FireLance
Legend
My old boss liked to tell a story about how the commander of one of the world's best fighter squadrons* will regularly drop pilots from the squadron and replace them with new ones. He acknowledges that the dropped pilots are good - if they were not, they wouldn't have made it into the squadron in the first place. However, he says that he does so because among the new pilots, he might discover one who is not just good, but great.
Looking at the likely line-up of races and classes in 4e, I wonder if someone in WotC has also heard of this story. We've got a lot of familiar faces coming back: the human, dwarf, elf and half-elf races, and the fighter, rogue, cleric, wizard, paladin, and ranger classes. We've got the eladrin as an old (sub-)race that has reinvented itself by getting a makeover and a name change. We've got the warlock, the tiefling and the dragonborn as a class and two races to which we have been recently introduced, and the warlord as a complete newcomer (although we know his sibling, the White Raven warblade).
So, that's about 67% familiar concepts that we've gamed with and (generally) loved for years, or 80% if we count the eladrin, the warlock, the tiefling and the dragonborn as halfway between old and new.
Frankly, I'm okay with about 20%-33% newness in a new edition, especially if it gives us the chance to discover something great.
* Specifics have been withheld to avoid pointless arguments.
Looking at the likely line-up of races and classes in 4e, I wonder if someone in WotC has also heard of this story. We've got a lot of familiar faces coming back: the human, dwarf, elf and half-elf races, and the fighter, rogue, cleric, wizard, paladin, and ranger classes. We've got the eladrin as an old (sub-)race that has reinvented itself by getting a makeover and a name change. We've got the warlock, the tiefling and the dragonborn as a class and two races to which we have been recently introduced, and the warlord as a complete newcomer (although we know his sibling, the White Raven warblade).
So, that's about 67% familiar concepts that we've gamed with and (generally) loved for years, or 80% if we count the eladrin, the warlock, the tiefling and the dragonborn as halfway between old and new.
Frankly, I'm okay with about 20%-33% newness in a new edition, especially if it gives us the chance to discover something great.
* Specifics have been withheld to avoid pointless arguments.
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