Eric Noah's Info

[Arnwyn]

And another thing!

Let's just abandon this whole concept of bringing any kind of mass-market appeal to MY hobby.

This is, of course, irrelevant to the individual consumer. That's for the businesses themselves to work out.

 

[Banshee16]

Not good, IMO. I want the opposite, with minis decoupled from the rules (i.e. you could still use them, but the system doesn't assume them).


Not good, IMO. Sounds like what I don't like about CCGs and collectible minis games.


This might be okay. Personally, I'd rather see the D&D brand in the hands of a smaller company. I know some disagree with me, but I haven't liked the direction WotC seems to be taking the game.

I seriously doubt that I'll buy 4E. (Heck, I never bought 3.5 -- I just house ruled things like Haste, etc). I think it's likely that 4E will cause the market to fragment quite a bit, which I don't view as a necessarily bad thing. I think some will move to 4E, but quite a few will stick with 3E (more than stuck with 2E), and others will gravitate towards OGL systems like True20 and Castles & Crusades. I think third-party d20 companies see the writing on the wall, and are looking for additional baskets for their eggs. Green Ronin has MnM and True20, but even their other offerings (e.g. Freeport) are going to be offered with stats separately, so you can use the stats for the system of your choice. Mongoose is coming out with Runequest. Malhavoc has AE and Iron Heroes, and now Monte is shipping his magnum opus and moving on to opportunities outside of RPGs; I'd bet that 4E weighed into that decision, to one degree or another.

I guess I "jumped ship" when I didn't go for 3.5, because I think the only WotC product I've purchased since then was Red Hand of Doom (although I bought a LOT of stuff from Necromancer, Malhavoc, and Green Ronin). These days, my main game is C&C, but I still play 3E, on occassion. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

How does the whole OGL/D20 license thing work if WotC changes to 4E? Can companies like Green Ronin, Mongoose etc. still produce OGL or D20 books based on the 3.5 or 4E rules? Or is this coming edition change going to kill them?

Frankly, I don't like the direction WotC is taking the game either, and there are several variants of the system that I like better....AE, AGOT, and possibly True20 among others. And I'm reading Conan, and liking what I've seen so far. Can those games continue selling? Or will 4E be their death knell? I'd likely still be willing to buy products based on the 3.0/3.5 OGL/D20 system, if the third party companies are producing them..

Banshee

 

[EricNoah]

Could your rumors be true? Certainly, but without a timeline they seem more like shots in the dark and should be considered "speculation" not "news." I think it is a real disservice to call these speculations "news."

You'll want to take that up with Morrus or whoever decided to post the info on the front page and make a big deal about it. Certainly wasn't my preference. With any luck I'll be proven wrong!

 

[BryonD]

How about a great big "So what!!!!" ????

Theory 1) This will impact my current game.
Analysis) Tons of books on my shelf. Enough for a lifetime. Lots more that will drop in secondary market value if I really care to buy them later.
Theory 1 goes down in flames.

Theory 2) This will destroy 3rd party support / open gaming
Analysis) Looks at products that have come out this year. Correction: Looks FOR products that have come out this year. Finds the pickings extremely slim. Notes that everything considered by this writer to be of quality and designed with D&D in mind is at least as much "love of game" as "for profit", therefore will likely continue to trickle out post 4E.
Theory 2 goes down in flames.

Theory 3) Told ya so!! It is all just a money grab
Analysis) If this rumor turns out to be true, and that is a reasonably big if, then it will be late next year at the very earliest. So we are looking at 8 years or more. In this age that is not an unreasonable life span. Besides, if you discount the people who predict "next year" every year, because they will eventually be right but "so what?", then you are down to the time frame that many people, myself included, have said for some time WOULD be a reasonable time frame for 4E.
Oh, and god forbid they actually make money. I mean, heck, that may inspire talented people to work on the thing. Heaven forbid that.
Theory 3 goes down in flames.

I'm set for life and quite happy.
When 4E does come along I will STILL be set for life. And I will still eb quite happy.
If 4E is good enough to convert me then that will mean I have an even better game and I will be MORE happy.

What's to fret?

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Ahh, there's the Ratbane sarcasm we all know and love.

But in all seriousness, Wulf is right, D&D as we know it still isn't very accessible to the "mundanes".

And Magic is?

 

[Monty Tomasi]

I was kind of hoping that they would reintroduce the 'Advanced' part in to the title of D&D again, oh well

Fourth edition, fifth edition it matters not to me much. As long as I know the basics of the system that I game with then it's OK with me. But if I have to have a whole bag of miniatures, cards and other collectible items then I'm no longer quite so enthused.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

The sooner we can eliminate this evil "profit motive" from the publication of RPGs, the sooner they'll really start to flourish.

You overloaded my sarcas-o-meter. You owe me $19.95 for a new one.

 

[Banshee16]

I am sorry, that was doomed too happen when Hasbro bought the company. Pokemoney swelled the company and Hasbro bought it for that reason. Magic was nice, but when pokemoney went bye bye, Hasbro wanted pokemeon level profits to continue out of wotc.It is not the overhead. They just demand nnnnn profit from a nn resourse. Wotc bought D&D when they were still a gamer company and called thier own shots. Pokemon is gone and nothing has come close to that yet. Wotc has to give profits to Hasbro or else. Hasbro is now accepting it is time to send in the maketing dweebs.

The idea of trying to get nnnnn profits out of the game with nn resources is basically overhead. They're a bigger company, and their cost to produce it is commensurately higher.

I'd prefer they sell it, rather than either dilute the game, or wreck it by turning it into a CCC model. I have worried since day 1 when Hasbro purchased WotC.....maybe those fears will now be realized.

I'd like a smaller, competent company to produce the game.....it's just not scaled for a company of Hasbro's size to profit by it.

Banshee

 

[Ilium]

You know, histrionics aside, some people have been quite successful with small PDFs. I see no reason WotC couldn't use that idea to put out material. It doesn't have to be collectible just because it's modular. If WotC had put out, for example, the warlock class and its invocations in a glossy stapled format (basically a comic book) I would have paid $5.00 for it. I would have paid that for the material in PDF format, in fact.

 

[BryonD]

How does the whole OGL/D20 license thing work if WotC changes to 4E? Can companies like Green Ronin, Mongoose etc. still produce OGL or D20 books based on the 3.5 or 4E rules? Or is this coming edition change going to kill them?

The OGL is forever.

Frankly, I don't like the direction WotC is taking the game either, and there are several variants of the system that I like better....AE, AGOT, and possibly True20 among others. And I'm reading Conan, and liking what I've seen so far. Can those games continue selling? Or will 4E be their death knell? I'd likely still be willing to buy products based on the 3.0/3.5 OGL/D20 system, if the third party companies are producing them..

Banshee

Well, 3.5 seems to have sent the 3rd party publishers running to the hills. So regardless of the legal options, I would expect to see 4E make it dry up the rest of the way.
Just my wildly uninformed opinion of course.