D&D 4E GenCon - 4e News.

[Sir Brennen]

You guys read way too much into this stuff.

Much as I hate the current proliferation of 4E threads at the top of this page, I gotta actually post and chime in to agree on this...

Why does "no 4th edition product will be in any Wizards of the Coast's product catalogs through 2007" mean it will be in 2008? The 2008 catalog is probably a nebulous cloud at this point, with decisions on what books to pursue based on sales of other books, customer feedback and other marketing research for the next 6-12 months.

And "..the show currently known as Winter Fantasy will be the primary place to push D&D and 2007 will reveal a lot" could mean some other big annoucements nobody is even suspecting. What if pushing things from the games history means Planescape and Dark Sun expansions packs to D&D Online, for instance?

Not saying it's impossible, but it seems like a lot of people who have some pathological need to say "I told you so!" use these non-facts as confirmation of their position.

*Sigh* We now return to our regularly scheduled rumor mongering...

 

[CSgeekHero]

Hmmm... OK -- so if this has some legitimacy, why don't they just come out and say this officially?

The reason can be found in the Star Wars annoucement that Dan Silvas covered for Gaming Report. I don't have the link, but it should still be one the front page.

There is a video from the Star Wars seminar where they talk about the mini products due out later in '06 and May of '07. There was also information on the RPG for March of '07. The speaker at the seminar said that he and no one else could talk about releases for the second half of '07 or beyond. The reason he gave was that Wizards is part of a publicly traded company and that had something to do with being able to legally speak about products in production that aren't in the catalog. The SEC does have a lot of rules that restrict publicly traded companies. I think it has to do with past companies promoting vaporware in order to pump up the stocks in the short term. It may sound silly when it comes to a product line like D&D, but it does stand under the same coporate umbrella.

Reps would have to flatly deny anything that doesn't appear in the future releases. Because the SW Saga Ed appears in the catalog, they were able to say that they will make supplements for it, but were legally bound to not say anything else beyond there will be supplements.

So, no 4e in the current catalog then as far as public statements...It does not exist.

My speculation: At Winter Fantasy they will probably be releasing the catalog for the remainder of '07 (beginning of '08?). If they make an announcement there, then that means that 4e will probably be out between Christmas of '07 or Winter Fantasy '08.

 

[Melkor]

After watching the announcements regarding the Star Wars D20 Saga RPG, if that game is indeed a preview of some of the things we might see in a D&D 4E...color me interested.

I'm at least more optimistic today that I was yesterday that D&D 4E might actually be a nice improvement, but still somewhat compatible with 3.5.

 

[Morrus]

Much as I hate the current proliferation of 4E threads at the top of this page, I gotta actually post and chime in to agree on this...

Why does "no 4th edition product will be in any Wizards of the Coast's product catalogs through 2007" mean it will be in 2008?

It doesn't. People are merely speculating - because they enjoy it and are interested. If such is not your interest, leave them to have their fun.

And "..the show currently known as Winter Fantasy will be the primary place to push D&D and 2007 will reveal a lot" could mean some other big annoucements nobody is even suspecting.

It could, yes. But people like speculating on what it might mean.

 

[Diremede]

I am sure WOTC is going to put out 4E at some point, and who knows what that system is going to look like. 3.0 to 3.5 was made backward compatible from the get go, it was marketed that way for a reason, so that WoTC could sell the new Core books to players who didn't want to buy the splat books again, and at the same time ensure that the new 3.5 product line was embraced and purchased by 3E stragglers, hence the 3.5 use rather than 4E. Not to mention that many players wanted the 3.5 rules update to simply clean up the current 3E system and make the game better.

No matter what 4E might look like, even if it is similar I would say that the system will be different enough that your current core books and most of the supplements other than flavor text are going to be useless. I would think that with the current supplement list preview from WoTC stretching into 2007, that 2007 would be to early to see a 4E, and actually I think that 2008 would be too early for a 4E release, at least it would be too early for it to be a successful release. Many people are satisfied with 3.5 and I know personally I would be loath to invest in a new game system so soon after investing in the current one. What made 3E so popular and successful was not so much the game system as the need and want of a change from a system that players had been playing for over 10 years. It was a breath of fresh air, a new look at an old game that made it fun and new again. 3E and 3.5 don't have 10 years under their belt in fact 3.5 is what 3 years old? The time just isn't there yet for 3.5 to become so "old" and "boring" that people are looking for something new. I would think it would be in WoTC's best interest to hold off releasing 4E until 2009 or 2010, at which point 3.5 would be milked dry with product releases and players will be yearning for something "fresh" for their D&D appetite.

 

[Warlock75]

If anything I would expect 4e to lower the price for the entry level products (Basic game, PHB etc) to make money on the volume sales

ONe can only hope I geuss, still no matter how you look at it the average gamer is going to have to fork out a lot of cash to switch over.

 

[A'koss]

More from the Gaming Report (Dan Sivils) - WotC D&D Sneak Peek Seminar...

When asked about the rumors surrounding a coming 4th edition?

"We find them very funny.... WotC does like to hear about what fans want in a new edition as some of the items that are coming out this year are from what fans talked about online a few years ago. When WotC decides to announce the release of a 4th edition we will give trade partners and fans ample time to prepare."

Okay, so it doesn't really say much but since it was a quote I figured I'd better include it anyway...

The cover to what most presume was the MM V was shown and a "Feat Compendium" was discussed - whose appearance will depend on the success of the Magic Item Compendium. More updates to older modules are on the way (a la the upcoming Ravenloft and Demonweb Pits adventures) and Expedition to Castle Greyhawk is apparently on the list of *possible* adventures being looked at for production (yay!).

 

[reanjr]

Something I think a lot of fans might appreciate is single-book translations of a few of the older settings like Dark Sun, Planescape etc., sort of like what was done with the Dragonlance setting.

The difference is that Dragonlance is supported by half a dozen or more supplements. And from my understanding, the Dragonlance campaign setting didn't too that well (by WotC standards, not Sovereign Press).

 

[GQuail]

It doesn't. People are merely speculating - because they enjoy it and are interested. If such is not your interest, leave them to have their fun.

That's as maybe: but I don't think it's unfair to point out that people are jumping on the 2007 line like it's a cast-iron certainly, when in fact there's plenty of other reasons why their future catalogue would be vague. Take the example given of the Feat Compendium, which is up in the air depending on how the other compendiums sell: it's clear they're still considering 3.5 products of some sort, so it's not like when the current catalogue ends the NEW AGE OF 4E DARKNESS begins.

Having said that, as many have pointed out on other threads, much of the current release schedule has "end of life" products. Compendiums, large adventures, wholescale bolt-on systems: with the core products (like Psionics, Gods, Planes, Wilderness etc) all sold it's clear that if 4E doesn't get announced iin the next couple of years, we're going to see some unusual items in the next set of catalogue listings anyway.

 

[A'koss]

After watching the announcements regarding the Star Wars D20 Saga RPG, if that game is indeed a preview of some of the things we might see in a D&D 4E...color me interested.

I was thinking the same thing. SW might give us a look into some of the possible changes much like Alternity did for 3e.

If you missed it, a couple of the things they mentioned were...

- Streamlining the Skills System, combining many of them together (eg. Hide and Move Silently are now Stealth). - That was pretty much a no-brainer.

- Revising the Combat System to make the game play quicker. One of the examples they gave was introducing a single "Conditions" track that would follow for all conditions, replacing a lot of the existing ones like staggered, dazed, and so on. - Sounds good to me.

It would be worth keeping an eye on, that's for sure.