D&D 4E 4E: What we think we know

[Michael Tree]

Nope. As best we can tell, the announcement will officially be made at GenCon. That suggests, to me, at least six months to a year before it's actually out.

If Wizards wants to turn the D&D Experience into the D&D con, then it would make sense for them to release 4e at it. That would also give them a 6 month lead time, rather than a full year, which they might want since their D&D 3e sales will tank as soon as 4e is announced.

 

[Asmor]

Well, they did say that they'd give plenty of warning about 4th edition coming out. Plus, aren't there still a few 3.5 D&D books on the schedule?

 

[Moon-Lancer]

ah I was confused. thanks for clearing up the the release/announcing release mix up. Still I don't think i can get this setting out in time for the 3.5 revolution. kind of bummed. I have like 60 paintings to do... maybe in 2011... *gotta become a speed paint master* LEVEL UP!!!!!!

 

[Keldryn]

Actually, I'm pretty excited about the thought of the game downsizing...at least for the time being. Then again, I'm in the camp that wants 4E to be STREAMLINED.

Less Work, More Fun!

I love D&D, but hate the work it requires.

I'm going to be kicking off a new game when I re-join my gaming group once the project I'm currently working on is finished (Skate ). The current stack of books that I have to cart around -- even with some being supplied by players -- is getting insane. With this new game, I've been thinking of doing some heavy streamlining and being a lot choosier about which non-core elements come into the game. Not because I think they're all broken (I don't think that), but it's an overwhelming amount of options that slows down character creation and advancement and leaves the players juggling 3 or 4 books throughout the game. And more books for me.

I'm really hoping that 4e gets rid of the need to create such characters as the aforementioned Fighter/Sorcerer/Spellsword/Eldrich Knight. Previews of 3rd Edition talked about creating virtually any character concept by multiclassing a couple of base classes and choosing the right feats. I hope that 4e takes us back to that concept, with multiclassing that doesn't require prestige classes to fix spellcaster advancement and feats that scale with your level so that you don't need a selection of 1,200 feats.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

Well, they did say that they'd give plenty of warning about 4th edition coming out. Plus, aren't there still a few 3.5 D&D books on the schedule?

I hope greyhawk dosen't suffer because of the announcement.

 

[thalmin]

Well, they did say that they'd give plenty of warning about 4th edition coming out. Plus, aren't there still a few 3.5 D&D books on the schedule?

Yes, but only 2 or 3 sourcebooks / compendiums. The few others are modules/adventures, dungeon tiles, or Fantastic Locations map sets. There are also a couple of art books or "history of D&D" type books.

 

[ephemeron]

Actually, I'm pretty excited about the thought of the game downsizing...at least for the time being. Then again, I'm in the camp that wants 4E to be STREAMLINED.

It's the grand cycle of (A)D&D -- every new edition is streamlined, at first. My 2e PHB had a paragraph explaining that one of the reasons for the 2nd edition was that 1e had gotten too bloated with over a dozen books, but between the time that paragraph was written and the printing I bought, that same PHB had acquired ads on the endpapers for more than a dozen other books.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

Almost all of the links in MerricB's initial post are locked to me. What do they contain...specifically?

 

[Korgoth]

Almost all of the links in MerricB's initial post are locked to me. What do they contain...specifically?

They are links to the 4E discussion forum that evidently went live only accidentally... there are/were something like 20 pre-generated threads on various topics relevant to 4E. Each thread contained an introductory sentence from which could be gleaned certain preliminary facts... such as the Core Books thread which referred (predictably) to a PHB, DMG and MM.

That whole schmeer has been locked down by Mods.

 

[thundershot]

They probably built the boards and just didn't hide them fast enough.



Chris