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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TerraDave" data-source="post: 5287017" data-attributes="member: 22260">Note, I know we may not need another thread on this, but this one already exists, and I can post in it some more. And I have been planning this post for a while.Well, we have learned some more things from previews and Gencon. Some things I said upthread might not be exactly right, depending, but I remain pretty confident in my original premise. I will sum up. Our …zucchini… is here. Lets break this up by “newby essentials” and “new core”. Newby essentials:If you’re a new player, there is a whole new set of products for you. You don’t need the 2008 books, and I really wouldn’t recommend them. These new products contain a bunch of differences from the 2008 books. They have a certain degree of compatibility (more on that below), as did the various pre 2000 editions of D&D did with each other or 3.0 and 3.5 products did with each other, but you will also see many, many differences. This is a …zucchini… its a new, updated, upgraded, redirected, bunch of products. Maybe its a mini …zucchini… maybe its meant to be used with other things, but its certainly a …zucchini…New Core:Now essentials are compatible with other 4E books. How? If you compared with the 2008 books you will see hundreds of differences, including many, many core rules differences (DCs, skills, rules for mounts and flying, conditions…a lot of the stuff beyond the basic d20 stuff from 3.5).  How are they compatible? Dozens of pages of rules updates, which have been accelerated this year (especially in May and July) to make core work with essentials. And its not done: We look forward to:-changes to PHB races-changes to wizard encounter powers-changes to implements-changes to the classification of magic items-possible changes to default DCs (again, I have lost track of this) and skill challenges (again).This is on top of the changes of monster math which is major but not in errata for all relevant monsters. This, this is our …zucchini…But I  can still use my 2008 books! Oh sure you can. You can just play 2008 4E. In a lot of campaigns, thats probably fine. Or, you can stay current with all these pages of errata, and tweaking monsters, sure you can. Or:-Get the rules compendium. -If you are a player, use that with the CB.-If your are DM, use it with the DDI and maybe the DM Kit and Monster Vault. These last two products might be worth dwelling on. They many not replace everything in the core books, but they act as replacements. They just look better. True, we don’t need them, but we don’t need the 2008 books either. But we may need to keep paying WotC with a DDI subscription. So that’s my point. The …zucchini… has become a fait-accompli. And we are eating it. Enjoy.</blockquote>

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