D&D 4E How is the 4e announcement affecting your game groups?

[Stormtower]

I DM for two groups and play in another.

The group I play in hasn't really discussed 4e, and I get the sense that there's little enthusiasm for it among them. Several are heavily invested in 3.5 books, mods and minis.

I addressed the two groups I DM for soon after the 4e announcment at GenCon. They all spoke their intentions to remain in my 3.5/OGL games as long as I run them, and have stood by those claims. Two of them are heavily involved in Living Greyhawk and have a very sour taste in their mouths because of the end of LG support in the RPGA/WotC.

My 3.5 games are running along smoothly and I am starting more 3.5 stuff this year (my Slaughtergarde/Red Hand campaign is coming up on its final session). I'll be running Idylls of the Rat King (DCC#1), Revenge of the Rat King (DCC #27) and some other stuff in the World of Aereth before returning to Gaia's Dream for more homebrew. After that, it's on to Castle Whiterock in Aereth, and the Paizo adventure paths including Pathfinder. I'm sticking with 3.5 and nothing I've seen about 4e has convinced me to try running it.

I am sure some of my players will experiment with 4e and I might even try playing it just to stay connected to the RPGA, but I won't spend money on the books nor will I run 4e.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Our group of 8 includes 2 DMs that alternate campaigns. We used to do 1 full campaign at a time but recently went to a 2 month alternation between concurrent campaigns. One of GMs dislikes d20 in general (but will play it) and preferes to run HERO System. His current campaign is a horror based HERO System and his next one will likely be HERO System as well. Our other GM likes running both d20 and HERO. Right now we have just started a Ptolus campaign with him and I suspect that it will be 2009 before he decides to start another campaign. He also is less into world building and prefers existing settings and adventures so I doubt he will want to spend the time to convert Ptolus. He does like buying new things though so he will likely buy the rules when they come out to at least look at them.

As for our players probably half don't even know there is 4E coming out since we don't talk about it at our games. They don't really keep up on gaming and seem to prefer just showing up and playing. The issue that our group will run into when the time comes for the d20 GM to change campaigns will be whether he can convince the majority of players that 4E will be more fun than 3.x and that we should invest the time and money to learn another game system. And this is assuming 4E sparks enough desire to run fantasy again and not to run a HERO System superhero campaign which is his other passion. Personally I am on the bubble leaning away from 4E right now and was hoping the SRD would be available to see whether it was worth buying. I wont push for 4E for my group until I can see it for myself (which I guess now will be borrowing the d20 GMs books when he is done). At this point I would be up for giving Fantasy HERO a try as it seems to hold more of what I wanted from 4E than 4E does.

 

[el_skootro]

My group hasn't been affected. Here's the breakdown by players:

Player 1 has been playing DnD casually for about three years. She's only starting to explore the more esoteric options 3.5 has to offer (she's currently playing a dragon shaman), and hasn't experienced and edition shift so has a limited understanding of what it means.

Player 2 is currently out of the country, but will return in about a month. He played 1st edition and dropped out of RPGs until I recruited him for my game about 6 months ago. He doesn't have any real desire to switch.

Player 3 played OD&D and 1st ed and stopped playing RPGs until 3.5 came out. He's currently only playing part-time as he has a new baby. He has some interest in the changes and browsed through the first preview, but doesn't see any real reason to switch.

Player 4 enjoys roleplaying and would probably play in any system. Inertia will probably keep him with 3.5, however.

Player 5 is on the fence. She enjoys the ample options that 3.5 allows, but is interested in 4.0.

As the DM, the best wrd to describe my interest in 4.0 is "academic." I'm intrigued by the rules changes and the new fluff, even though I haven't formed a firm opinion (and don't think I'll be able to without playing a few sessions).

I don't think there's any real catalyst for our group to change, but we're entirely open to the possibilities. I and probably a couple of others will purchase the PHB after it comes out and share it with the group. If we do switch, it will be after some careful consideration and probably won't happen for another year and a half or so.

Cheers,
El Skootro

 

[Nightchilde-2]

There are 6-8 players in my group (depending on who makes it that week) and we're all pretty much pro-4e. At the very least, none of them seem to be anti-4e.

It's not going to affect our game at all really, since we haven't been playing D&D for about 8 months now. We tend to run 6-month long campaigns, then switch to a new system, and the release of 4e is going to coincide nicely with our June switch.

 

[Ktulu]

We finished up our long-running game around the time 4e was announced, so we decided to put campaigns on hiatus and just run smaller 2-3 session games until 4e is released. We've adapted some of what we've seen, mechanically, from 4e, like the crit system (works great!) and the static listen/spot. We also use second wind from Saga.

I've played 3e/3.5 since their release, at least once a week. That's 8 years of solid gaming. I think we're ready for an upgrade to the system.

 

[Stormtalon]

My group is going to switch as soon as its released. I'll identify players by their quotes (see my sig, hehe).

There's myself -- the primary DM and I'm heavily pro-4e; I see lots to like about it. Of note, I'm also the one with the largest 3/3.5 library of the group. The stuff I use on a regular basis takes a backpack, a plastic box and a canvas bookbag to lug around. Seeing as I drive 70 miles each weekend to get to where the rest of the players are, that's a LOT to lug around, so I'm looking forward to having to bring only 3 books.

Player 1: "Lemme show you how it's done." Only other one to have played D&D in the 1e days. Recently tried a Bo9S crusader and realized just how much fun maneuvers and such can be. Looking forward to that sorta thing as core. Slightly disappointed that Warforged & DR are going to be parting ways.

Player 2: "What are they riding?" Player 1's wife. Loves dwarves, loves paladins. Getting more and more excited by the new flavor and mechanics of both.

Player 3: "I am not a tic-tac!" Player 2's daughter. Just loves playing D&D with the whole group.

Player 4: #3's best friend. He's already got a detailed character concept for a Dragonborn Warlock. Even likes the new look of gnomes.

Player 5: #3's boyfriend. One of the newest members of the group; a bit dubious about 4e at first, but my enthusiasm is infectious. BWAH-hahahaha!

Players 6 & 7: The newest additions -- friends of #5 both back from Iraq. Encyclopedic knowledge of 3.5 (it's scary) but both open to 4e. Biggest concern of theirs is having to rebuild a custom char-gen spreadsheet that does everything. Again, it's scary.

 

[Papa-DRB]

I just bought DDC 51 -- Castle Whiterock -- and it looks like it might be my next campaign (maybe a year out from now).

Sorry for the brief thread hijack.

Eric,

Is this a pure and simple Dungeon Crawl? I have been thinking about buying this and adding it to my 3.5 collection and running it in the future, but the blurb at RPGNow does not give any detail other than lots of dungeon levels, thanks for any input

 

[Darkwolf71]

The UGT is pretty much all over the board when it comes to 4e.

Player 1 (myself): I'm probobaly the most informed of the group. I spend alot of time here and used to spend even more at the Wizards boards. I try to keep up with all the news and have pretty much stayed on the fence.

Player 2: Is nearly as up-to-date as I am. He spends less time on boards but more time listening to podcasts and such. He is excited about 4e.

Player 3: His main source of information word of mouth. From myself, our FLGS owner, and a couple of his other friends. (Who are NOT as informed as they think they are. Some of the things I've had to correct... ) He has decided to hate 4e with unreasoned passion.

Players 4&5: A married couple, fairly new to D&D anyway. He seems to be at least somewhat excited about 4e. She, I think mainly plays because he does. I mean she enjoys herself and does a decent job for being new but I don't think she'd miss it if they didn't play at all. So, she'll go with whatever.

Player 6: Also playing for a reletivly short time. (A year, year and a half.) She will likely enjoy 4e quite abit.

Players 7&8: Married, owners of the UGT and he is our most active GM. Neither have talked much about 4e but I get the feeling they are open to possibilities.

Players 9 & sometimes 10: Daughters of 7&8. Too young and inexperienced to have a strong opinion, they will play whatever we play.


(Crap what a crew. I'm glad the Table is as big as it is.)

Anyway, Anyway, after the initial flurry following the announcement, only players 1, 2, & 3 spend any time discussing 4e. I will be running KotS as soon as I get it. Then we will see.

However, I expect what will happen is we will play both 3.5 and 4e. We tend to rotate DMs and each runs his own campaign. Unless KotS is a total flop, I will likely run a 4e game and player 2 is planning a wrap-up of our high/epic level campaign, so he may as well when that's done. Players 3 and 7 will likely continue to run 3.5 campaigns. For awhile at least.

 

[Emirikol]

I've been talking to quite a few people at conventions here and the mood is "we're going to take a break from gaming." Granted, that's because of the RPGA's axing of Living Greyhawk (as well as the RPGA dropping Call of Cthulhu and Chaosium's general lackluster convention scenario support..in comparison).

My own group, made up of 6-9 players (depending on the week), is pretty much ambivalent. It's not like $100 is going to make or break any of us (we're geeks..hence..higher income bracket).

4E isn't the issue as much as THE WORLD however. There's not going to be much out there at first (and we burned out on FR YEARS ago).

jh

 

[dmchucky]

My group?

I've got a Fantasy Grounds VTT group of my old players going, but will eventually get another face-to-face game going. In all cases I'll be sticking to 3.5. I think the system is perfect and see no need to shell out even more money for yet another system. I won't be buying any of the books (including the preview ones), so in the long run, this is saving me oodles of cash.

I may eventually seek a new group to play in as well, but I'll only play in 3.x groups thank you very much.