4E or 3.5 or something else - what's in your future?

[Celtavian]

re

4E doesn't look very interesting. After reading the character sheets, it seems like they designed flavorless, generic set of rules that have turned characters into anime/cartoon versions of fantasy archetypes. Maybe that's what the younger generation likes, but being part of the older generation, I like my warriors and paladins grounded more in traditional fantasy tropes.

I like some of the mechanical changes they made with 4E. But their continued move towards genericism is unappealing.

My ideal edition of DnD would have some of the rules from 2E that came out in books like combat and tactics, some of the rules from 4E for deciding combat, and the fluff of 2E. 2E had the best fluff of any edition of DnD yet, I miss alot of that fluffy goodness that came out in 2E. Faiths and Avatars was the best book I've yet seen produced by any company covering Forgotten Realms religions. I miss all the cool boxed sets that gave a ton of fluffy goodness for DMs to work with.

I see 4E in the same way I see Microsoft Vista. A product made for no other purpose than to make more money. There was no need for it. It is being forced on us by a company that has a customer base that goes along with whatever they do because they don't have alot of viable alternatives.

4E is poorly designed in my opinion. It lacks creativity and is the most generic and uninspired version of DnD yet produced. I read the information on it and came away nonplussed.

Nice thing about 3.5E is that just about everything I need to continue to run a 3.5 campaign is out there. I have no need to buy another book again to run it. I can just stand pat.

May the next generation of gamers enjoy this edition. DnD has finally reached a point where it no longer feels like DnD to me. The only thing I look forward to is a better DnD video game. These new rules should make for a great MMORPG when it comes out. I just hope they produce a Forgotten Realms MMORPG as I don't like Eberron.

 

[S'mon]

Other - I expect to continue running C&C; probably will play 4e as a fellow GM is thinking of using 4e for her next Al Qadim campaign.

 

[delericho]

I honestly don't know.

It's extremely unlikely that I will be moving to 4e. However, the thought of running 3e again is... unpleasant. Switching back to a previous edition might be an option, but the rules have too many quirks that would just drive me crazy.

So, I might switch to a different game entirely. Or I might build my own system (unlikely). Or I might just quit.

 

[Arnwyn]

Sticking with 3.5 throughout the foreseeable future.

At this point in our lives, we have neither the time nor the inclination to bother learning new rules systems and converting entire campaign worlds (much less converting anything).

 

[wingsandsword]

I'm sticking with 3.5. . .

4e is a departure in both style and flavor from what I like in D&D, and I was already quite happy with 3.5e. What problems I have with 3.5 that 4e may address are outweighed by the huge change in flavor and style 4e has.

Essentially, 4e appears to be built on a very gamist structure, and I'm definitely more in the simulationist and narrativist vein, and elements of the business model it appears to be built on bother me (new "core" PHB ect. each year, game wedded to a subscription-based web service, leaving popular/traditional races/classes/monsters normally in D&D core rules out of the initial release to put in later releases to encourage their purchase).

Every time I've read one of WotC's articles about the design and development of D&D I keep thinking how I could see them coming to those conclusions, but that's not how I would do things or want to do things. It may be a fine game, it might be fun to play, but it's way too far from my comfort zone of what I think of D&D as for me to replace 3.5 with it.

 

[Sammael]

3.75

That is to say, 3.5 with a whole bunch of my house rules, some of 4E's good ideas, some Book of Experimental Might, and so on. I have the 4E core books on pre-order from Amazon, but I honestly don't intend to run any 4E games, and will only play in 4E games if no other option is available.

 

[Wombat]

Been a little while now since I played D&D -- even my version of D&D 3.Wombat was so far removed from RAW that it barely counted. Right now my group is happy with a variant of White Wolf's Changeling: The Lost; we'll probably stick with that for the next year or so before moving on to something else.

Whatever that "something else" is, I sincerely doubt it will be 4e.

 

[Khairn]

I'll stick with the same opinion I've had for months now.

There is little in 4E that I actually see as an innovative change that is going to improve my gaming experience. WotC has failed to generate much of a buzz for 4E in me personally, and I see little advantage in switching.

That said, I'm signed up with a friend who will GM a 4E game, and I'll take a look at the rules myself and the type of game that they support, and then I'll make up my mind.

 

[dunbruha]

I voted "other".

My Thursday group will probably switch to 4e, because it is run by the owner of my FLGS, and he needs to sell books...

My Friday game will probably stay with 3.5e for the forseeable future.

When I am running a game this summer, I will run Lejendary Adventure.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

I'm staying with 3.x, and may or may not use some 4E rules as house rules

Apparently, I'm with the majority. 4E has not grabbed me in any way as being "D&D" yet.

I'll still give it a look and test run with the person I know who will run 4E.