DDXP: When Anti's become Pro's

[Jhaelen]

I prepared handouts for my gaming group on Saturday--copies of the 4e characters and cheat sheet and monster stats--and I prepared a demo game for them.

Well, they looked over the rules and the characters, and they didn't even have the slightest desire to try the game, much less adopt it for our campaign.

My players aren't really interested in switching to 4E either.
The thing is, they also weren't interested in playing 3E a couple of years back. After I had stopped DMing my 2E Darksun campaign due to burnout, I paused for several years. 3E managed to get me interested again, so I asked them if they'd like to play in a 3E game. They grudgingly agreed. They would have preferred me picking up 2E again, but playing 3E was clearly more appealing than not playing at all.
Now, they're all very enthusiastic about 3E and several of them have invested heavily in supplements, so naturally they were more worried than anything when I started telling them about 4E.

I've promised them we won't switch before we've finished the current campaign. But I'm already pretty sure I'll want to switch after that. While I still enjoy playing 3E I'm starting to get a bit tired of the ever-increasing prep time. This is something my players don't really see.
The prospect of making the DM's job easier is very appealing to me.

It'll take some convincing but I think in the end they'll switch - unless they get tired of playing D&D altogether. I also feel that 4E will be a better fit to the changing circumstances. It seems to be better suited to a casual game style which we've been adopting out of necessity - it's increasingly difficult to meet regularly to play. We're lucky if we're able to have a session every 3-4 weeks. I don't see thing getting any easier in the future.

So, I am pretty convinced that they'll eventually enjoy playing 4E just as much as they're currently enjoying playing 3E now, if not more.

 

[green slime]

My biggest fear is the splitting of the fan base.

Say what you will of 3e, its arrival brought a large number of people into a single RPG.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I've promised them we won't switch before we've finished the current campaign. But I'm already pretty sure I'll want to switch after that. While I still enjoy playing 3E I'm starting to get a bit tired of the ever-increasing prep time. This is something my players don't really see.
The prospect of making the DM's job easier is very appealing to me.

The cool thing is that you don't really have to switch editions to fix this problem.

Option (a) is to stay at low-to-mid levels. The higher you go the more complex it gets, so just don't do a lot of higher-level stuff. Even adopt E6, it's a pretty good take on fixing 3e's problems.

If that's not interesting, option (b) is to adopt 4e philosophy with regards to monsters and NPC's. Gloss over the exact in-world effects and just get the end numbers. What's a "good" attack bonus, AC, or save bonus for this level? Answer that, and you've basically got a ready-made monster.

4e isn't necessary, after all, but some of it's ideas are good enough to loot.

 

[Glyfair]

You must mean Woody Guthrie.

You are correct.

 

[Toryx]

I've seen a few posters on various boards that were pro-4E, that are now convinced that 4E will provide nice house rules to add to their 3.5 game (which they are staying with).

This is pretty much where I'm at. I stopped being actively pro 4e several months ago (about the time of the Magic Items article) but there are definitely a lot of things in 4e I'd like to take and shape for future 3.5 games. I still plan to play 4e sometimes, but I'd rather keep playing 3.5 with some houserules.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

The saving roll system, if I understood it correctly is one of those I now dislike: Roll d20, on 11+ you succeed. What?

That's not the way 4E saves work.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

i wasnt gonna post here but why not evryone else has. i have been anti-4e for a while now and i have read just about eveything this weekend and 4e looks like it may be a fun pick up style game much like cards or such we might play for a fun evening when were bored. it has however made me even more convenced that 4e will not be my playstyle for my long running games . theres just to much i dont like. pc's are about 5th level at 1st is my biggiest issue and the saga style saves i dont care for even if i like em for saga star wars games. so 4e might be a fun board game or a mini skirmish game but not for my long running d&d games.

 

[Goreg Skullcrusher]

Turned Off

After being highly optimistic and hopeful for several months, I can honestly say that I'm having more than a few reservations about picking up the new edition. For me (and my group) to justify getting the new edition it has to be substantially better for us than what we are currently using, else it's a bad investment of about $100. It's not looking to be that way any longer.

I liked a lot of what I was hearing in the first few months post-announcement. We even adopted a rule or two to our current game. But the slew of recently announced rules have left a very bitter taste in our mouths. It currently seems like it'd be easier to adopt 4E rules into our 3.5E game than to try to houserule 4E to our liking.

It's all very disappointing, I was very eager and excited about all of this.

 

[Li Shenron]

I haven't played but only read other's opinion.

I was undecided before and I'm still undecided.

It looks like for me there's days when I really want to like 4e and its new ideas, and days when I'm so pissed off about some news that I think I will never even want to try it. If I stay away from forums for a month or two, enthusiasm slowly grows on me and I even get used to some ideas I originally hated (not that I start liking them, I just learn to accept them). Then I come back, and I discover new things I loathe... More or less I am still in the middle so far.

 

[LostSoul]

I'd say that since we're speaking of being able to write the same kind of "stories" (adventures) you could in 3E, I can understand Paizo's concerns very well. For example, what if my setting has a lot of Bard and Druid NPCs and Specialist Wizard organizations -- how would you mechanically stat them in 4E?

As NPCs.

(Exception-based "monster" design.)