D&D 4E Does anyone else feel like 4ed isn't really a new edition?

[Nahat Anoj]

I think there will be a lot of similarities between 4e and 3e, and you will be able to pretty much play the game as always. However, I feel the experience of play will be quite a bit different.

I think it'll be like the difference between True20 and D&D 3e. If you can play D&D 3e, then you probably can play True20 pretty easily (at least you don't have much to learn). However, the way the two systems actually play is much different, so much so that it feels like a different game.

 

[Morrus]

Similar thread: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=206055

It definitely seems like a new edition to me. The changes we see may not rival those of the 2e->3e transition, but I imagine the game will feel different enough that it wouldn't be right to call it anything but 4e.

Exactly my feeling.

 

[Jer]

From 2nd to 3rd, that was a new edition. They practicly scrapped everything, and began a new.

This 3.x to 4th ed though. Not so sure.

The 2e -> 3e change was a massive one because 2e used mechanics that were already feeling dated in 1989. Had the 2e designers been a little less worried about alienating their player base and a little more intent on streamlining and modernizing the rules, the 3e shift in 2000 might not have been as massive as it was. On the whole, the 1e -> 2e change was pretty small mechanics wise, and most of the initial changes were in organization and presentation, not rules. 2e later expanded on the initial rules with band-aid fixes like "character kits", but the initial 2e rules basically took stuff that was scattered around various 1e supplements and reorganized them into the "core rules", along with a few rules tweaks to some systems that were clearly broken.

Since the rules were already feeling dated in '89, and since a LOT of mechanics advancement in the RPG field in general happened between '89 and '99, the 3e change had to be massive just to get D&D up to the level of where the "state of the art" for the industry was in 2000.

That's not true now - D&D has moved back to being a leader in its particular niche of roleplaying rather than lagging far behind other systems. That means that the changes don't have to be as massive, nor should they be as massive. Other game systems do not change as radically as D&D 2e -> 3e from edition to edition, and that should be the norm that we expect in an upgrade - not the fairly anomalous massive shift that was 3e.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Definitely feels like a new edition. Thank goodness; I would have been very disappointed if they'd done 3.75E.

 

[GlassJaw]

It feels like an exciting new edition, to me.

Same, and I can't wait.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Well, we have to wait whether we want to or not. I'm okay with that.

 

[Gentlegamer]

At times, it feels like they're making a whole new game, between all the fluff changes to the setting and, more importantly, the massive changes to spellcaster resource management.

I agree, and I felt this way about the change from 2e to 3e.

 

[JVisgaitis]

I started my own thread on this (its probably the one linked above) and I initially thought the changes weren't a big deal until they started posting all of the stuff on the playtests. Just having the characters going from levels 1 to 30, putting them in 1 of 4 distinct roles, and dialing down wizards and dialing up fighters is enough to make it fairly significant.

The fact that they are taking a serious look at every single mechanic and saying that there isn't really a way to translate characters from 3.5 to 4 speaks volumes. I think a lot of the core mechanics will remain in place and it will be something easy for people to pick up who have played d20 before. I really think when we get our hands on it, it will be an entirely new experience.

 

[coyote6]

Yeah, it might not be as big as 2e->3e, but it sounds like a new edition to me.

Though not New Edition, mind you.

 

[Nikosandros]

Yeah, it might not be as big as 2e->3e, but it sounds like a new edition to me.

Actually what with the introduction of different ways of managing resources, the changing of spell levels, the fact that fireball won't deal 1d6 per level, etc... it might even be a bigger change than from 2e to 3e.

Probably many don't see it as a huge change because the latest 3e books have already began to introduce many of the new mechanics, building some kind of bridge to 4e.