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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rallek" data-source="post: 3971396" data-attributes="member: 8463">Gods know that I love video games, I’ve even played a number of MMOs. I think that there is a whole lot of bad anime out there, but there is also a fair bit of good anime which I happen to enjoy quite a bit. (read “good anime” as “anime that I like” and “bad anime” as “anime that I don’t like”) As far as any “anime flavor” in 4e, I think there are a few hints of it. A few of the names seem more harmonious with anime style than with previous D&D, and a few of the abilities of various races/classes seem to suggest a more “anime-ish” setting to me. Is this my particular cup of table top gaming tea? No. If I use 4e will I remove and/or limit these things? Yes. Will I re-work a very large chunk of fluff to suit my games? Certainly. Do I think that this will be bad for the hobby? Honestly, no.I prefer a more low powered, grittier game at my table. E6 hits my group right where we live, and I’ve been restricting/cutting certain spells/powers/races/classes/kits since my first day with the magic DM hat. Every group that runs in a homebrewed setting that I’ve ever met does exactly the same thing. They take what they want, and they leave the rest. Then they re-tool what they took to get the flavor that they like. Then they houserule any gaps that they’ve picked up along the way. Does it look like that job will be bigger (for me) with 4e than with 3e? Sure does. By the same token I’m sure that syncing the new rules and fluff with their personal playstyle preference will be a much smaller job with 4e for some groups. I already pull out a lot of the “high fantasy” fluff, pulling out any potential “anime fluff” is the same job on a different day, at least in my opinion.What is of much more concern to me, with regards to the future of the hobby, is the apparent (in my opinion) shift towards more of a “video game” feel in 4e. Now as I’ve already stated I do love video games, but I think making D&D look more like one is a mistake. Why? Because if D&D tries to compete with videogames on their own ground, D&D will lose. Period.What do I mean by that? Well, If I want grid based tactical combat, with a bunch of crunchy options, and I want the turns to flow smoothly with no math required, and no rules look-ups, I’m reaching for a videogame. Why? Because videogames do it better. If I want to have a bunch of combat abilities that I can use every so often, the computer can track them all in real time while I continue the fight unencumbered by a need to do so, again the videogame is king of this particular hill. Wading through an army of low level enemies in a “cool” and “badass” fashion… and in a timely manner? Nod goes to the videogame again. I don’t even need to count squares for my fireball, all that behind the scenes math is done by the machine, I just press A, B, X, Y, square, circle, triangle, or left click and let it rip. These are the strengths of a video game against D&D, and D&D shouldn’t get involved in a contest over these areas. It should stick to what it does better than any videogame can, otherwise people may look up from the table and ask, "Why am I not playing The Witcher right now?"What keeps my group coming back to the table, and gets new members to sit down at the table for the first time, is two fold. One aspect, of course, is the social factor. MMOs are social by their nature, but teamspeak or no, they just don’t compare to the face-to-face socialization found at the table. The other strength of table top D&D relies on the internal consistency of the game, and the flexibility and potential inherent in having a human as manager. You can have the sense of participating in a living and breathing world, where you can attempt anything that you want, and see the results unfold on multiple levels. NPCs cane be as deep and engaging as you want them to be. Whole story arcs can arise from nothing more than the fact that you want to help child beggar #3, or “Timmy” as he’s known after you decide to help. You can decide to raise sheep, or establish a town in the frontier. You could hand your town off to others, and decide to grab a ship and start looking for trade Marco Polo style, it’s whatever your group wants it to be. No video game can match this. Honestly no video game can even come close. These are the areas where D&D should make its stand. This is the arena in which it should challenge the video game, because here it wins, and does so with certainty.</blockquote>

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