D&D 4E Are the 4E previews like turning it up to 11?

broghammerj

Explorer
Mike Mearls: This edition goes to four. Look, right across the book, four, four, four and...

Bruce Cordell: Oh, I see. And most editions go up to 3.5?

Mike Mearls: Exactly.

Bruce Cordell: Does that mean it's better? Is it any better?

Mike Mearls: Well, it's a half better, isn't it? It's not 3.5. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at 3.5. You're on four here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on 3.5 on your DMG. Where can you go from there? Where?

Bruce Cordell: I don't know.

Mike Mearls: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?

Bruce Cordell: Put it up to four.

Mike Mearls: Four. Exactly. One better.

Bruce Cordell: Why don't you just make 3.5 better and make 3.5 be the top number and make that a little better?

[Pause.]

Mike Mearls: These go to four.

All kidding aside with my homage to Spinal Tap, I get the odd sense that 4E an do everything for me. It will cure disease, stop world hunger, and bring peace to planet Earth. This marketing ploy may work, if as a consumer I got the sense that 4E was backed up by a solid system. How would I know it's a solid system? There would be substantial playtesting well in advance of the release. The previews would be full of concrete information.

What are we getting as consumers....a bunch of by the seat of our pants story hours. These "previews" tell me that my fighter gets a kerplow attack and my wizards can strike with his whizbang. Can anyone tell me what the kerplow or whizbang attack is? The answer is likely no because neither does WOTC. My uncle would refer to the talking out of your #*^$*! I wonder if they're wouldn't be so much 4E questioning if WOTC didn't come out and say what the perceived problems were with 3.5 and how they fixed them.

1, We think multiclassing spellcasters was a problem...therefore we used character level to determine caster strength.

2. We think gnomes are a infrequently played race, therefore we removed them from the PHB

3. The bard is an unpopular class therefore we have eliminated him from the core rules.

4. The power level of characters was unbalanced therefore we lowered the wizard's number of massive damage spells per day and replaced it with a reusable standard attack. To equalize the fighter we have given them special maneuvers that will provide similar damage to the wizards massive attack.

I could go on and on. Critics to my post will say that they can't release information or their competitors steal their ideas. What just like S&S released a pathetic error filled monster manual for 3E? That bold sales plan nearly crippled WOTC and caused us to all play games by WW. Or how about he fact that some people will steal the rules from the previews and just use it for their homebrew without buying core books? Those are the same people who will just do that with the SRD when it's released and I would argue a very small faction.

If I were looking a previews for a car I would want to know it comes with a 2.5L V-6, not that it drives "ultrafast".

Sorry for the rant but I am tired of being sold the "Wonder" in Wonder Bread when all I want to do is make a sandwich.
 

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They were months away from finalizing the PH prior to 3E as well, and yet I distinctly recall running a "2.5E" campaign in Spring of 2000 based on the data I got from a certain "D&D 3rd Edition News and Information Site," run by some guy with the initials E.N.
 

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Or, alternately, they're months away from finalizing the PHB, and they simply don't have anything finalized that they're willing to commit to at this time.

I would imagine some things have been finalized. After all according to WOTC, they have been working on it since 3E came out, Bo9S/SW Saga/etc. are all previews, they have been in house playtesting for months. I hope someone has a good idea of what is going on since production will have to begin somewhat soon.
 


Sammael said:
They were months away from finalizing the PH prior to 3E as well, and yet I distinctly recall running a "2.5E" campaign in Spring of 2000 based on the data I got from a certain "D&D 3rd Edition News and Information Site," run by some guy with the initials E.N.

Interesting, who was that E.N. person? Is he still around? Maybe he has some insights into 4th edition? Care to give us a link to his information page? :p
 

Well they have pretty much done exactly what you wrote for #4.
Look, I am as keen as everyone to see this 4E. In fact I can't wait...but I have to. WotC have announced that it is due out in MAY next year. They have told us that. Of course info can only be hints and snippets until then.

Why the fuss? Yes it is frustrating 'watching clouds' but that is what it is. Same as a movie being announced. Rumours, some announcements (many of which are wrong), some previews later on (some of which don't even make it to the film, trailer, etc).

I say, quit the worrying and just keep telling yourself 'May, May, May....ANYTHING we get before then is a bonus'. Any I believe WotC are even releasing two preview books on Races and Classes before the release date. Patience is a virtue I say...though I am having trouble keeping mine under control (though I will not blame Wizards for my lack of it).
 

It is quite instructive to look at the ENworld archive here

http://www.enworld.org/article.php?c=9

Which allows you to see the rate (and kind) of information that was released in the year coming up to the PHB release for 3rd edition. (some of the text formatting means you have to highlight pages to see it).

I've just had a quick glance at 1 year in advance (Aug 99) and to be honest I was surprised at the depth of information that was already being revealed at that point!

Maybe we could point Scott Rouse and others at this valuable historical resource for inspiration... :)

Cheers
 

Plane Sailing said:
It is quite instructive to look at the ENworld archive here

http://www.enworld.org/article.php?c=9

Which allows you to see the rate (and kind) of information that was released in the year coming up to the PHB release for 3rd edition. (some of the text formatting means you have to highlight pages to see it).

I've just had a quick glance at 1 year in advance (Aug 99) and to be honest I was surprised at the depth of information that was already being revealed at that point!

Maybe we could point Scott Rouse and others at this valuable historical resource for inspiration... :)

Cheers
Though maybe it is a matter of perspective? You know the 3.x rules, and thus you can connect the dots from the 3.0 previews a lot better than you can connect the dots of the 4th edition preview?
 

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
Though maybe it is a matter of perspective? You know the 3.x rules, and thus you can connect the dots from the 3.0 previews a lot better than you can connect the dots of the 4th edition preview?
I think it's actually the reverse: 2nd to 3rd was a near-total rewrite[1], so they could drop big slabs of stuff without spoiling us (like the entire monk class! Tongue of the Sun and the Moon? LOLWTFBBQ).

This time, big chunks of the system will be altered but not replaced. Skills will likely be consolidated, and skill points may well get eaten by the Tarrasque, but in the end you'll still roll d20+skill bonus (I can't even remember what we did for 2nd? Roll under your stat? :confused: )

The side effect is that they're dribbling out hints and out-of-context tidbits. It gives us something to talk about 'til May/June/July, but we really won't know what the whole thing looks like until all 3 books actually ship. They won't want to give away too much: if you get the PHB1 in May and go 'man, I already know about all this' that's a bad thing.

In other words, it's just like Movies, Novels, etc. If you want to interest someone in a show they haven't seen, you have to be careful not to spoil the story--but you also have to tell them somthing! So, you give hints, leave out stuff, etc.

[1] The entirety of the classes, monsters, combat and skills rewritten; feats added, etc.
 

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