Here’s what I want to see…
I guess you could call this an open letter/list of questions for Wizards of the Coast. I don’t really expect that any sort of response will come of this, but I wanted to say what I have to say. That being the case, let’s begin.
So far, what I have seen of the newest edition of D&D has not had the “Wow Factor” that 3.0 had when it came out. I am just not excited about it. Now, it’s true that almost no concrete facts have been presented so far. This could be the reason why I am just not “feeling the love” for the new edition. As I seem to recall, at this time during the 3.0 release we at least had some definite information to dispel the rumors. With all the talk and rumors about the latest edition flying about, what I have been hearing concerns me. Maybe Wizards of the Coast could help to dispel a lot of rumors by answering a few simple questions.
Will I be able to play a full and complete version of D&D with just the core books? All I have heard is how great and wonderful playing D&D will be when you use all the “fun and exciting” online aspects of the game. What if I don’t want to use them? What if I want to sit at a table with my friends and roll dice and play? It seems that character creation, dice rolling, mapping, and even miniatures are being talked about in an electronic sense. What about all of this in a tactile sense? Will I be playing a “lesser game” if I chose to ignore the online content?
What races and classes will be in the Player’s Handbook? When 3.0 came out we knew fairly early on what races and classes were appearing in the PH. All we’re being told about 4.0 is that some classes are staying and some are going. Some races are staying and some are going. Which ones, we don’t know. I am beginning to wonder if the folks at Wizards of the Coast know which ones are going where.
Why all the denigration of the current edition? Instead of giving us concrete examples of what is new and exciting about 4.0, all we’re getting lately seems to be belittlement of various parts of 3.5. Just about a month ago all we heard was how cool and wonderful D&D 3.5 was. Now, all we seem to hear is how those things that were great then are nothing but painful junk now. Why weren’t they junk back then? If they were junk back then, why produce the stuff in the first place? Maybe it’s just a case of “the new stuff is wonderful so the old stuff has to be crap.” I don’t agree with this tactic, and I think it turns off a number of people.
How is the public playtesting going to work? I have done quite a bit of playtesting for other game companies. One of the keys to a good playtest is quickly getting the material to the playtesters. This is extremely important, especially when you are talking about testing an entirely new game system. Playtesters need time to read the material and use it in a game setting. They need the chance to do this not once or twice, but a number of times. Then they need to report back with comments both positive and negative. The chance to spot errors and rules that just don’t work takes time. I am afraid that the time remaining before 4.0 is supposed to come out is not enough to do a complete playtest. I get the feeling that the public playtest is being done to make people feel they have an effect on the game, even though they really won’t. I would like to be proven wrong. I would like to see the playtest do what they are meant to do, but I am really not sure if it is possible.
What parts of D&D are we losing? I know we are constantly hearing that we’re going to be getting all sorts of cool new things to use for D&D. What things going to be cast by the wayside? I understand that the magic system, as we currently know it, will be cast aside for a hybrid system. As stated earlier, we know that some player classes and races will be cast aside for “cooler” things. What else will we be losing? Will we still roll dice during character creation, or will it be a determinist point distribution system? We know that grappling and multiple attacks per turn are going, but what else? It’s cool that we’re getting all sorts of new things to play with, but what about the stuff we have now?
I guess what I am really trying to say is that we’re pretty close to a major change in D&D and we seem to know less now than we did at the same point the last time this happened. I am concerned that this new edition will not be able to live up to the hype it is given, which can only lead to disappointment and a lack of fan support.
I guess you could call this an open letter/list of questions for Wizards of the Coast. I don’t really expect that any sort of response will come of this, but I wanted to say what I have to say. That being the case, let’s begin.
So far, what I have seen of the newest edition of D&D has not had the “Wow Factor” that 3.0 had when it came out. I am just not excited about it. Now, it’s true that almost no concrete facts have been presented so far. This could be the reason why I am just not “feeling the love” for the new edition. As I seem to recall, at this time during the 3.0 release we at least had some definite information to dispel the rumors. With all the talk and rumors about the latest edition flying about, what I have been hearing concerns me. Maybe Wizards of the Coast could help to dispel a lot of rumors by answering a few simple questions.
Will I be able to play a full and complete version of D&D with just the core books? All I have heard is how great and wonderful playing D&D will be when you use all the “fun and exciting” online aspects of the game. What if I don’t want to use them? What if I want to sit at a table with my friends and roll dice and play? It seems that character creation, dice rolling, mapping, and even miniatures are being talked about in an electronic sense. What about all of this in a tactile sense? Will I be playing a “lesser game” if I chose to ignore the online content?
What races and classes will be in the Player’s Handbook? When 3.0 came out we knew fairly early on what races and classes were appearing in the PH. All we’re being told about 4.0 is that some classes are staying and some are going. Some races are staying and some are going. Which ones, we don’t know. I am beginning to wonder if the folks at Wizards of the Coast know which ones are going where.
Why all the denigration of the current edition? Instead of giving us concrete examples of what is new and exciting about 4.0, all we’re getting lately seems to be belittlement of various parts of 3.5. Just about a month ago all we heard was how cool and wonderful D&D 3.5 was. Now, all we seem to hear is how those things that were great then are nothing but painful junk now. Why weren’t they junk back then? If they were junk back then, why produce the stuff in the first place? Maybe it’s just a case of “the new stuff is wonderful so the old stuff has to be crap.” I don’t agree with this tactic, and I think it turns off a number of people.
How is the public playtesting going to work? I have done quite a bit of playtesting for other game companies. One of the keys to a good playtest is quickly getting the material to the playtesters. This is extremely important, especially when you are talking about testing an entirely new game system. Playtesters need time to read the material and use it in a game setting. They need the chance to do this not once or twice, but a number of times. Then they need to report back with comments both positive and negative. The chance to spot errors and rules that just don’t work takes time. I am afraid that the time remaining before 4.0 is supposed to come out is not enough to do a complete playtest. I get the feeling that the public playtest is being done to make people feel they have an effect on the game, even though they really won’t. I would like to be proven wrong. I would like to see the playtest do what they are meant to do, but I am really not sure if it is possible.
What parts of D&D are we losing? I know we are constantly hearing that we’re going to be getting all sorts of cool new things to use for D&D. What things going to be cast by the wayside? I understand that the magic system, as we currently know it, will be cast aside for a hybrid system. As stated earlier, we know that some player classes and races will be cast aside for “cooler” things. What else will we be losing? Will we still roll dice during character creation, or will it be a determinist point distribution system? We know that grappling and multiple attacks per turn are going, but what else? It’s cool that we’re getting all sorts of new things to play with, but what about the stuff we have now?
I guess what I am really trying to say is that we’re pretty close to a major change in D&D and we seem to know less now than we did at the same point the last time this happened. I am concerned that this new edition will not be able to live up to the hype it is given, which can only lead to disappointment and a lack of fan support.
TO be fair, I haven't seen any WotC personnel "back-stabbing" the 3.x stuff; to be more accurate, they've said (paraphrasing Dave Noonan on the Podcast) that "while we recognize how great 3rd edition was, we also through lots of play identify some parts where it doesn't live up to the promise," followed by his examples of same. In fact, Dave particularly has been building up to this point in the web articles over the past year or so, but without saying 3E by name. Anyone remember his "proud nails" column? Looking back in hindsight on that column it's easy to see the stuff he's been identifying as problems in gameplay, and thus what he and others have probably been working on over the last two years.
