4E with 1E Feel: Does that appeal to you?

[Byronic]

If you said to me "4th edition with a 1st edition feel" I'll say, "Sounds nice, but what's a 1st edition feel?"

If you said to me that you wanted to bring something out that increased differentiation between classes; made Rogues feel like Rogues and Wizards like Wizards I'd ask you when and where I could buy this product.

If you say that you've changed Fourth edition so that Classes are balanced on spotlight time rather then simple damage then you might want to upgrade your security because I'm coming to get it, one way or another.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to find out more about this "Tome of Horrors"

 

[radferth]

If you say that you've changed Fourth edition so that Classes are balanced on spotlight time rather then simple damage then you might want to upgrade your security because I'm coming to get it, one way or another.

OK, Clark, you've been warned. If you finish this, but are unable to publish due to GSL reasons, several of us are coming by you house to pick up a copy. Of course, if your house if much like described in Rappan Athuk, some of us might not make it out.

 

[cangrejoide]

This thread is very interesting, and it shows that a lot of people have very different perception of what 1e 'feels' like.

I don't know what playing with Gygax as a DM would be, but I have read a lot of posts from Old geezer in RPGnet . From what I could gather they were just making stuff up as they played back then. They just mixed all types of fantasy and more (spaceships+aliens). Also if anyone read the original Gord novels and were to run a campaign with all the weirdness of those , accusations of Badwrongfun would be thrown.

If anything what you guys have described would be more easy to pull off under WHFRP or Runequest than under 4E.

Maybe Mr. Peterson should just change his motto to "Runequest adventures with AD&D feel".

With the sandbox aproach from 1E I am sure most of our 1e experiences may vary a lot.

 

[Arnwyn]

While I'm happy to listen to any opinions on this, I'm really looking for those folks who currently are NOT interested in 4E but potentially WOULD BE interested in 4E if it could capture a "1E feel" ala Necromancer's 3e products.

So you picked up 4e and thought "Not for me."

Would Necro's attempt - possibly - make you interested to give it a(nother) shot?

It's... possible, I guess.

While I've never been a fan of Clark's original "1e feel" description way back when (it was just a loony anti-FR diatribe - though thankfully NG's products turned out to not have much to do with that rant at all), his current ideas about improvements to 4e are somewhat interesting.

 

[justanobody]

Just sayin something would be 4E like 1E is meaningless to me. I would need to see the final product and read over it all to see if it would interest me.

What exactly would re moved in the 4E dynamics/mechanics, and how would you replace that with 1E elements or styles?

 

[ExploderWizard]

Just sayin something would be 4E like 1E is meaningless to me. I would need to see the final product and read over it all to see if it would interest me.

What exactly would re moved in the 4E dynamics/mechanics, and how would you replace that with 1E elements or styles?

Step 1: Remove kewl powerz. Replace with abilities that grow with the character and are not plug-n-play.

Step 2; Make classes feel distinctly different

Step 3: The return of spells that actually DO something

Step 4: Abolish Minions

Step 5: Get rid of the rogue. It becomes a thief, lack of combative power
will be made up for in other parts of the game.

Step 6: The Re-inclusion of non-combat play

Step 7: As per 3 with regard to magic items.

Step 8: Effects will exist that can possibly remove you from combat longer than 1 round. It will no longer take 2 hours to chew through 8 kobolds so you won't be stuck THAT long.

Thats a start. What next?

 

[Jack Colby]

I think Necro made the best 3E products, period, so would be quite interested in whatever Clark is cooking up. I'm confident that even if the "feel" of 1E is subjective, it would be more to my liking that whatever feel 4E is supposed to have (I play it and still don't know... it just lacks any and all character somehow. It feels like sterile fantasy designed by committee, no sense of wonder.)

 

[ProfessorCirno]

I don't get this. By about 5th level in 1e you are a god. Very, very little can kill you in melee. The only reason 1e was so dangerous was the large number of save or die effects. In terms of relative power, 1ed characters are extremely powerful. There's a reason you can wade your 2nd level party through 20 orcs and expect to win.

The only reason 1e was so dangerous was the large number of save or die effects. In terms of relative power, 1ed characters are extremely powerful. There's a reason you can wade your 2nd level party through 20 orcs and expect to win.

In terms of relative power, 1ed characters are extremely powerful. There's a reason you can wade your 2nd level party through 20 orcs and expect to win.

There's a reason you can wade your 2nd level party through 20 orcs and expect to win.

There's a reason you can wade your 2nd level party through 20 orcs and expect to win.

Hahahahahaha, what? Seriously, what?

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I'm not interested.

When I started playing 3E when it first came out, I was always after the "traditional D&D" experience from my early years of gaming. Necromancer Games was an obvious choice, for me, and I bought a lot of their adventures with "3E rules and 1E feel." I liked it all well enough, at first. (And I still think NG put out some excellent adventures, system aside.) Eventually I grew dissatisfied -- something wasn't right. I moved on to other systems like C&C, which was much closer. Again, I liked it a lot, at first. But, again, after playing for a while I kept running into things that weren't "right."

I'm really dense, but eventually even I realized that the best way for me to get "1e feel" is to play 1e. I think other systems can approximate 1e feel to one degree or another, but I fall in the camp of "system/mechanics" matter to the way a game plays and feels. I find that a big part of the "feel" of 1e (and of early TSR D&D, in general) is the mechanics (or lack of them).

To me, 4E with 1E feel is probably possible, but only as a veneer. From past experience, I know that a veneer won't work, for me. If I want that "old time D&D" experience, then I'll play "old time D&D."

 

[joethelawyer]

my answer is here:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...players-not-characters-stats.html#post4498843