D&D General Edition Experience - Updated Survey Results (Updated October 2025)

[EzekielRaiden]

They can if there's a way to have a poll thread that has comments shut off while the poll remains open to vote on.

I am fairly sure no such method exists. Even if it did, it would cause the thread to be rapidly buried because it would get zero posts.

 

[CleverNickName]

 

[Lanefan]

I am fairly sure no such method exists. Even if it did, it would cause the thread to be rapidly buried because it would get zero posts.

True, it would need to be pinned for a few weeks.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

View attachment 419168

Yep. I would absolutely, positively love to have civilized discussions about 4e. Even about some of its flaws--because it has flaws aplenty!

I have never seen a forum where that is possible.

 

[Hussar]

Yep. I would absolutely, positively love to have civilized discussions about 4e. Even about some of its flaws--because it has flaws aplenty!

I have never seen a forum where that is possible.

I gotta admit it utterly baffles me. I mean, good grief, 4e's been dead and buried for over ten years now. Who cares? I LIKE 4e and I can't understand why every single time anyone mentions the dreaded 4e, the editions warriors come out of the woodwork to tell all in sundry how bad 4e is.

I mean, it used to be 2e, but, by the time 4e came out, that had largely died down. Now 2e gets put up on a foundational pedestal whenever someone wants to wax nostalgic about settings. But even imply that something 4e was done well and it gets dog piled. Every single time.

It's utterly bizarre.

 

[GreyLord]

I gotta admit it utterly baffles me. I mean, good grief, 4e's been dead and buried for over ten years now. Who cares? I LIKE 4e and I can't understand why every single time anyone mentions the dreaded 4e, the editions warriors come out of the woodwork to tell all in sundry how bad 4e is.

I mean, it used to be 2e, but, by the time 4e came out, that had largely died down. Now 2e gets put up on a foundational pedestal whenever someone wants to wax nostalgic about settings. But even imply that something 4e was done well and it gets dog piled. Every single time.

It's utterly bizarre.

Unless it's Pathfinder 2e, but then it seems, even with how very similar some ideas are between 4e and PF2e, the PF2e fans want to disavow any connection PF2e has to 4e.

But I see a lot of Praises for PF2e on items which were basically done the same way in 4e.

 

[Parmandur]

But I see a lot of Praises for PF2e on items which were basically done the same way in 4e.

That is because 4E would have been far better received if it was a new game from a different company with a different name.

It might not have sold more, probably way less, but it wouldn't have hit the same emotional triggers 4E managed to.

And I think PF1E grognards have just been willing to ride off into the sunset with 15 lifetimes of 3.x material and forget about supporting Paizo...or had already gone to D&D 5E years earlier anyways

 

[Eyes of Nine]

[edited to add descriptions to each link, since I guess I had too many for previews to populate]
Re non-civil 4e conversations here. I'm not sure I agree. I have enjoyed several nice 4e threads here. A search reveals a few:

This is a pretty good thread tbh. Its most recent post is only 18 months old, so wouldn't be a terrible necro (unlike the 2007 one I found). "D&D 4E Let's Talk About 4E On Its Own Terms [+]"

This one's pretty civil too, also from the same time frame. "4e Essentials as a new edition and 4e's longevity"

Seems like late spring last year was a hot time for 4e on the old World of EN. Here's another good one, imho. "Using 4e elements for your 5e games?"

Last one - I liked this conversation too "Crunchy Tactical RPG like 4e/pf2e but for Urban Fantasy?"

Nope I lied, this one on the cosmology of 4e iirc was pretty civil "4E Cosmology"

All of which to say, I think civil convos about 4e happen here. None really recently though (except this one I guess). "Games Inspired by 4e D&D (+)"

That's really on all us 4e fans though, not the board itself. Let's start some 4e discussion! I've got an idea for one, but it'll be a bit, as I guess I'm actually supposed to be working I'm also going to come back to the Urban Fantasy one...

 

[overgeeked]

That's really on all us 4e fans though, not the board itself. Let's start some 4e discussion! I've got an idea for one, but it'll be a bit, as I guess I'm actually supposed to be working I'm also going to come back to the Urban Fantasy one...

Pretty sure it's the board. If there were a dedicated 4E forum, the likelihood of people who hate 4E intentionally crashing every 4E thread would be quite low. As an example, the dedicated 4E discord doesn't have that problem. Note how several of those are [+] threads. That's likely key to having at least neutral discussion of 4E here.

 

[CleverNickName]

I didn't hear back from moderation, but I didn't really need to: I decided not to redo the 4E poll anytime soon.

As for doing another version of it, even one with a "[+] only" tag, keep in mind: it wasn't just the 4e haters that got that particular survey closed. 4e fans can be downright nasty to each other too, as that now-closed survey demonstrates.