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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TerraDave" data-source="post: 5260121" data-attributes="member: 22260">What has been described so far of Essentials and beyond D&D is, in whole or part, a ...zucchini... of the game. It has “updated” rules, new versions of the traditional core classes and other new crunch, a new format. After this fall, you won’t and will never need your 4E PHB, DMG, or MM to play the current version of the game. It as big a change as most ...zucchini...s of most rpgs.Now setting aside wether a ...zucchini... is a good or a bad thing, people resist this characterization of a ...zucchini... on a number grounds:Its 100% compatible with what I am using now:This is basically true of most versions of D&D. 0D&D, B/X D&D, 1st and 2nd AD&D, and now their various retro clones, have a high degree of compatibility, as does 3.0 with 3.5. (its also worth noting that some of the most game breaking changes can happen in “within” edition products.).  This tends to be even more true when you look at other RPGs. And is everything in 4E “compatible” right now? Monsters from MMI?Its only for newbies, a pure gateway product: This is basically false. (Once we include the post essentials products that are building on the base created by it) It is for newbies, but it will be the only current version of the game, and is basically for everyone who might buy new products. But I can still play my 4E game: I hope so. But this is also true of your 1E game or your  game of bridge for that matter. But if you play 4E using just 2008-09 materials, you are no longer playing the ...zucchini.... Are the changes that big? Big enough to preview revised classes and release a whole bunch of new stuff.But isn’t it retro? Oh sure, like most ...zucchini...s of D&D they have reversed some of the changes made before and or try to hearken back to D&Ds glory days.But aren’t key changes already in my errata: Ok, good point. 100 plus pages of errata, including 20 for the PHB have been released, including changes to  number of widely used skills and powers. And if you want (most) of this in print products, you have to buy Essentials.Now wait a second, I subscribe to DDI, I don’t have to buy crap. Sure. A lot of the new material has come and will come to you that way. But: you pay money for that subscription. It is not legally free. So, by paying a steady stream of money to WotC, you get the ...zucchini.... This was always the case. What? but this is different this time, really different. By their nature, ...zucchini...s are different. Yes, they are saying keep using your old character (but be sure to incorporate all these rule updates). Yes, the DDI changes how some of this works, though again DDI is not free.</blockquote>

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