D&D 4E Hypothetical Scenario: What if WotC chooses never to do 4E?

[Shortman McLeod]

I think that if 4e never came out, the 3.5 books would become increasingly niche, irrelevant, or repetitive to the point that not enough people would buy them to make D&D worthwhile from a business perspective. And the game can only evolve so far without a new edition to codify and organize the changes, or it will just become a bigger and bigger mess.

Also, people (myself included) like new things. If D&D stops having new things, the majority of gamers will move on to something else.

Don't forget that tabletop RPGs as a whole are slowly dying out. The average age of RPG tabletop gamers is probably 40 or so. Give it about 10 or 15 years, and everything will be World of Warcraft-style games (i.e. computer/online/video games).

Shrug. It's just the future, bro.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Still, every once in a while, you'd have to publish either an eratta compendium or a Core rules revision because chasing down all the revisions could drive you nuts.

If every even numbered year, they re-released the core books with all the errata included, they'd put it pretty squarely in the hands of the consumer -- upgrade or don't, it's 99.99 percent compatible either way.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The average age of RPG tabletop gamers is probably 40 or so.

Citation?

 

[Sigurd]

4e will come because it has to.

Book publishing houses are not like authors. They must produce to exist and must have an expanding market to get the volumes they need. If the market doesn't expand it must be renewed by forcing us to replace books.

At some stage structured story telling in the style of Dungeons and Dragons will have enough supporters and material that it will exist like amateur theatre. Pay someone for a story to use but the rules are understood by everyone so use what you know. (This may be happening now with OGL and D20 - time will tell)

This is somewhat modified by the fact that WOTC makes far more than books. Miniatures, licensing, and cards probably make more for the company than game books. These reduce the need for game renewal and might prolong 3.5E. That doesn't mean that WOTC can ignore the books and lose its leadership role. If 3.5 was left long enough I think an uncontrolled 4th edition would emerge from another source than WOTC. I don't think they will allow that.


To every thing,,,,, turn, turn, turn.

 

[Hussar]

Don't forget that tabletop RPGs as a whole are slowly dying out. The average age of RPG tabletop gamers is probably 40 or so. Give it about 10 or 15 years, and everything will be World of Warcraft-style games (i.e. computer/online/video games).

Shrug. It's just the future, bro.

Wondering this myself.

The average age of a Dragon mag reader is about 25 according to them, at least a couple of years ago anyway. In my own experience, I've played with about 50 different gamers over the past couple of years, and, at the ripe old age of 34, no one has been older than me. In fact, in my group of seven players, half were under 20.

So, while I'm sure the number of older gamers has certainly grown as we've all gotten older, there does seem to be a rather large number of new blood coming up through the ranks as well.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If every even numbered year, they re-released the core books with all the errata included, they'd put it pretty squarely in the hands of the consumer -- upgrade or don't, it's 99.99 percent compatible either way.

Don't get me wrong...I'd go for a system like that, but I'd spread it out just a bit more. Buying revised core books every 2 years would probably be too hot a production schedule for most consumers. Perhaps every 4-5 years?

The average age of RPG tabletop gamers is probably 40 or so.

I'm not registered, so I can't do the search, but there was a poll on EN World that queried about player ages. I don't think the average was that high.

 

[Shieldhaven]

I can't think of a multiplayer roleplaying game that hasn't released some sort of comprehensive rules fixes from time to time. MMOs have patches that both introduce new content and tweak rules with which the designers are dissatisfied on a regular basis. Fans howl in protest or chortle with glee... not at all unlike what we see in D&D. The same thing is done in the LARPs I've been involved in - a new edition of the rulebook comes out, revising rules calls made on the spot over the past few years.

If a game declines to fix problems with its rules (and no game has ever been able to boast both perfect rules and enough content to satisfy every player indefinitely), players will drift away. I take this to be one of the Great and Immutable Truths of Game Design.

Haven

 

[Thunderfoot]

The world would end soon after that announcement.

 

[KingCrab]

No way this would happen. Already 3.5 is bloated, and many of the books are repititive (2 PHBs!!!! 5 Monster Manuals!)

There really isn't much repetition in the monster manuals (if you exclude the fact that MMIV was mostly a collection of older monsters with some added levels) nor is there much repetition is the two players guides. Personally I'd be happy if they kept releasing monster manuals every few months as long as they didn't pull another MMIV.

I know I would welcome buying the core books over again, if most of the changes were new balance changes and error corrections. I think there are enough people who feel the same way that it makes too much financial success not to eventually release a new edition. However, if they decided to completely change everything that might be a big financial disaster for them.

 

[Shortman McLeod]

Citation?

"The average age of RPG tabletop gamers is probably 40 or so."

--Shortman McLeod, Enworld (2007)



Actually, 40 is a bit high. It's probably closer to 35.