Greetings!
*SHARK lights up a Arturo Fuente Canone cigar...puffing slowly, watching the cherry light up, and a nice, even smoke...outstanding cigar, gentlemen!*
It's good to see you all! *Waves to Psion!*
Have a drink my friends! Have to celebrate our grognard status!
I'm not sure about the changes to the game, either. Like Psion said, yeah, some of 'em sound cool--but others? Eff. They sound like they might be doing exactly what Psion says--stripping out some of the key elements that make D&D a great game! I'm cautious, to be sure.
I saw someone else I think review their collection....hundreds of books and modules for 3.5E. I haven't tabulated the exact price, but I could comfortably say I have spent something like $5,000 dollars on 3.5E. I have everything WOTC has produced, except for a few adventurers and the Monster Manual V. Not to mention many things from a half dozen other D20 publishers. So many books, so many options, so many possibilities that I haven't even explored yet!!!!
And you know what? I'll address something else that just boggles me. The whole pathetic argument about:
"Well, there's no one coming to take your stuff away!" or
"Well, it isn't like your 3.5E collection just goes *poof* and burns up! What's your problem? What are you all whining about?"
Gee, BRICK. Why is this such a hard concept to understand? (Must be too much playing WOW has rotted their effing minds and turned it to jello.) It's like this:
A new edition that is mechanically NON-COMPATIBLE with my 3.5E library means that my players are playing 4E, and not 3.5E. (Cause players like to play what's current, new, and popular) for example.
Now, as a DM, I can't very well REFERENCE all that CRUNCH and RULES from DOZENS of 3.5E Books, now can I? (Because they NO LONGER APPLY IN THE NEW EDITION!!!!)
Thus, *SNAP*--unless your whole group is resolved to play 3.5E--your whole effing collection of 3.5E books--aside from more campaign element and story pieces--is OBSELETE and useless. It doesn't apply anymore, and forget about converting and blah blah blah. Like how many of us has the time to re-engineer and figure out how 50 different 3.5E books can still somehow be at least 75% usable in 4E????? DUH!!!!
Why is this so hard to understand? YES, in many practical ways, the vast majority of a library of 3.5E books becomes obselete and useless. That's just reality. How many of you still use 2E rulebooks for reference/module building/creatures and so on? If your like me, next to ZERO. I use a few of the books for theme generation and inspiration, but honestly? It's like using less than 5% of the whole. Simple. Because 2E has been made obselete. I still use 1E AD&D DM's Guide...for inspiration and thought-jogging, but damn, c'mon guys...that's cause it's just a bad-ass classic that rocks! But you still don't use it mechanically, rules wise. Thus, it's gone and useless in that larger context.
The same thing will ultimately happen to 3.5E as well. THAT'S HOW IT BECOMES OBSELETE.
Ok, done with that little rant. Do you guys see what I'm saying? Some people ask these kinds of BRICK questions over and over and repeat themselves like we are just drooling idiots or something. It isn't difficult to understand how your investment in 3.5E becomes obselete, and generally useless, if you are not playing 3.5E, but trying or thinking about transitioning to 4E. Unfortunately, in addition to buying all new books--in many ways, of course--covering the same topics and material that books YOU JUST MAY HAVE BOUGHT--your older collection of stuff is now largely unusable, and obselete.
Sadly, that seems to be the price of admission into 4E.
Carry on, my friends!
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
