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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edena_of_Neith" data-source="post: 4611839" data-attributes="member: 2020">Thank you for the compliment, sir.  Thanks much.  And now you are chiming in with your opinion, and I will have a look here.    I agree with that thinking.  Just me, of course.  Then again, *my* idea of the ideal D&D is different from most ideal games of most posters on ENWorld, so there you are.    We are all different in our outlooks, no?    I must wonder if it is relevant anymore?  In the 1960s, a completely different situation existed, culturally, technologically, economically, and socially, than the current one.  The Young of today have YouTube (a program that continues to astound me) and video games, and computer games, and internet games, and card games, and ... well ... remember that back in those days, Face-to-Face Gaming was all we could *do.*  We couldn't play any of the games mentioned above.  They did not exist yet.  And other competitors in the rping area itself had not yet emerged.    *Any* edition of D&D, were it released now, would - I believe - have a really hard time making it, compared to the time OD&D had in the more friendly atmospherics of that older time.    4E?  It is up against all of these things.  These are not small hurdles for the game.      LOL.  I can see you have some eager players.  Cheers!  Houseruling 3.5?  You have no choice!  Hehe.  That is built into the system, as it were.  (not easy to be a 3.5 DM, is it?)    I *NEVER* use that term.  It was meant to be an insultive term, so I refuse to use it.  Ever.  Incidentally, I believe it meant, in a derogatory way, Old-Timer, not wargamer.  Could be wrong.  But no matter what it means, it was meant as a put-down, and I will not use the term.  Yes, Gamer.  Now, THAT'S a term I like.  We are Gamers.  : )    I loved the Vancian system, but hey ... each to their own (and as a DM, I would have enabled wizards to have a lot more spells than they had, and Rings of Wizardry were always useful, no?)  4E?  It was designed not to be backward compatible.  That was quite deliberate.  I suppose you can make it so anyways, but they didn't make it easy.  (At least, my take.  Of all the D&D editions I know of, 4E is the hardest to hybridize.  At least, just my experience.)    Myself also.  I went over to Dragonsfoot, and felt quite at home.  (Although whether they would welcome me, I do not know.)  I also sorta feel ... old.  (sighs)  Time robs us all.    (helpless look)  What can I say?    I would say ... try to create an enjoyable game, using whatever mechanics (or edition) that works for you and your players.  If it is fun, that's the point.  If it is not fun, what is the point?  Enjoy the game.  Use any edition you want.  Heck, it is *your* game, and *your* time spent, your money, your house, your work, your ... everything.  And most of all, these are your friends.  Cherish it all!  Simplistic?  Maybe.  But it works.  It worked for me and my friends, Way Back When.  It still works today.  So, just ... to be simplistic ... just have fun!  What more could I say?    (helpless look)  I do not know why 2E was abandoned.  But I thought 3.0 was pretty neat.  I thought 3.0 was very time consuming, and a compromise was needed to lessen the time requirements.  The compromise?  Play (and even run) the game as if we were Beginners.  In short, have a lot of Confused and Puzzled Fun, while trying to understand what we already had *and* while buying (or others buying and bringing in) dozens or even hundreds of nifty supplements.  Remember the wonder of OD&D, when you were a player, didn't understand the rules, but you just Went Along With The Flow, and learned as you went?  Sorta my idea of how to handle 3.0.  (It worked, too, for me and my friends.)  3.5?  Remember that Hasbro had bought WOTC by then, and they were calling the shots.  3.5 had some good things in it (I thought Gestalt was really neat, and the Prismatic Mage, and a whole bunch of other stuff.)  Didn't like some things (the change in the Druid.)  What to do?  Houserule.  And play the game different ways, to satisfy different players.  4th Edition?  4th Edition has been a shock to me, as it has been to you, and most others.  But then, it would be, no?  It is very different from 3.5.  I'm still trying to adapt to it.  (I voted Partial Changeover for myself in my own poll, here.)  Trying to see if I can get some enjoyment out of it.  That's what it's all about.  I wouldn't want to be in your situation, though, I will admit.  Converting an entire campaign, an entire world, and all the characters, from 3.5 to 4th?  Ack.  A lot of work, there.  I guess it's up to you, to decide if it's worth it.  I can't make that call.  (I would never presume to try, either.)    You are not alone.  I think it is a truism when I say people have little time for gaming, especially adults in the working world.  A truism.  And what is more precious than time, in any case?  Again, it's your call.  Do what you want.  This is your game, your group, your hard work, and - especially - your shared activity with friends.  Why do it any other way, than Your Way?    You are a popular DM?  You have brought a lot of fun to people?  (solemn look)  My salutations.  Cheers to you, merelycompetent.    Again, from my POV, it's your party.  And I say, if it's your party, then it's *your* party (why can't anyone remember this with the Nutcracker Ballet, which is invariably boring because they forget that it's Clara's party, not the Party of a bunch of other people?)  If it's *your* party, then I urge you to do it *your way.*  That's the right way, your way, as long as you are having fun.  If 4E helps, more power to it!  If 4E doesn't help, don't use it.  But don't let others tell you what should or shouldn't be used, or what is right or wrong!  This is *your* game!    I wouldn't call someone who is a well known DM who has brought fun to a lot of people, who has run a major campaign (and done the colossal amount of required work to create that campaign), who is extremely familiar with the various editions of D&D, and who talks like you do, a 'fringe customer.'  I don't think WOTC thinks of you that way, either.  If Hasbro (the owners of WOTC) think of you this way, it is their loss, not yours.    I could not image anyone arguing with this!  It's just ... well, if I had to coin a phrase, call it D&D Common Sense?  Win/Win, indeed.    I myself am too Old World to agree with that.  I cherish the past (I'm even a Collector of TSR material.)  So, I say, if one wants an older version of a setting, that's a reasonable idea.  Not everything must change.  If that sounds ridiculous, consider how much *we* are changing, as we grow older.  Can we stop that?  No.  We can't.  All we can do is try to preserve what is good, and change what isn't, no?  Make things better than should be better, but keep what we believe is good.  What is wrong with that?    Well, ok, and here is my poll, and it's showing only 31% Changeover, so it and you would be in agreement.  But I cannot account for the whether 4E is healthy or not.  That is up for others to debate, not me.  I merely observe here.  That *last* statement is another matter.  That ... the attitude of Hasbro ... I could be wrong here ... seems to have caused a very great tragedy, a part of which you are referring to, but the scope of which is greater than even that (which is saying something, considering the enormity of what you said.)  We saw, what became of Dragon.  Dungeon.  A number of popular campaign settings.  And so on.  We saw ... well, we saw an attitude which led to the Edition Wars Flamewar, which got so bad Morrus had to call a halt to it for 2 months.  We've seen the widespread resignation and despair since then, which replaced the Edition Wars.  You know what?  I do not approve of how Hasbro has handled this, and would say so.  I do not blame WOTC, which has to do as they are told.  I do not blame other posters or players.  Heck, I do not even blame most of the people at Hasbro.  Merely the CEOs, whose primary interest was and is - if what I have read is to be believed - on Pokemon, not D&D (not even the card game, Magic the Gathering.)  I most certainly do not point the finger at anyone on ENWorld, for the Battle of Unnumbered Tears level catastrophe I've witnessed happen over the last 4 years.  Not their fault, not your fault, not WOTC's fault, not the fault of really anyone I could point a finger at.  (It's almost scary, the way I cannot point a finger at anyone ... the nebulous workings of a large company and the thinking of it's various top officers, is byzantine and sometimes at cross purposes, the world is competitive and encroaches on the hobby, and the situation becomes so confused that nobody can figure out the actual reality.)    I just hope they do not withdraw the copyrights to D&D, shut down the game, and thus put an end to Dungeons and Dragons, as they did Dragon Magazine.  If they do that, we still have Pathfinder, and C&C, and ... the Successor Games, as it were.  But ... I would like to see the original stick around (and our flagship magazine, Dragon, come back.)  Just me ...  Edena_of_Neith</blockquote>

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