D&D 4E Would 4E be Popular?

[Kanegrundar]

As I was reading through the Forseeing the future thread about 4E, I got to thinking. Would 4E really be that popular of system? 3.0/3.5 is a very popular game. The OGL movement has brought even more people into the D20 fold as well. The general concensus among people that play D&D is this the best edition so far. So, the move to 4E wouldn't be like the move from 2E to 3E, where we went from a maligned system that had no cohesion and was losing players to a system that was an obvious improvement from the second a character was rolled up.

I don't think it would be a popular move on WotC's part. I know, the move to 3E wasn't too popular either, but I think a lot of people (including me) switched over pretty quietly once I saw just how much of an improvement it was. I'm just not seeing exactly where there's room for THAT much improvement to honestly warrant a new edition for anything other than a money grab.

So I ask the ENWorld hordes: What is 4E going to have to do to either get you to buy it and to smooth over relations with the gamers that aren't going to look upon 4E with anything other than anger?

Kane

 

[MerakSpielman]

Everybody'd whine and bitch about a new addition and whine and bitch about how it changed this and that important feature and how this new feature is unbalanced. But they'd all buy it anyway, then they'd house-rule it so that it looks like what they imagine D&D should be (even if this totally messes up the rule system).

In short, it'll be just like the release of 3.0. And to a lesser extent 3.5.

 

[Desdichado]

Who says that move to 3e wasn't popular? I know tons of people that had completely dropped out of D&D during (or even before, in my case) 2e and had no interest in it until 3e came around.

I doubt 4e will be any less popular than 3.5 in any case, unless it's not enough of a change, or it happens too soon and just pisses folks off.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I think that if 4e was a great addition with a lot of new possibilities and made improvements to 3e/3.5 then you would see it was very popular. If, on the other hand, it was merely a transparent attempt to shake down the D&D community for more money, you would see it being very UNpopular.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

If 4e improved on most of the major flaws with 3e but remained at least reasonably backwards-compatible with existing d20 material, while aggressively pursuing and marketing a major license that would bring in a broad influx of new players (probably Final Fantasy), I think it would be a smash hit.

If 4e improved on most of the major flaws with 3e but remained at least reasonably backwards-compatible with existing d20 material, I think it would be popular.

If 4e improved on most of the major flaws with 3e but sacrificed backwards-compatibility, I think it would be fairly popular, but groups who've moved beyond WotC-only would probably stick with the broader support 3e enjoys.

If 4e was just a minor update ala 3.5, I think it would be generally unsuccessful.

From what I've seen of the 3.5 sales, they were clearly down from 3.0. 4e needs to be somewhat compatible (probably not as dramatic as 2e to 3e), but it needs to be sweeping enough that 'print the SRD to reference the changes' isn't the most sensible option for 3.5 owners.

 

[Desdichado]

If, on the other hand, it was merely a transparent attempt to shake down the D&D community for more money, you would see it being very UNpopular.

Apparently you skipped class the day we had the lesson on the 3e transition 3.5...

 

[BryonD]

Eventually 4E will be very popular.

(Of course there is always some chance that 4E could do to D&D what Master of Orion 3 did to the MOO line, but I'm assuming that won't be the case)

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Apparently you skipped class the day we had the lesson on the 3e transition 3.5...

I think you can guess what my feelings are - for the most part - about 3.5.

 

[The_Gneech]

I dunno ... I can't imagine what changes they'd make to it that could make me like it more, that wouldn't morph it into something that isn't D&D. Most of the famous Sacred Cows are still just as Sacred.

"We've totally redesigned D&D so that your character's gear is much less important than their personal abilities and magic is a dangerous mystery to be avoided by sane people rather than something you can fire off X times per day. In other words, we changed it into Mongoose's Conan! Woohoo!"

I don't see it happenin'.

-The Gneech

 

[Kanegrundar]

Who says that move to 3e wasn't popular? I know tons of people that had completely dropped out of D&D during (or even before, in my case) 2e and had no interest in it until 3e came around.

I doubt 4e will be any less popular than 3.5 in any case, unless it's not enough of a change, or it happens too soon and just pisses folks off.

Maybe I didn't word it right, but overall, I agree that the move from 2E was a popular move. I was one of those people that had dropped out of D&D during 2E. We're not at the same point with 3E that we were with 2E. 3E is still selling well (by most indications), isn't considered a broken system, and is still very popular.

I just don't see how putting out a new edition when 3E is still selling well and is still a system that lots of people buy books for and play would be a good idea. I would much rather see smaller revisions ala 3.5, but taking a little less work (not that it takes much) to make changes between revisions. Until 3E is considered to be akin to a dying rat (much like 2E was), I don't see the need for another edition when this one does D&D better than D&D has ever been done. (No offense meant to Diaglo.)

Kane