D&D General Which Previous Edition (poll; read OP)

[GMforPowergamers]

The 4E nostalgiassance is really interesting to me, as someone who basically skipped it. I mean, I played in one short campaign and bought the core set but otherwise went PF. In the last year or so it seems lots of people are active and vocal about their nostalgia for 4E.

I hope this means a 4e renaissance is coming in 2024

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Some people liked it. My own experience (I had a decent sized in-person community at the time) it was only around 5% that were vocal about the fact that they were going to miss it. Could have been more that simply didn't want to speak up of course, but the majority were vocal about being happy to move on and some people came back from Pathfinder.

People like what they like.

i was going to question your 5% number... but then I remember that you constantly remind us on here that you disliked 4e, and I assume you do IRL too, so you may not be the safest person to talk to about it.... it reminds me of political things I can't bring up specifics about, but there are lots of topics that people being anti can make those that are that way not want to talk about it...

either way even if we assume 5% is correct, the influx of NEW gamers since 2014 means that there are alot of new player that might want more 4eisms

 

[Oofta]

i was going to question your 5% number... but then I remember that you constantly remind us on here that you disliked 4e, and I assume you do IRL too, so you may not be the safest person to talk to about it.... it reminds me of political things I can't bring up specifics about, but there are lots of topics that people being anti can make those that are that way not want to talk about it...

either way even if we assume 5% is correct, the influx of NEW gamers since 2014 means that there are alot of new player that might want more 4eism

I'm just reporting my personal experience. Out of a couple dozen people I knew that had played 4E, 1 expressed that they wished they could still play. The majority of people were excited about the new edition. Several people that I had played 3.x with that had switched to PF came back to 5E. I acknowledged that there may have been people who simply didn't speak up about a preference for 4E.

Anything you're reading into it beyond that is all on you.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I'm just reporting my personal experience. Out of a couple dozen people I knew that had played 4E, 1 expressed that they wished they could still play. The majority of people were excited about the new edition. Several people that I had played 3.x with that had switched to PF came back to 5E. I acknowledged that there may have been people who simply didn't speak up about a preference for 4E.

Anything you're reading into it beyond that is all on you.

well you can read above that 4e is ahead... so how do you read that?

edit: and to be fair I would assume no one that knows me or talks to me about editions for any length of time would want to bring up anything positive about 3.5

 

[Oofta]

well you can read above that 4e is ahead... so how do you read that?

That ... I don't care. I related my experience at the time that we switched over. I don't care if you liked 4E lots of people like things I don't care for. I didn't hate it, I just wouldn't want to play it again.

I don't see any point to this conversation, have a good one.

 

[payn]

PF1 right up to level 10.

 

[cbwjm]

It's a tough decision, I picked BECMI but 2e would be just as high as my preferred edition. 3e (any version) would be close behind them both.

 

[Stormonu]

BECMI is my favourite one... This simply for sentimental reasons, this is the first edition I played.
Let me add an overall consideration: this poll could easily be read as "what is the edition you have first met and led you to the wonderful world of RPG?" ...it would nice to see the age of the votants tied to the votes... I am pretty sure that there is a strong correlation...

I don't think you'd find that to be true. I know many who started with Basic who would rate 1E or 2E as more favorable (me being one). Though it would be interesting to see a poll of what edition folks on here started with, and see if they correlate.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

i was going to question your 5% number... but then I remember that you constantly remind us on here that you disliked 4e, and I assume you do IRL too, so you may not be the safest person to talk to about it.... it reminds me of political things I can't bring up specifics about, but there are lots of topics that people being anti can make those that are that way not want to talk about it...

either way even if we assume 5% is correct, the influx of NEW gamers since 2014 means that there are alot of new player that might want more 4eisms

I think there's a lot of room to argue that there are two factors in play for altering 4e's legacy.

On the one hand, 4e was obviously really controversial, and the rise of Pathfinder galvanized the controversy. Now, with more than a decade since the last 4e book, it's far in the mirror, as you say. The hobby has grown a ton, and many of the folks who were brought in know nothing of 4e...and seeing that, even if there were huge (and IMO deleterious...) changes, 5e kept some 4e mechanics. A bunch of people can look on it now with no preconceptions and no prejudice, and ask about what it did well and what it didn't do well.

On the other hand, being perfectly frank, I don't think Mike Mearls ever actually liked 4e. In fact, I think he was opposed to several of its design conceits, and that his (undoubtedly well-meaning) efforts to defy them dealt significant damage to it. The fact that he was the one who cracked an edition-war-rhetoric joke was pretty telling. But with the changes of staffing at WotC, I don't think we have that internal partisanship anymore. I think Crawford and others are much more willing to go wherever useful design leads, rather than what seemed like being rather precious with particular things (e.g. Mearls loves rolling fistfuls of dice, so a bunch of stuff was ultra dice-heavy when it didn't need to be in the playtest, wasting months of effort.)

So I think, both externally and internally, the next decade is going to be kinder to 4e. I had, personally, expected it to be the Forgotten Edition, and we saw plenty of signs of that years ago. People celebrating 5e developing something brand-new that was developed or refined in 4e instead was...a really common occurrence for several years. Now, though? I dunno. We may see 4e rehabilitated.

I don't think 4e will have too much influence on "5.50" or whatever we come to call 2024 D&D, unless they make the shocking decision to include an actual Warlord class (and I don't think they will, don't get me wrong.) But further down the road? I could actually see a future where 6e (or 7e, or whatever the thing that comes after 2024 D&D gets called) is more of a synthesis of 4e and 5e, something with similarities to 13th Age.

 

[andreszarta]

I voted 4e pre-essentials, and I do consider it quite a different game from essentials.

The 4E nostalgiassance is really interesting to me, as someone who basically skipped it. I mean, I played in one short campaign and bought the core set but otherwise went PF. In the last year or so it seems lots of people are active and vocal about their nostalgia for 4E.

I would necessarily call it just nostalgia. It is indeed a renaissance, were communities are actively playing and developing resources for others to use. Even in streaming it has found some relevance, with Matt Colville choosing 4e for his latest show. I don't think it's just nostalgia that is bring people back into the edition. For many is a desire to actually enjoy what game had to offer, which is a lot of great stuff in my book .

I myself happen to think it is the coherent and consciously designed edition out of all, it just didn't click for many.