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

[Horacio]

I'm not apologising for WotC, but what did you expect them to do? Announce it when they first started working on it and hope poeple still buy the 3.5 stuff? Not likely.

I agree, that kind of false denial is typical and very understandable, 3.5 sells would have stopped dead if they had annonced it before. It would have been a very very bad movement in economical terms.

But I understand also that some people feel cheated.

 

[Drkfathr1]

I'm not apologising for WotC, but what did you expect them to do? Announce it when they first started working on it and hope poeple still buy the 3.5 stuff? Not likely.

No, but truthfulness counts for something. They should have at least been more vague rather than just outright lying.

Business is business, but lying is still unethical.

 

[theemrys]

I don't like this. If they're rescaling the existing framework to fit into 30 discrete chunks rather than 20, I disagree with it on grounds of nostalgia: D&D has always been a 20 level game (in the incarnations I've played).

Well, I remember AD&D really didn't have a level limit... in 1st or 2nd ed (except for demi-humans and a few classes). In fact, 9th was the "name level" when you could "settle down" and could be argued was close the "cap". Still, they had the H4 module in 2ed that was scaled for 100th level characters... so 3 may have had a 20th level cap (excepting the Epic stuff) but looking at the big picture (in incarnations I've played) there really isn't a scaling.

That being said, I personally like a lower cap than 20... but that's personal opinion and in the end I'll see where things go.

 

[Tharen the Damned]

I'm not apologising for WotC, but what did you expect them to do? Announce it when they first started working on it and hope poeple still buy the 3.5 stuff? Not likely.

It is understandable but it was nonetheless a rather dodgy statement in february this year.

Sell us the old crap stuff they curned out this year before they sell us the new shiny books!
Such is marketing.

I do not feel cheated, it is how it is.

 

[hewligan]

I think it sounds interesting. 3&3.5 really turned me off with the number and complexity of rules. It reminded me of a system that really wanted a computer to do all the rules work. Way too complex, way too many small rules for things. It was action oriented (and my action I mean if you want to do this, then roll against this, but refer to that, and then get his save against this, but adjusted for your feat and ..... etc.)

The rules worked well if you got on early and kept up to date, and were familiar with this type of game in the first place, but for someone who walked into a gamestore, saw the tens and tens of official rule books, it was daunting. How is anyone meant to remember that?

I hope 4 cuts down, gets back to a real simple core that allows the story/game to flow. Some of the things listed here make me think that may be possible.

I like the idea of 30 levels, hopefully with each level increment being less powerful (so level 30 4ed = level 20 3ed).

Mac compatibility is critical (for me).

 

[TheLe]

I don't consider $1000 "high," just as a round figure, and completely out of context, for any startup business.

I can say with some confidence, for example, that $1000 would NOT have served as a signifcant toll-gate to slow down some of the more prominent sh*t-shovelers of 3rd edition.

Anybody who has the budget to actually go to print can probably afford that fee, and can probably recoup it fairly quickly, regardless of the quality of their work. At least, they could have then-- this is now. The market might be more discerning this time around.

However, a $1000 fee is crippling to a PDF publisher. That fee will likely wipe out a good many PDF publishers of excellent quality.

A $10,000 licensing fee would probably restrict publishing to the half dozen or so prominent d20 publishers at the top of your mind right now. But the thing is, in my opinion, publishers who can afford a fee that high really don't need to prove themselves, for the most part.

There is some discreet point at which the fee is high enough to weed out so many publishers that WOTC would be far better served to just make a judgement call on who they want to publish, and who they don't.

Hey, don't get me wrong. I'm not going to lie -- I hope there is a $1000 licensing fee. I can afford that, and that would cut out a significant portion of my competition. A $2000 fee would be be even better.


`Le

 

[Shawn_Kehoe]

I'm not apologising for WotC, but what did you expect them to do? Announce it when they first started working on it and hope poeple still buy the 3.5 stuff? Not likely.

Spot on. The sooner they announce 4.0, the sooner 3.5 sales dry up. Hell, I'm reconsidering whether to buy Magic Item Compendium and Complete Mage, which were both "must-get" in my books prior to now. (I held out til this week cause I was suspicious )

 

[Aeolius]

Mac compatibility is critical (for me).

Seconded. That and putting flumphs in the Monster Manual.

 

[TheYeti1775]

That's how I'd do it. Looks like they are making a sizable investment here...the last thing they want is to have everything on P2P an hour after launch.

Should take at least 90-120 minutes now.

 

[heirodule]

Nope. You are right.
They lied, simple as that.

And TO ME! (I asked that question, BTW)

I was really wishing some of the WoCT people (or even a random attendee) had asked for a show of hands "Who wants a 4th edition in 2008?" "2009?" etc.