D&D 4E 4e Monster Manual excerpt

[pawsplay]

So your campaign difers from whatever Wizards of the Coast put out anyway, be it 3rd or 4th edition?
Where's the trainwreck?

Are you claiming not to understand my post?

 

[DandD]

Yep, partially because some people don't stick anyway with the background lore of the suggested Points-of-Light-campaign setting idea and make their own stuff up. If they can do it, surely so can you.
Unless you really want to tell us that evil Wizards-of-the-Coast-Mafia-bruisers are after you, like Mustrum Ridcully is with his crossbow.

 

[pawsplay]

Then I don't get your post, either. All I'm saying is that the changes to 4e fluff are not helpful. Attempting to use 4e fluff would generally be counterproductive.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Visualize the 4e fluff and my campaign colliding head-on. Insofar as my campaign differs from standard 3, it also differs from 4e, and insofar as 3e differs from 4e, my campaign also differs. It would be like trying to use Races of Eberron in Dragonlance. You certainly could, but it changes... everything.

I, like you, have my own gaming world. I've been playing pretty much weekly games in it since the mid-eighties. It's got its own cosmology, and it's own pantheon and I've almost never run modules in it. I've made most of it up. It's even got it's own races (most D&D races are represented in some way, but much of the fluff is different.)

I've got no problem running 4E games. I just have to do the same thing I've done in every edition. Adapt. If it means a lot to me to keep my version, I'll do that. If I like the new version, I'll do that.

I've had a brief mention of something like the Feywild about 10 years ago, so Eladrin are a small segment of Estelves (my elves) that can travel to it. This ability is rare amongst the Elstelves, so that's why it's never been mentioned before.

I've got Dragonmen, the Xarthaksis. They've always been really powerful and evil, so any player who wants to play one is again, a pretty rare example of her race.

I don't have Tieflings, but I certainly have Demons, so in my new campaign, the player who wanted to play a Tiefling is the only example of a Tiefling that anyone's heard of, and she doesn't even know that's what she is. She simply looks that way and was left on the doorstep of an orphanage in a human city. Raised by humans.

Anyway, to make a long story short, it's as easy as it's ever been.

Fitz

 

[DandD]

If you don't get it, then it's no problem. I see nothing wrong with using the background lore for the new assumed Cosmology, nor with sticking to the old. After all, your old 3.X edition books don't suddenly start to burn in a hellish fire if you play 4th edition.

It's all up to your and how much of a problem you make it for yourself only.

 

[ShockMeSane]

Then I don't get your post, either. All I'm saying is that the changes to 4e fluff are not helpful. Attempting to use 4e fluff would generally be counterproductive.

There have been changes to fluff between every edition. What you are really saying is that your campaign will not benefit from 4E fluff changes. To say that all future 4E campaigns will be somehow negatively impacted by a new cosmology is both a ridiculous blanket statement and an obvious overreaction. I'm sorry you don't like the fluff changes, but just like every edition change from the 70's till now, you certainly don't have to adapt any features of fluff that you don't desire for your campaign. For the rest of us, it provides some new ideas about future campaigns.

I certainly won't be switching over my 3.x campaign the day that 4E comes out, the conversion is just too much of a pain. Still, I am looking forward to running my next campaign under it, whenever that might start. In either case, I do not expect any of my players will start mysteriously complaining about the feywild when they have managed to get to 14th level without hearing of any such thing. Will my next campaign pick up the idea? No clue. Do I have to? No. Will WotC come to my house and bludgeon me with lawsuits? No. The fluff is all there to give you ideas for your campaign. You don't have to adapt a single word of it into your game if you desire.

 

[pawsplay]

There have been changes to fluff between every edition. What you are really saying is that your campaign will not benefit from 4E fluff changes. To say that all future 4E campaigns will be somehow negatively impacted by a new cosmology is both a ridiculous blanket statement and an obvious overreaction.

Also, not something I said.

 

[keterys]

... but you did say it was a trainwreck, and we're just not seeing even the hint of an accident.

 

[Campbell]

Indeed, I was referring to the designers who worked on 3.0 Core Rules, and IIRC only Jonathan Tweet still works at WoTC. So it's a whole new crowd working on 4E.

That might be true as long as your talking about lead designers. Andy Collins, Rob Heinsoo, Dave Noonan, James Wyatt, Bruce Cordell, Rich Baker, and Bill Slavicsek all worked on the 3e core rulebooks in some capacity.

 

[pawsplay]

... but you did say it was a trainwreck, and we're just not seeing even the hint of an accident.

No, actually, I did not, but I'm not going to tell you what I did say, because it's not my job to repeat myself for your benefit. Look it up if you like.