting more groups than could be expected because it was a great game at a time when 2e was dying.

 

[Garthanos]

I don't care about how many other things Healing Surges can be used for other than for healing at all- that initial underlying use is what bugs me, what reminds me of video games.

Where people are limited to the number of potions they can boost with in a time period because those potions boost natural potentials (like real medicines) instead of replacing them... where healing rate is proportionate to the vigor of the subject instead of inversely proportionate that is realistic to me.

You must play some weird videogames... never seen a healing surge or anything like it in a video game... most all of them use the limitless potion drop technique or slave npc healer.

Are you going to start pretending D&D hit points are significant real wounds? talk about a fallacy - on second thought lets not.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I suspect that an area's edition preference often revolves around the skill and preference of the people organizing and running games; a superb GM running system X will mean that a disproportionate number of players in that area will also be playing that system.

I would be extremely surprised if you were wrong in this.


RC

 

[Maggan]

This is cool, but (as you said) wholly anecdotal.

I'll offer up another. When D&D3e came out, and the whole time while it was published, I was a regular at one of Sweden's largest dedicated RPG forums.

The amount of bickering over D&D in all its form was intense and widespread. D&D players were a minority (D&D has never been that big in Sweden). Indie and indigenous games dominated.

After 4e was released, there was a watershed. Now it seems every Jack and Jill on that forum is playing D&D4. Sometimes it feels like every single one picked it up, tried it and continued to play.

I don't feel special anymore ...

/M

 

[Pinotage]

I disliked Startrek Deep Space Nine. It was not like Startrek - The Next Generation. I didn't "get it". Then I got a book "Making of Startrek Deep Space Nine". And I learned not just technical details, but also the philosophy behind the story, the different style it had, the story-telling concepts. And suddenly I "got it" and I loved it. Yes, even the first two seasons before the Dominion appeared on the scene. Today, it remains my favorite Startrek Show.

Seven out of Nine times I liked Voyager more than Deep Space Nine!

Pinotage

 

[UniversalMonster]

Here's another anecdote: The Warhorn site for my (weekly- Thursday evening) local Living Realms meetup has 108 names on it. Not everyone shows up every night, and not everyone even bothers to sign up.

At least 2-3 tables (usually 3, sometimes as many as 5)happen every single week. That's a range of 9 players to as many as 30+. I think the average is more like 15-18 people.

I am not counting the the two NON LFR 4E campaigns that play on the same night, each of which has 4-7 players on any given Thursday.

It's all anecdotal I'm sure, but to deny this is happening on a wide scale level is to deny reality itself.

 

[Ourph]

Frankly, Schrodinger's Cat is dead to me. Do not want.

Your face is video-gamey.

 

[DanFor]

Here's another anecdote: The Warhorn site for my (weekly- Thursday evening) local Living Realms meetup has 108 names on it. Not everyone shows up every night, and not everyone even bothers to sign up.

At least 2-3 tables (usually 3, sometimes as many as 5)happen every single week. That's a range of 9 players to as many as 30+. I think the average is more like 15-18 people.

I am not counting the the two NON LFR 4E campaigns that play on the same night, each of which has 4-7 players on any given Thursday.

It's all anecdotal I'm sure, but to deny this is happening on a wide scale level is to deny reality itself.

The Editions War is a splintered cohort.
The Editions War is snark and platitudes.
The Editions War is WOW comparisons and New Coke analogies.

The Editions War is also anectodal "evidence" and attempts to define reality. My experience contradicts your experience, so I reject your effort to impose your version of reality on me.

But, I still respect you.

 

[Umbran]

Frankly, Schrodinger's Cat is dead to me. Do not want.

Well, that's the problem with the SchroCat core rules - about half the people who open the book have a lively experience, the other half are like yourself. I'm told that if you never actually open it, you get mixed results.

I'd draw a comparison to the HeisenSystem, but I'm not sure where I'd be going with that analogy...