How do I get them to switch?

[rkwoodard]

willing to run

Hi,
In my long term group, all I would have to say is:

Hey guys, I am wanting to run XYZ, wanna play next saturday.

And they would. They may tell me afterwards it was not fun. But If I am willing to run anything they would play.

So, yeah follow the advise above, just ask them to play it.

RK

 

[smathis]

See if they are willing to try it for 3 sessions as a side-trek from their normal campaign...

If they like it they'll make their ow reasons for liking it rather than listening to the reasons that you like it.

This is good advice. But a couple of things to keep in mind...

It may take the group a while to come around even after the 3 sessions. So don't be discouraged if you get some negativity on the trial run. In fact, I would expect that to be the case. Just keep on keepin' on and do the best you can.

Expect the group to go back to the 3e campaign. Don't give any resistance or try to force the issue. That they will poo-poo on 4e and want to play 3e again is almost a foregone conclusion.

And you'll want them to do that because it's only by going back to 3e that they'll make up their minds if they like it or not.

I've seen this at least a dozen times with groups who were resistant to a new edition or trying a new system for some cool game. It's almost rote at this point.

Two of the biggest sticking points for some of those switching over are a perceived loss of rules mastery and a subsequent perceived loss of investment.

I don't know how to address those issues because they're both valid.

The sad thing is that the "rules mastery" crew will eventually adopt 4e (or 4.5 or 5e or whatever it is by the time they come on board) but then they'll be "behind" the early adopters. These kinds of players will quickly catch up, surely. But you'd think they'd want to be early adopters so they could achieve a comparably exhaustive knowledge of the new ruleset.

And those who feel that they're losing an investment in 3e are also difficult to persuade. I mean, how useful are all those 3e edition books now? I still have some 1e and 2e edition books I use. But rarely to play anymore. Mostly for ideas (Book of Villains, Creative Campaigning), setting (Dark Sun, Celtic Sourcebook) or random generators (1e DMG and Oriental Adventures).

It's a hard pill to swallow -- even for me -- that my Arcana Unearthed, McWoD, CoCd20 and 20 other 3e products are now either kindling or (at best) source material. And some people have 5 times the number of books I have. I couldn't even imagine.

So I'd say give it an honest try but don't expect much at first. Keep an eye out for the 3e Rules Master and the Archivist because I don't see them switching any time soon -- and with good reasons, I think.

But, at the very worst, you can introduce them to some of the mechanics in 4e and then see if you can work those into your 3e game.

After getting a taste of prep in 4e, I'd never look back though. If I were running a 3e game right now, I'd give everyone notice that they were either switching to 4e or finding a new group.

I'd even buy them all a copy of the PHB.

It's THAT big of a time savings for the DM. And time really is pretty valuable if you think about it.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I know one of their biggest disappointments will be that the barbarian isn't in the first PH. One of mine is that the Druid isn't. They never cared much for the Bard or Monk, so they would be fine with them missing.

I'm trying to think of what we would be able to do, combat-wise, that we couldn't do in 3.x.

Druid is a biggie. there's nothing that duplicates wildshape at all.

Barbarian is pretty easily modeled by just taking a fighter - medium armor, big two handed weapon and then describe your dailies (or even encounter powers) as raging. Done and done.

 

[Felon]

The simplest thing to do is just get them to try it one night as a break from the routine. Let the sample it rather than dive in whole-hog. Who knows? You might be disappointed and decide they were right to want to stay with the old system.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

While I DO think it grows on you, I think getting them to try a single demo session or KotS if they are willing is PLENTY enough for them to decide if they like it or not. They could potentially like it MORE the more they play, but if they hate it after the first session, I doubt that would change by playing it more and more.

Just see if they are willing to give it a shot. In my experience it sells itself.

Fitz

 

[Nifft]

Barbarian is pretty easily modeled by just taking a fighter - medium armor, big two handed weapon and then describe your dailies (or even encounter powers) as raging. Done and done.

Barbarian could also be a Dragonborn melee dude with the feat that gives him a +2 to damage when bloodied. There was a 3.5e PHB2 variant like that, right?

Cheers, -- N

 

[Mr. Wilson]

One of my players is buying the books right off, the others are waiting to see how they like it, or are right now not interested in buying them. That said, they all are willing to play the game.

So, we'll see what they think after a few sessions. IMO, they'll eventually buy it, right now they're just in the "we spent thousands in 3.x DnD and we don't need 4E" mindset.