D&D 4E What's the point of playing 4e now?

[Retreater]

I can echo the sentiment of the O.P. I may continue to play 4E for the near future, but I think that my purchases will be limited - those are just sourcebooks for characters that I will never play and modules for game sessions that will not occur. Tiles, minis, tokens - those I may still purchase.

I will continue running my two 4th edition adventures I am currently running, "Madness at Gardmore Abbey" and "Cairn of the Winter King." At the conclusion of those adventures, I will assess if 1) playtesting information is available; and 2) if the group is interested in playtesting.

Personally, I find it fun and rewarding to playtest. (I enjoyed the playtest I did with Pathfinder's Beta.) I also have some specific ideas I want from the new incarnation, so I think it is important to be able to shape the future of the game.

4E isn't necessarily dead yet, but it does have a terminal illness. Therefore, it's not too soon for us to start to imagine what life will be like when it's gone. We need to look at the life insurance plans (selling off our books while there's still some value in them).

 

[Rechan]

[MENTION=52303]Roland55[/MENTION], I'd give you Xp if I could. For some reason, the XP button is missing.

 

[Obryn]

It's the same thing I (and others) said to folks who were upset when 3e was starting to sunset: Your books won't blow up. You have tons of material.

I have no idea if I will like 5e or not. I am loving 4e; it's been the edition that has most kept my interest in a very long time. However, I will be excited to see what they come out with. It may indeed be better! Or it may be worse. Either way, I will still have one awesome game and might have another.

-O

 

[Roland55]

[MENTION=52303]Roland55[/MENTION], I'd give you Xp if I could. For some reason, the XP button is missing.

No sweat -- it's been missing for me all day.

I do appreciate the sentiment, however -- thank you.

Hoping your gaming life improves.

 

[MoxieFu]

[MENTION=52303]Roland55[/MENTION], I'd give you Xp if I could. For some reason, the XP button is missing.

OH MY GODD! 5e ate the XP button!

 

[frankthedm]

Your books won't blow up.

Well, you see, 4E fans are facing the looming threat of the DDI going away. Many of whom spent their money for electronic access rather than buying the actual books. And since the Escapist article laid it out in the open how profit minded Wotc employees need to be to protect their jobs, DDI based 4E fans have to ask themselves how likely will WOTC be to use any resources to support 4E when 5E goes live.

 

[Randomthoughts]

Mike Mearls is quoted with saying that WotC plans to continue offering CB/MB for 4e support here: The Escapist : Speak Your Mind in the Next Version of Dungeons & Dragons. I'd also check the D&D 5e Info above that tracks 5e's impact on 4e (there's not much there besides this article).

 

[Kantru]

Odds are The Next Itteration will be launched at GenCon 2013 (possibly 2014). With the 3 basic books, PHB, DMG and MM (With in 60 days of each other). It will take about a year from there for the game to reach maturity.

This is an improvement over AD&D (1e) where the first three books were released over a period of 18 months (or so. 1977-1979), but means that 4e will be a viable game on its own for some time after the next itteration launches. When public play programs switch over (Guessing Encounters, and Lair Assault will move to new version, not sure about LFR, LD or AoA, time will tell) then 4e might enter the lame duck phase. That is all assuming that the material is not compatible.

3.x might be somewhat left out in the cold on the best of all version. I say this not to rile up edition flames, but because OGL was a legal nightmare for Hasbro. A nightmare that lies behind some of the design decisions behind 4e. Probably 90% of the design choices that fan the flames of those edition wars stem from the OGL issue.

I don't think 4e is dead, any more than I think OD&D up through 3.x is dead. Just will stop being the focus product starting in about 18 months, and phasing out over 6 to 12 more.

As another player/DM said, it could be fire sale time as some players (and retailers) panic and dump their material in protest, or in preparation for the next new shiny thing.

As always, do what you enjoy. I don't think things are as gloomy as some would cast things, I do think things are going to change. Change is inescapable. The only way to avoid change is to stop playing.

I'd suggest avoiding focusing on the doom and gloom of a new iteration being tested. It's been going on for 4-5 years, and shows no sign of stopping even after the next itteration is the focal product for WotC.

 

[Argyle King]

I think there are plenty of reasons to continue playing 4th.

Now, buying more 4E? Maybe not so much. I only say that because I was already somebody who had a hard time justifying wanted to buy more of the game. Knowing there will probably only be about a year or so until the first few 5E products rolls out takes my desire to buy from unlikely to virtually non-existent.

That being said, if I were going to want to buy more products (I actually do like a lot of the 4E fluff,) I'll probably wait until the local game store puts that stuff into the discount bin.

Hmm, that makes me wonder how low some of the 3rd Edition books which are still lingering there might go. I'm getting pretty good at translating stuff into one of the toolkit systems I own, so that's an interesting thought.

 

[SteveC]

Because, for me, it's the best edition of Dungeons and Dragons that's available. I play a lot of different RPGs, but I simply enjoy 4E the most for a D&D style game.

I know it's all of a sudden very in vogue to bash 4E...perhaps I missed a memo and edition warring is okay again on the boards, but the game didn't change one bit with WotC's announcement: I'll play 4E until I find a better D&D.