I'm stocked for life! (But what if no one cares?)

[Johnnie Freedom!]

I've been poring over the numerous Dungeon/Dragon/4e speculation threads with great interest. One comment I've seen repeatedly is people saying things like this:

"Screw WotC and 4e. I'm sticking with 3.5, baby. I've got enough books and adventures to last me for life!"

I'll admit, I'm inclined to think similar thoughts, except for one thing: the best RPG in the world is meaningless if you can't find players. Where WotC goes, so go the majority of players.

My question is this: How many of you think that even if/when 4e is released, 3.0/3.5 will carry on as a viable subculture? Will there be die-hard 3.5 players for years and years to come?

One way to answer to this question, perhaps, is to look at previous editions of the game. Dragonsfoot presents us with a vibrant pre-3.0 D&D community, but I suspect it's more of an online presence than a "real world" presence. In other words, finding grognards at dragonsfoot is easy; finding grognards at your local FLGS is well-nigh impossible for most of us.

I suspect and fear that once 4e comes along, we can chant, "3.5 for-evAH" all we want, but it will mean nothing, since most players will automatically choose the Shiny New Thing.

 

[Ry]

DMs set the trend for a lot of groups.

A way to guarantee this is to start a group now, and whenever 4e comes out say "We're sticking with these."

 

[Mercule]

I've got a group of six players who also happen to be my best friends. We've all got the 3.5 "core 3" and are pretty happy with 3.5. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to play for sufficiently long to satisfy me.

 

[Psion]

I've been poring over the numerous Dungeon/Dragon/4e speculation threads with great interest. One comment I've seen repeatedly is people saying things like this:

"Screw WotC and 4e. I'm sticking with 3.5, baby. I've got enough books and adventures to last me for life!"

I'll admit, I'm inclined to think similar thoughts, except for one thing: the best RPG in the world is meaningless if you can't find players. Where WotC goes, so go the majority of players.

Eh.

My new Spycraft group never converted from 3e for their D&D needs (they never converted from Spycraft 1.0 for that matter, but we are working on that... ) And about half of my last D&D group only owned one or two 3.5 items.

There is a much larger segment of 3.0 die-hards than I would have suspected there would be. And I think that even more people are invested enough in 3.5 to be reluctant to change.

So yeah... the argument you are predicating from doesn't fly for me. I would have no problem finding 3.0 players if that's what I felt for running, and I imagine 3.5 would be similar.

 

[Ourph]

In my experience most players will play whatever the DM is willing to run.

 

[gizmo33]

I'll admit, I'm inclined to think similar thoughts, except for one thing: the best RPG in the world is meaningless if you can't find players. Where WotC goes, so go the majority of players.

There are shades of an idea here that's used by grognards to put down 3E people - and that is that the bulk of the people playing DnD do so because WotC tells them to.

What actually might be the case is that people play 3E because it's a good game. In my particular case 3E happened to solve a lot of problems that I had with 1E/2E. It was an improvement as far as I was concerned, and because of that it got my dollars.

So as far as I'm concerned there's no telling who is going to buy 4E. I think the popularity of 4E might depend on whether it's an improvement over 3E. And for my money it would have to be a big improvement - not just a 3.51.

I don't think I've ever met a player that has said "look - I have to play by a certain set of rules or I won't play". People will play whatever game system I'm running my game in, therefore no RPG in the world is meaningless if I'm willing to play it.

 

[olshanski]

"Screw WotC and 4e. I'm sticking with 3.5, baby. I've got enough books and adventures to last me for life!"

That looks like a very good reason for a publisher to publish 4th edition. Since the 3.5 market is saturated with adventures and supplements, the market has dwindled. If you start a new edition, however, you have millions of people who don't even own the basic rules yet.

"My question is this: How many of you think that even if/when 4e is released, 3.0/3.5 will carry on as a viable subculture? Will there be die-hard 3.5 players for years and years to come?

I believe that there are still die-hard 1st edition players out there even as we speak, and I know there are also websites devoted to 2nd edition players. I have a hunch that there will be 3rd edition players around 10 years from now regardless of the marketplace. Some of those 1st and 2nd edition players have migrated towards Castles and Crusades... but there is gamer drift regardless.

 

[Johnnie Freedom!]

I don't think I've ever met a player that has said "look - I have to play by a certain set of rules or I won't play".

Oh, I have. Many times. Try a poll on enworld or rpg.net asking how many players would be willing to play an AD&D 2e campaign, for example: you'll find a majority will say, "Yech, no way!"

On the other hand, I think the basic premise is sound, that many players are open to (more or less) whatever the DM suggests. I also suspect that since the number of people currently playing 3.0/3.5 is fairly large (compared with the pre-3e crowd), there will hopefully be people open to continue will this edition.

I don't have a "die hard gaming group of five friends who have been with me for ten years", unlike many of you. So recruiting new players is always a concern in the back of my mind. :\

 

[Mark CMG]

I think the Internet changes all the old concepts about how tough it is to gather a group for any game, no matter how old, whether it is for play in a particular locale or online. Ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, you almost might as well find a new hobby if you didn't want to keep up with the new edition of a game and were not in a location with great FLGSs and a fairly large population. Options are now megamanifold.

 

[Krolik]

I think players and GMs are a lot smarter about D&D, d20, and the OGL now then they were 6 years ago. As long as the OGL publishers keep producing quality OGL material after WotC switches to 4E gamers are going to keep playing it. I really do not believe every gamer is going to be as quick to dump another $200.00+ into WotC's coffers to buy another Player's Handbook, DM's Guide, Monster Manual, Forgotten Realms setting, etc. It's a nice trick to make us keep buying the same books over and over again but eventually it wears through and people see it for what it is.