D&D 4E How do you feel about 4E right *now*? (week of 1/21/08)

[Hjorimir]

Thumbs up for me. My only real disappointment is that they are not producing a new setting based on the 4E fluff. I'm just not into either the Realms or Eberron, but what I've read in the two preview books really brings my sense of wonder back.

 

[pemerton]

I think it is a little odd, given the diversity of opinion and general quality of discussion here at EN World, to presume that our opinions are somehow wildly different than those of the general gaming public.

I don't think it's that odd.

For example: suppose I knew that someone was putting out a new book in moral philosophy, defending a new interpretation of Socrates' moral system (I've got in mind Rai Gaita's Good and Evil from the early 1990s). If I posted a poll on a moral philosophy webforum, I might get a semi-meanignful indication of what serious moral philosophers think. But it would have no relevance to what the general population thinks, despite the fact that nearly all thinking people have an opinion about, and an interest in, the issues that Gaita discusses in his book.

By way of analogy, most RPGers don't think very hard about the nature of their RPGing, the system design that underpins it, the coherence of the gameworld and system, etc. They just get together with their friends and play. My impression is that most of them play D&D because it's the game they've always played, and they have fun with it.

When 2nd ed came out and did things pretty much the same, they nearly all switched over. When 3E came out and did nearly everything quite differently, they nearly all switched over. I suspect that when 4e comes out, nearly all will switch over. I think that Ryan Dancey is correct, that for most players it is networks (and also, I supsect, branding) and not system details that determine their RPGing.

It is, however, an interesting exercise to see who's hanging out on the board right now.

This I agree with.

 

[Ahglock]

Overall thumbs up.

i like a lot of the ideas they are shooting for. And while some specific fluff about a race, the planes etc may annoy me the general style of game they seem to want I like. I want high adventure and quick over the top action and that sounds like what they want as well.

I'm concerned they will oversimplify things which is just as bad as needless complexity. Also I am worried about things not being in the game until later books. It doesn't bother me when weird concepts aren't supported from the get go, but a necromancer or druid is a fairly basic idea and to not have that in the first book is a big let down.

 

[Deset Gled]

Seriously, though, I was going to wait until after the D&D Experience to post this again, AND I suggest placing this in the "General" forum as it's posible that some who are not going 4E have stopped reading the 4E forum.

Still, numbers are about the same with a slight (7%) improvement on 4E as of this post. (Although, the longer my poll remained, the more the "thumbs down" % grew.)

Sorry about jumping the gun on you there, but I didn't know you had specific plans, and I feel that we have received a very large amount of information since the first poll. I really enjoyed the simplicity of your poll. Imitation is the most sincere form of a compliment.

Anyway, this poll seems to be winding down, and the results are pretty close to the first one. We're now at just about 70/30 (pro/against) with a bit over 700 responses. The first poll was about 65/35 with about 650 responses. As with the first poll, the negative responses were weak at the begining, but got stronger later on. It makes sense to me that people that are less excited about 4e will vist the forum less often, so their votes come in later. The part that I find most surprising is that we have more responses the second time around. I really expected traffic in this forum to die down significantly after the initial bruhaha surrounding the 4e announcement, but it looks like people are getting more interested as time goes on.

 

[DaveMage]

Sorry about jumping the gun on you there, but I didn't know you had specific plans, and I feel that we have received a very large amount of information since the first poll. I really enjoyed the simplicity of your poll. Imitation is the most sincere form of a compliment.

Heh - no big deal. I was tempted to repost it again myself, but decided to wait a bit.

It does look like 4E has gained a small bit of momentum, though.

While I like the simplicity of the poll, a more informative poll might be the following:

What are your intentions toward 4E?

1. Going to buy it and play it (I like what I've seen so far)
2. Going to buy it - might play it, might not (might just use it to tweak my current game)
3. Not buying

 

[Lord Fyre]

Heh - no big deal. I was tempted to repost it again myself, but decided to wait a bit.

It does look like 4E has gained a small bit of momentum, though.

While I like the simplicity of the poll, a more informative poll might be the following:

What are your intentions toward 4E?

1. Going to buy it and play it (I like what I've seen so far)
2. Going to buy it - might play it, might not (might just use it to tweak my current game)
3. Not buying

You're leaving out "Going to buy it - I am an obsessive compulsive."

 

[Wolfspider]

I just hate when people come in and claim you moderators are harsh on anti-4e people, but don't touch us pro-4e people at all. It's completely dishonest and insulting to the neutral environment you guys try to maintain.

The poster that you quoted earlier and called a bold-faced liar never mentioned moderators at all in his post, so I think you might have jumped the gun a bit....

In any case, I think he had a good point. Several posters who have said "thumbs down" to 4e in this thread have had their reasons questioned (even though this poll deals with feelings, not reasons), while I don't recall seeing one pro-4e poster in this thread confronted in such a way by those with differing opinions.

Hmmm....

Naw. It's probably just my overactive imagination.

 

[DaveMage]

All - there's a new poll in the General forum for post-DDXP D&D plans...

I have a feeling that a lot of posters in this forum haven't seen this poll yet, so go vote!

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=220461

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Generally positive, with some apprehension and reservations that come largely from the wizard powers and monster manual pages from D&DXP.

 

[Will]

Thumbs up, though I've already identified one make/break point: 1-1-1-1.

If houseruling that to 1-2-1-2 is obscenely difficult because of the way the rules intertwine, then I'm not playing.

Otherwise, I think I'll be cool with the game.