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I don't follow. You are saying that the 4E skill system is where all the noncombat spell activity is? I know there's a bit, such as detect magic, but from what I saw 4E put the noncombat spells in with the rituals, not the skills--and then dumped the rituals rituals in 4EE (5 rule books and...

I would rephrase this letter to argue that DnD transcends editions and that WOTC can sell product to each edition, which will bring money back into the franchise. The brand is now multi-generational. Embrace it. Milk it. IMO, players of 1E would buy new 1E adventures, etc. Same with 2E and...

I would rephrase this to argue that DnD transcends editions and that WOTC can sell product to each edition, which will bring money back into the franchise. IMO, players of 1E would buy new 1E adventures, etc. Same with 2E and BECMI. And I'm sure there's something the 3.5ers would like to buy...

Pre-4E spells were not quite so "by and large combat." Sure, there's plenty of combat effect spells. But there were also a great many spells that had no necessary relationship to combat. Try finding a 4E spell that isn't constructed for combat. I only found one. Every other one was...

How does one ADD a major combat component--powers, which completely overwhelmed combat play--without removing some other major component and end up with being LESS combat-heavy? It simply makes no sense.

Keeping multiple editions in print is a good idea. It allows WOTC to make money off of current gamers who they currently don't sell to. WOTC seems fairly content to leave all those players out there untapped. They probably believe that doing so would undercut the sales of the newer (and...

Read for context. Clearly I was refering to combat. More of this reductio ad absurdum bizness. YOu really want a response to an absurdity? Is proportionality so unavailable that the reasonable inbetween becomes invisible? Is characterizing my point that way really being "honest"? Maybe...

No matter how you spin it, surges are just a way of ramping up the amount of damage a character can absorb each day. Whether it's a second wind, a fatigue issue, a bit of extra luck, those are just semantics. A character that used to have 50 HP with no easy means to replenish now can enjoy the...

No, it's bigger. When you more than double the damage a character can receive in a day--and that repeats every day--you have certainly increased the abstract. If we're going to draw in Gygax, EGG always tried to have mechanics reflect some real world component in a reasonable way. Surges...

I was being sarcastic.

Surge is completely broken My 5th level 4EE Knight has 53 hp. He gets 143 FREE hp each day to throw away. He's not a PC. He's a GOD.

By narrative control, you are saying they avoid the consequences of previous actions... their own and their opponents. I now see surges as a massive RETCON of the previous encounter. What was a dramatic battle with life or death consequences become totally MOOT. Surges effectively take the...

It helps by keeping the character alive when that character should have died. And I really loathe comparing DnD mechanics to movies. Movies are typically so unrealistic they are absurd. I hold roleplaying games to a higher level than that.

HP is abstract in all editions. It covered ground from specifics like physical damage to vague concepts such as luck. All of that was rolled into a single numerical value that can generically be called a character's "total life." Surges don't change that in any way. They just give freebie...

FWIW, there is zero chance I will follow WOTC into any kind of digital game. I won't pay the monthly fee. I won't pay for pdfs. I don't need books for nostalgia. I need their functionality and convenience. It's a deal-breaker for me.

Hasbro is simply too big. They think they can milk DnD the way they milk Star Wars--and it simply ain't gonna happen. If they pulled off a movie franchise, they might make a killing with action figures... But the rpg itself has a limited audience. And Hasbro doesn't put much energy into...

How many times have you pulled off the paved highway and driven through a field? In a desert, we see more paths. But on a highway, the path is clearly laid before us and so we go. This is just human nature, and 4E appeals to that nature. It seems ironic that more game features would lead to...

I just don't get this conclusion. The proportion of combat-to-noncombat in 4E is VASTLY out of balance compared to earlier editions (esp. the further you go back). Even if you don't do a word/chart count, it is a simple mathematical fact... 3E added feats and a complex skills system. On top...

Thanks! Now I am fully armed in my argumentation.

You'd think WOTC would remember how successful BECMI was. That was supposed to be an evergreen approach, something easily stocked in stores. And it was probably more successful than TSR imagined it would be, since it became the longest running version of DnD, 1978-1992 (depending on whether...