D&D 4E Will 4E be backwards compatible?

[Razz]

I can't believe my eyes. 4E truly is coming and so damned early.

I'm never purchasing them. WotC is taking a huge risk in all of this. People angry at the cancellation of Dragon and Dungeon, the DI, and now a new edition. Why did it need a new edition? It was fine the way it was!

Will 4E be backwards compatible is my question. How easily can you adapt your 3.5E material to the material in 4E? Will it be a HUGE change, or simply a change like from 3.0E to 3.5E?

I guess we won't know nothing until the seminars, but if my 3.5E stuff can be compatible with 4E...I might consider it.

Any thoughts?

 

[Erekose]

I can't believe my eyes. 4E truly is coming and so damned early.

I'm never purchasing them. WotC is taking a huge risk in all of this. People angry at the cancellation of Dragon and Dungeon, the DI, and now a new edition. Why did it need a new edition? It was fine the way it was!

Will 4E be backwards compatible is my question. How easily can you adapt your 3.5E material to the material in 4E? Will it be a HUGE change, or simply a change like from 3.0E to 3.5E?

I guess we won't know nothing until the seminars, but if my 3.5E stuff can be compatible with 4E...I might consider it.

Any thoughts?

I know exactly how you feel - unless it's backwards compatible (akin to 1E to 2E) I'd not have much interest in 4E. Even then I'm so stocked up on 3.5E books that I'd be likely to only pick up the core rule books (like I did with 2E).

 

[Maggan]

Will 4E be backwards compatible is my question. How easily can you adapt your 3.5E material to the material in 4E? Will it be a HUGE change, or simply a change like from 3.0E to 3.5E?

I will be getting the core rulebooks. Any other purchases depend on whether or not there is compatibility with the existing rules, and how much work I have to do to turn 4e rules to 3e rules and vice versa.

/M

 

[Sigurd]

It sort of has to be

I strongly doubt that 4e will be launched without the basic principles of 3.5.

Whether WOTC has conversion rules (like they did for 3-3.5) or somebody else makes them there will be conversion rules.

I imagine that once its on the shelves there will be a pdf (likely free) to get people to convert. If it means selling more product they will do it.


Sigurd

 

[finarvyn]

I'm never purchasing them. WotC is taking a huge risk in all of this. People angry at the cancellation of Dragon and Dungeon, the DI, and now a new edition. Why did it need a new edition? It was fine the way it was!

Not to burst your bubble, but that is exactly what people said each edition along the way. I've played D&D for 31 years and I can recall when that fancy hardback AD&D thing came out and some people loved the idea but others freaked out about the "encyclopedia" of rules and how it will spoil the game. When 2E came out, people said that they had spent too much on rulebooks and would never buy new ones. Then 2.5 (black cover 2E) came out with new artwork and revised text and people forecast doom and gloom all over again. The total overhaul of D&D into the 3E form caused many people to cheer and many to cringe, and the quick release of 3.5 materials got people to vow never to spend another dime on WotC products. Like it or not, 4E will be a big seller and most of us will spend more money on it.

Will 4E be backwards compatible is my question. How easily can you adapt your 3.5E material to the material in 4E? Will it be a HUGE change, or simply a change like from 3.0E to 3.5E?

No edition to date is ever truly "backwards compatible" but it's probable that you can tweak it to run old adventures if that's what you mean. The release of "Star Wars Saga Edition" to replace d20 Star Wars has clearly shown the direction that 4E will most likely take -- streamlined system but nothing approaching the simplicity of 1974 brown-book D&D.

 

[Numion]

I hope it's not. Backwards compatibility would seriously hamper any innovations.

 

[Razz]

People say "Just continue your 3.5E game." But that is not what many of us are mad about. We know WotC won't FORCE us to play 4E.

I believe it's because we won't be receiving new game material to enhance our 3.5E games. No 3.5E books for new material for Tome of Battle, no Giantnomicon for 3.5E, no 3.5E Complete Warrior 2...nothing. We've been abandoned and all support material will be for 4E, a system I definitely will not switch to.

If I can take 4E and change it to 3.5E rather easily with not much work I'll consider 4E. If I can take ALL my 3.5E material and easily adapt it to 4E, I'll consider 4E.

Otherwise, WotC can rot away at its core for all I care. How long will it be before 4.5E or 5E? It's only been 5 years since 3.5e was released...expect to see 5E in the year 2011, everyone!

 

[marune]

I hope it's not.

If it's compatible, it means that it's 3.75E not 4E and they didn't make real changes.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I strongly suspect that it will be "basically compatible". But I don't think it'll necessarily be a breeze to convert stuff, even so.

IOW, I imagine that [most of?] the fundamentals of d20 will still be there, but elements of various d20 systems and variants will no doubt find their way into the core (e.g., d20 Modern, or SWSE).

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Star Wars Saga is about 80% or more backwards-compatible. I doubt 4e will go much further than that, if it even goes that far - 3.5 was a much less developed and changed system from 3.0 than d20 Modern was, for example.