D&D 4E Ben Riggs' "What the Heck Happened with 4th Edition?" seminar at Gen Con 2023

[Thomas Shey]

I dunno. It gets a ton of hype from MCDM, one of the largest sources of fun promotion of RPG things out there besides WotC themselves or GenCon. And there were 23 tickets sold at GenCon. Not tables, tickets, individual seats.

Maybe that has more to do with availability but I'd think a newer generation would embrace PDF and POD more and the original character builder is still out there, no idea if it's still getting maintained but I'd bet it is and works on current hardware/OS.

Outside of those pushing into the OSR, I think this underestimates the counter-push when it comes to playing older editions of anything, available PDFs or not. There's always a lot of incentives if getting into a game to play the most recent edition of pretty much anything.

 

[overgeeked]

I was at a seminar this last Gen Con where a lawyer did an overview of what the Open Game License did and didn't do. He covered a lot of basic ground about legalities before he got to the OGL specifically, and at one point had a slide that talked about the inability to copyright mathematical processes (as opposed to the artistic expressions thereof). To illustrate that, he had a listing of f(x) = (y-10)/2, asking who knew what that was.

I was one of the people who yelled out "ability score modifiers!"

Sure. But you're going to want to put a chart of those modifiers in your book. That chart is the artistic expression thereof. Imagine an RPG book that listed the formulae for things but not the resultant charts. That would not go over well.

 

[overgeeked]

Outside of those pushing into the OSR, I think this underestimates the counter-push when it comes to playing older editions of anything, available PDFs or not. There's always a lot of incentives if getting into a game to play the most recent edition of pretty much anything.

AD&D...the 45-some-year-old edition of the game...was the 11th most played game at the recent GenCon. It beat out a lot of more recent games, including every other edition of D&D...except 5E. WEG Star Wars was 14th...the newer Star Wars games were 20th.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/gencon-2023-rpg-tickets-sold-update-with-breakouts-by-edition.699342/

 

[Thomas Shey]

AD&D...the 45-some-year-old edition of the game...was the 11th most played game at the recent GenCon. It beat out a lot of more recent games, including every other edition of D&D...except 5E. WEG Star Wars was 14th...the newer Star Wars games were 20th.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/gencon-2023-rpg-tickets-sold-update-with-breakouts-by-edition.699342/

When I make a qualification (such as "outside the OSR"), I am not doing so to practice my typing.

 

[Retreater]

I said one could argue. Note I'd rather play them then 4e. (unless it's Gammworld 4e cause I'm just that kinda goofy weird).

Please please please don't quote me out of context.

I just got back from introducing my group of teenage players to Gamma World 7e. They loved it!

 

[Velderan]

I just got back from introducing my group of teenage players to Gamma World 7e. They loved it!

Hope that works out for you, I know how bad you were looking for something different to run for them!

 

[overgeeked]

I just got back from introducing my group of teenage players to Gamma World 7e. They loved it!

Nice. If the mechanics get in the way there’s also Mutant Crawl Classics, a Dungeon Crawl Classics based game. It’s a similar post-apoc setting with gonzo mutants, sentient plants, and manimals.

 

[darjr]

Nice. If the mechanics get in the way there’s also Mutant Crawl Classics, a Dungeon Crawl Classics based game. It’s a similar post-apoc setting with gonzo mutants, sentient plants, and manimals.

Another favorite! Jim Wampler!

 

[Retreater]

Nice. If the mechanics get in the way there’s also Mutant Crawl Classics, a Dungeon Crawl Classics based game. It’s a similar post-apoc setting with gonzo mutants, sentient plants, and manimals.

So far they are really loving the Omega Tech and Alpha Mutation cards, as well as feeling like competent adventurers at Level 1.
While I've never played MCC, if it's like DCC I think they'd feel a bit underpowered.
Plus (and this is a strange hill to die on for my wife) she's a dice connoisseur ... and the DCC dice really "bother" her. Like, she thinks they're repulsive.

 

[darjr]

So far they are really loving the Omega Tech and Alpha Mutation cards, as well as feeling like competent adventurers at Level 1.
While I've never played MCC, if it's like DCC I think they'd feel a bit underpowered.
Plus (and this is a strange hill to die on for my wife) she's a dice connoisseur ... and the DCC dice really "bother" her. Like, she thinks they're repulsive.

No worries.

FYI if you want to get some of the other out of print Gammaworld cards Drive Thru cards are purportedly great and fit right into the existing deck. I have them all so I haven't tried this yet. But I might get a set for a friend.