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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 3917535" data-attributes="member: 1465">I agree totally. It feels to me that 4e is a game on its own. It will probably work great, but it's so different from 3e in both how the game works and the style, that I have no particular reason to consider switching to 4e than I have towards Iron Heroes, C&C, Midnight, Rolemaster, Exalted or any other RPG system.I am not expert of previous versions of D&D, I've played both OD&D and AD&D but too short to get a clear picture of the game style, so please take these with a grain of salt... My feeling is that every edition has its own style. Maybe OD&D has a style where lots of things are undefined (e.g. all weapons do same damage) and compensating with your imaginations is a huge part of the game experience. 2e seemed to more characterized by restrictions, and most decisions happened at character creation. 3e introduced the concept of "character builds", magic items christmas trees, and strongly linked rules with flavor.So it's not wrong at all that 4e will be a different game experience as well. But frankly, I cannot ignore that the differences are so many at once, that the shift is more abrupt than ever before. It feels like the designers aren't thinking it terms of "we are the developers of D&D" but rather "we are the developers of the most popular RPG around" (both of which are technically correct of course*): so everything is allowed, even turning the game into Vampire or Gurps (not that it's going to happen!), because anyway people will buy it just because of the name.*The difference is that if you think in terms of being a developer of D&D, you have in mind that you are trying to do a service to D&D and its players first and foremost. You may want to fix some problems, open new options, attract more followers... But not lose the old followers to get totally new followers, just because they will be 10% more (and nota that for new followers, D&D is just another RPG, so they may go as easily as they come).I like making a comparison with sports. I don't know what is the most popular sport in the US, but let's imagine it's basketball. It's a bit like being in charge of the association which controls the rules of basketball, and thinking that because in another continent lots of people like soccer, it's ok to add goals and kicks to basketball, and since we own the rights to still call it basketball, it must be so. But the games doesn't remain the same.</blockquote>

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