How D&D Was Saved and Made It To 4e

[PoeticJustice]

Those increase some problems, especially for DMs working on NPC. But the inequity in spellcasters verses melee or the lag in high level combat are not really caused by the splats.

Caused? No. Made exponentially worse? Yes.

 

[Celebrim]

"The changes to 4e make more sense after reading these articles. They *listened* to the players, and the new edition is meant to be fun."

Huh?

Aren't these posts about how 3e saved D&D?

I don't see what they have to do with 4e. More to the point, 3e had a much longer, more open and more thurough process of taking feedback from the community than 4e has had by a long shot. I don't really think you want to make that comparison.

 

[Umbran]

More to the point, 3e had a much longer, more open and more thurough process of taking feedback from the community than 4e has had by a long shot.

Has it? Given that 3e has had seven years on the market for WotC to hear feedback? I think we don't have enough information on the WotC internal process and events to make such a claim.

 

[Dragonblade]

More to the point, 3e had a much longer, more open and more thurough process of taking feedback from the community than 4e has had by a long shot.

Except that 4e was designed taking all that accumulated 3e feedback and knowledge into account.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

As much as it pains me to say it, Celebrim is right. This stuff has NO relativity to 4e. Peter and Ryan are long gone, and youv'e got a new crew in charge.

Personally, I think they love the game as much as Peter, and have carefully listened to feedback, et al., but this is far from relevant.

 

[The Little Raven]

I don't see what they have to do with 4e. More to the point, 3e had a much longer, more open and more thurough process of taking feedback from the community than 4e has had by a long shot. I don't really think you want to make that comparison.

Spring 1997 - WotC acquires TSR; former TSR staff moves to Washington; development on 3rd Edition begins.
Autumn 2000 - 3rd Edition released.
Summer 2003 - 3.5 Edition released.
Summer 2008 - 4th Edition released.

Wizards had 3 years to take feedback (without the internet as it's primary tool) and develop 3rd Edition. They, then, had another 2-3 years to take feedback (with the internet as a primary tool this time) and develop 3.5. Then, they had 5 years to take feedback and develop 4th edition.

Last time I checked, 5 years (or 8 if you want to add in 3.5's development) is more than 3 years.

 

[Lacyon]

Has it? Given that 3e has had seven years on the market for WotC to hear feedback? I think we don't have enough information on the WotC internal process and events to make such a claim.

I think Celebrim could probably back up the argument about 3E's feedback being more open. Longer and more thorough would be difficult to demonstrate.

 

[Nebulous]

They're interesting articles, yes, but they don't really have to do with 4e at all, other than saving the D&D brand from extinction.

 

[Dire Bare]

I was jumping around the interwebs and found some incredible articles.

The first describes the god-awful way that TSR was run into the ground, by one of the programmers for the CD-ROM Core Rules. It also describes the reason that the 3.0 Character Generator was a failure. http://www.highprogrammer.com/alan/rants/tsr.html

The second is an old post from Ryan Dancey. He talks about the heroic effort it took to save D&D, and the people that made it happen. It is truly an eye-opening read. http://web.archive.org/web/20040530094717/http://atlasofadventure.com/Archive/TSR1997Buyout.asp

After reading these, I want to buy Ryan Dancey and Peter Adkison a beer. They took on a failing, floundering business and made it thrive again. They saved my game, and gave me the opportunity to make new friends.

The changes to 4e make more sense after reading these articles. They *listened* to the players, and the new edition is meant to be fun.

I don't know how to get ahold of Ryan or Peter, but somehow I hope that someone can pass on a very personal and heartfelt "thank you" from this particular gamer.

Very interesting links, thanks for posting them.

However, like other posters, I don't think they truly have any relevance to 4e, other than we couldn't have 4e without first having 3e! The edition changes from 2e to 3e were in a very different environment than the change from 3e to 4e.

 

[The Little Raven]

I think Celebrim could probably back up the argument about 3E's feedback being more open.

How is a closed playtest, bound by a firm NDA, "open?"