adembroski
First Post
It's axiomatic that if you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one.
I think D&DN is heading down this road.
I think you can roughly divide the D&D community into two main camps; the 3E/PF crowd and the 4E crowd. I realize there are OD&D, 1E, and 2E players out there, but I find that in most arguments, they're gonna come down on the side of the 3rd Edition folks. They'll remain united so long as the 4E people are a threat.
So, D&DN... the Great Uniter.
What the 3E/PF player is supposed to see is a return to 3E inspired combat mechanics, the exit of grid-combat-is-required, a renewed emphasis on non-combat abilities and skills, class flexibility, and setting flexibility.
What the 4E player is supposed to see is a continued commitment to game balance, especially where combat is concerned, clear and well defined roles within a party, action oriented design with little downtime, etc. etc. etc....
Sadly, what I'm seeing over on the Wizards boards is that 3E folks are unhappy with things like dissociative self-healing mechanics (hand waved through the use of "healing kits"), 4E people are unhappy with open ended interpretation of what a class represents (there's a thread claiming that "fighter is not a class", which was the first time I realized that the 3E and 4E crowds have a fundamentally different understanding of what a class represents). There's a lot more, but just two examples.
I made the comment in one thread that I believed that Wizards has an opportunity with D&DN to either A.) win back the 3e crowd or B.) retain and grow the 4e crowd, but it would be difficult to do both, and on their current path, they'll accomplish neither. It was sort of off-hand at the time and I didn't really think about it before I posted it, but it got several replies in agreement and spawned a bit of a side conversation on its own.
The more I think about it, the more I think the very mentality that the design team is taking is going to doom the product. As a 3E guy myself, I actually feel like the best thing Wizards can do at this point is re-up on the ideas that produced 4th Edition and grow that market rather than attempting to bring two disparate groups together and missing the mark with both. Accept that the Fantasy RPG market has been divided into two markets, and target the one you already have, make them your own, and let Paizo pick up the remainder.
I don't know why I felt the need to post this. I honestly think much of what I've said is self-evident. It's just... I think the culture of gaming is better served if Wizards doesn't try to unify the clans, so to speak. I would also hate to see the existing 4e crowd left without a supported game in favor of a somewhat watered down version that doesn't really serve anybody but the bean counters at Hasbro who don't understand why a single game can't please everyone.
I think D&DN is heading down this road.
I think you can roughly divide the D&D community into two main camps; the 3E/PF crowd and the 4E crowd. I realize there are OD&D, 1E, and 2E players out there, but I find that in most arguments, they're gonna come down on the side of the 3rd Edition folks. They'll remain united so long as the 4E people are a threat.
So, D&DN... the Great Uniter.
What the 3E/PF player is supposed to see is a return to 3E inspired combat mechanics, the exit of grid-combat-is-required, a renewed emphasis on non-combat abilities and skills, class flexibility, and setting flexibility.
What the 4E player is supposed to see is a continued commitment to game balance, especially where combat is concerned, clear and well defined roles within a party, action oriented design with little downtime, etc. etc. etc....
Sadly, what I'm seeing over on the Wizards boards is that 3E folks are unhappy with things like dissociative self-healing mechanics (hand waved through the use of "healing kits"), 4E people are unhappy with open ended interpretation of what a class represents (there's a thread claiming that "fighter is not a class", which was the first time I realized that the 3E and 4E crowds have a fundamentally different understanding of what a class represents). There's a lot more, but just two examples.
I made the comment in one thread that I believed that Wizards has an opportunity with D&DN to either A.) win back the 3e crowd or B.) retain and grow the 4e crowd, but it would be difficult to do both, and on their current path, they'll accomplish neither. It was sort of off-hand at the time and I didn't really think about it before I posted it, but it got several replies in agreement and spawned a bit of a side conversation on its own.
The more I think about it, the more I think the very mentality that the design team is taking is going to doom the product. As a 3E guy myself, I actually feel like the best thing Wizards can do at this point is re-up on the ideas that produced 4th Edition and grow that market rather than attempting to bring two disparate groups together and missing the mark with both. Accept that the Fantasy RPG market has been divided into two markets, and target the one you already have, make them your own, and let Paizo pick up the remainder.
I don't know why I felt the need to post this. I honestly think much of what I've said is self-evident. It's just... I think the culture of gaming is better served if Wizards doesn't try to unify the clans, so to speak. I would also hate to see the existing 4e crowd left without a supported game in favor of a somewhat watered down version that doesn't really serve anybody but the bean counters at Hasbro who don't understand why a single game can't please everyone.