How soon will you switch?

[Stormtower]

This poll isn't looking good for the "4th edition is a sign of the apocalypse" crowd. 15 people out of 228 so far have voted "Never!!!!" Too bad I don't think that will do anything to prevent them from trying to speak for all of us!

As someone who just voted "never," I'd just like to chime in for a moment:

4e ain't a sign of the apocalypse. It's just not impressing me enough to pull me away from the 3.5 rules, which suit my style of gaming perfectly well. Our group has played at levels 1-20 and never encountered the "three and half hour, seven round combat" problems that Wormwood describes.

I will be watching the 4e and DDI developments with interest, because I want our collective hobby to continue to flourish. I'm just not willing to follow WotC where they've chosen to take the game... I like it fine where it's at.

But the sky is NOT falling. Game editions change and we each have to decide what games provide us the most fun. If one hates 3.5 as passionately as Wormwood seems to, 4e will be a breath of fresh air and a welcome relief to beleaguered DMs. If one loves 3.5 and has a stable roster of gamers who also love it, there's really no incentive to switch.

In the interests of fostering useful discussion and community, it would be great if we could avoid simple dichotomous comparisons of the systems. My concerns about DDI aside, I am certain that Mearls et. al are crafting a solid new ruleset and that we 3.5 gearheads will almost certainly find things to snap up and integrate into our games.

There's no wrong way to play D&D. The variances in edition preference and playstyle are part of what makes this community diverse, and in diversity there is strength.

 

[Wormwood]

If one hates 3.5 as passionately as Wormwood seems to, 4e will be a breath of fresh air and a welcome relief to beleaguered DMs.

Oh for . . .

I don't hate 3e, passionately or any other way.

Hell, I play 3.5 twice a week (once as DM, once as a player). I even have fun.

Every game system I play and love has warts. D&D is no different.

 

[Shortman McLeod]

That would fall under, "I don't know if I will switch."


This poll isn't looking good for the "4th edition is a sign of the apocalypse" crowd. 15 people out of 228 so far have voted "Never!!!!" Too bad I don't think that will do anything to prevent them from trying to speak for all of us!

I would point out the sheer, utter, total futility of trying to tie an internet poll to any kind of objective reality, and how 228 people is hardly a representative sample, but I won't bother.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I'll buy the books right away, and maybe run a couple of one-shots or mini-campaigns... And I'll certainly play in anything that comes my way... But I most likely won't make a switch in my own campaign(s) until they come to a natural end and I'm ready to start up something new.

Later
silver

 

[Stormtower]

Every game system I play and love has warts. D&D is no different.

Quoted for excessive truth across all games & all editions.

Also, to Wormwood: my apologies for mischaracterizing your feelings toward 3.5 -- I've clearly misinterpreted the tone of some of your posts. I meant what I said about there being no wrong way to play and I didn't mean to tee off on ya.

 

[Aus_Snow]

This poll isn't looking good for the "4th edition is a sign of the apocalypse" crowd. 15 people out of 228 so far have voted "Never!!!!"

20+, atm. But however low that number looks (and is), that's from among those who frequent the 4e-specific forum on a site mainly dedicated to whatever version of D&D is 'hot' at the time. Which is now 4e, of course.

Most of all though, those who do not want to buy into 4e, such as myself, are not necessarily thinking (let alone posting) anything like 'sign of the apocalypse' type stuff. Some will simply prefer to keep running and playing 3e, or other d20 games, or something else. That does not automatically imply anything else about said people. Maybe, you know, they like the games they are into.

Too bad I don't think that will do anything to prevent them from trying to speak for all of us!

That's quite the irony, really.

 

[Deset Gled]

As soon as it's out, if by "it" you mean "the system reference documents", and by "switch" you mean "reading and discussing".

There will probably be a delay in actually playing 4e until it's been out long enough for 3e games to finish up and people to get familiar with the new system. However, I will do my best to support 4e as long as WotC keeps up the OGL, and doesn't drop the ball on the 3e errata they promised.

 

[drothgery]

4e ain't a sign of the apocalypse. It's just not impressing me enough to pull me away from the 3.5 rules, which suit my style of gaming perfectly well. Our group has played at levels 1-20 and never encountered the "three and half hour, seven round combat" problems that Wormwood describes.

That's stretching things, no doubt. But my group's 17th level right now, and we play from Tuesday evenings from ~6pm-~10pm. We won't start a combat scene after 9, because some of us have to work on Wednesday morning. When I was running a SWSE interlude -- admittedly with much lower-level characters and one less player -- I figured I had another half-hour to work with, even though we were far less familiar with the system.

 

[Patlin]

I need a poll choice for "when existing 3.5 campaigns conclude."

That's the rest of the Age of Worms, Expedition to the Demonweb pits, a converted Return to the Tomb of Horrors and probably one more campaign to be named later. I can't imagine 4e will take longer to come out than all of that!

 

[Imperialus]

I clicked as soon as it's out but really I'll probably buy the PHB the day it comes out then read it in a fair bit of depth before making a final desision. I trust WoTC to put out something I'll probably enjoy but I'm going to hold off on actually playing until I have a reasonably good grasp of the rules. Depending on how much things have changed I might make the switch after a few weeks, might be a couple months. Of course there is always option C where I don't care for it and don't make the switch at all. This seems unlikely though.