Falling off the 4ed bandwagon

[Pig Champion]

I'm still curious about how many players "bandwaggoned" from M:tG to 4E. I'm not a Magic person, so I don't know to what extent 4E was promoted in that community as a natural transition from CCGs into RPGs.

I think it has a lot to do with gaming shops. I know in my area there are two shops that really specialize in RPG's of all kinds (one also does boardgames and the other is more mini and wargame-ish) while the rest are all CCG shops.

Now whenever I visit one of the shops that is CCG prioritized, there is a huge amount of 4E promotion around. Posters, flashy stands, books presented at the front (rather than the corner) of shops but most of all 4E products are also given away as bonus prizes for winning CCG competitions. Guys are also walking around asking people if they've tried DnD, which still kind of weirds me out.

So it seems shops have decided to promote 4E hand in hand with M:TG.

 

[Hairfoot]

Do you know if there's a subsidy or discount scheme from WotC for shops that run the 4e promo stuff?

The spruiking sounds weird. Is it done by the store staff or does someone come in specifically for that?

 

[Pig Champion]

Do you know if there's a subsidy or discount scheme from WotC for shops that run the 4e promo stuff?

The spruiking sounds weird. Is it done by the store staff or does someone come in specifically for that?

I'm not sure, I'm not really on friendly terms with the CCG store guys as I don't play M:TG. I only go there for cheaper minis but I'll ask a friend who knows the owners.

Yeah, isn't it? It's done by the store staff. When I was there last, I saw it twice. Once the guy came from around the counter to a bunch of kids and asked and then asked if they'd be interested in trying. The other was when a guy was sorta standing near the DnD books, not sure what he was doing but the guy again was aggressively pushing a book under his nose and explaining the concept.

Now that I think about it, it kinda reminds me of the techniques employed by the gameworkshop staff...Assuming you've been in one of their stores.

 

[Hairfoot]

Now that I think about it, it kinda reminds me of the techniques employed by the gameworkshop staff...Assuming you've been in one of their stores.

I've found the GW staff pretty obsequious on the couple of occasions I've visited one of their shops in the last few years, but I assumed that was just who they hired, rather than a policy.

If the Magic players express an interest, are they invited to a game, or given a sales pitch for the books?

 

[Pig Champion]

I've found the GW staff pretty obsequious on the couple of occasions I've visited one of their shops in the last few years, but I assumed that was just who they hired, rather than a policy.

If the Magic players express an interest, are they invited to a game, or given a sales pitch for the books?

Just invited to try with a "You can always buy the books when you love it! You. Will. Love. It" implied. At least, that's how I intepreteded it.

In any case, I just thought it strange when you bought up M:TG players since now that I think about it, 4E is pretty much promoted to it's fanbase via my local CCG stores.

 

[nedjer]

That's all very nice, but which of you fell onto or off of this particular bandwagon, and WHY?

Totally fell of the bandwagon and I quite like 4e. No problem with making a few patches to speed up combat, consider it a polished 'battle game' and most players liked my roleplaying over combat slant.

Grumbles came with the announcement of the number of books and the schism over 3.5. Players weren't sure about buying another set of books, etc . . . so, I probably went looking elsewhere because people often think of an RPG as expensive without considering how many hours it can deliver.

Since then I wonder if I wasn't looking for a 'better fit' for me. The more 'chess'-like zonal combat, fast turns, some graphics, graphics I control, total customisation of the rules, lightening fast scenario frameworks . . . in the new system was a 'shoe-in'. Sort of 'explore and skirmish' over 'deploy munitions'.

The (OK - unfair it doesn't have to be that way) '20 minutes fun in 4 hours' element was gone, players don't have to pay and are rewarded for playing well instead of knowledge of the rules.

Changing was unsettling until I 'got' it/ sorted the basics from the options but I wouldn't go back. Can't imagine a three hour 'sealed' combat, a PC sheet without text and images, working from a pre-made campaign setting or letting a publisher decide what artwork I want to put in the rules.

And I'm afraid it gets worse. Hooked up with the designers, GMing and playing twice as much as before and just off to spend the rest of the day exploring what seems to be a partially flooded, underground aquarium - where we'd just found cracks in some of the tanks and heard a splash in the dark behind us.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

I really like the system. I feel it's a solid game. But it works so much more smoothly with the Character Generator instead of pouring through multiple books and articles in a sea of seemingly similar, never-ending power "card" options.

When the Character Gen has the option for me to customize the fluff text and power names, then I'll be interested in hopping back on again. Until then, I'm just in a weird holding pattern.