D&D 4E 4E is coming!

[MerricB]

Heh. Of course 4E is coming... and, I'm thankful for it. (How much worse would it be if D&D stopped being produced?)

However, the recent "New Releases" list from Wizards has made it fairly clear to me that 4E is some way off. There are a great number of interesting products there - and the start of a few more series of products.

What are these new series?

Weapons of Legacy is the first of the D&D Magic Series
Battlefield Adventures is the first of the D&D Genre Series

Meanwhile, we conclude the Hero Series with Complete Adventurer; and the Races Series with Races of the Wild - or Races of Eberron, depending on how you count it.

Codex Anathema continies the Ecology series (though it doesn't have a formal name, to my knowledge), and the D&D Environment Series continues with Sandstorm and Maelstrom.

It looks like the business plan put forward at GAMA last year has certainly changed the way D&D books are ordered - and I am extremly pleased with the results. Sure, I don't want every book Wizards are making - but there are now plenty of options.

Interestingly, there is no Map Folio planned for the first eight months of next year (not that surprising given the reaction to the first two); unfortunately there is only Grasp of the Emerald Claw as an adventure. I hope that we'll see more of them, though.

So, where does this leave 4E? Given the product plan through 2005, it seems that Wizards should be well set through 2006 and possibly the early part of 2007. Perhaps we'll see 4E in 2007 or 2008...

However, because of this wealth of material, it becomes less and less likely that the d20 System will be abandoned or seriously modified in 4E. Aspects of it might be changed, of course, but the core balances are likely to remain.

Of course, I'm an optimist...

Do you think the future releases schedule is something that portends good or ill for D&D? Is 4E still several years away?

Cheers!

 

[Krug]

Ah yes the gradual Rules Bloat...

 

[MerricB]

Ah yes the gradual Rules Bloat...

Is it Rules Bloat or Options Bloat?

Cheers!

 

[Alzrius]

Heh. Of course 4E is coming... and, I'm thankful for it. (How much worse would it be if D&D stopped being produced?)

Alarmist.

So, where does this leave 4E? Given the product plan through 2005, it seems that Wizards should be well set through 2006 and possibly the early part of 2007. Perhaps we'll see 4E in 2007 or 2008...

Purely from a number-crunching standpoint, we'd see 4E in 2007. 1E lasted 15 years (1974-1989), 2E lasted 11 years (1989-200), so if we say it's always four years less, than 3E should last from 2000-2007.

Of course, like most mathematically-figured charts, it ignores almost everything else about real life.

However, because of this wealth of material, it becomes less and less likely that the d20 System will be abandoned or seriously modified in 4E. Aspects of it might be changed, of course, but the core balances are likely to remain.

And this honestly makes me wonder...if WotC decided to make a change that did, in fact, largely up abandon the d20 system, how much of the market would continue using it? Sure a large part of it would leave, but it'd be interesting how many d20 companies would stay d20.

The question is, of course, an academic one, since WotC would likely, as you say, stay close to the d20 system since it's such a winner. At the very least, they'd also open-source their new rules as well.

 

[A'koss]

Up until seeing the new product releases for 2005 I was pretty sure we'd see 4e by 2006. Now... who knows? DMG II in 2005? New series starting up? I agree, 2007 at the earliest. A major release like 4e will depend largely on how well sales are doing, how much pressure is being exerted by coporate suits, how much time they figure they need to wait to have the greatest impact and the least amount of flack from the core group of gamers.

If 2005 sees a big drop in sales - expect sooner than later. If sales continue to be good through 2005-6, expect that it could be several years later...

Cheers!

 

[Doug McCrae]

I thought they'd run out of stuff to publish fairly soon and have to do 4th ed but I was well wrong there. They seem to have come up with a whole bunch of ideas - environment series, race series, now the genre series, DMG II.

They're still sitting on the other two worlds in the Search for a Setting competition too.

So I reckon it'll be a long time until 4th ed. I think WotC are awre there was a certain amount of ill will with 3.5 following so soon after 3rd and so are likely reluctant to publish 4th unless they have nothing else.

 

[GlassJaw]

Is it Rules Bloat or Options Bloat?

Does it matter?

 

[MerricB]

Does it matter?

There's a difference.

Rules Bloat is what happened with oD&D and AD&D: you end up with the rules for the game spread over six or more books, with different systems for each (and occasionally different rules for the same task!) I want to swim the lake... now, which book has the rules for that?

Options Bloat is what happens with Prestige Classes and Feats. The rules of the game are pretty static, but the special abilities multiply and interact strangely. Although this may seem a problem to keep track of it all, it's not actually that bad, as only a few options will be used in any one session, and the DM and players can easily keep track of them.

There's a little Rules Bloat occuring with Frostburn (additional levels of cold and handling weather conditions), but mostly it's on the level of Options Bloat, I think.

Cheers!

 

[Mokona]

Speculations

Perhaps they'll time 4th edition to coincide with the 35th anniversary of D&D (i.e. 2009) which wouldn't be too bad.

Do the series have a definite start and a definite end? I doubt Complete Adventurer will be the last book in the Hero series as there are so many ways to cover additional material (Psionics, Shapeshifting, etc).

Since Races of Eberron has the same naming convention as Races of Destiny it will probably be an extension of the Race series.

Aren't the Draconomicons of the world part of the Creature series?

 

[Eremite]

The thing that convinced me that 3E was about to be announced was the release of the Core Rules CDs for 2E because, all of sudden, everything was available electronically: there was literally no need for any of the books anymore.

I reckon the release of a FUNCTIONING and flexible character generator with WotC's imprimatur will be a "sign" that 4E is about to be released.