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

[Jeff Wilder]

Here's my perspective: If 4e comes out, and I like it better than 3E, why would I ever want to play 3E again?

This seems pretty obvious to me:

"Because I don't have to reinvest hundreds or thousands of dollars into the game."

Obviously, whether this is worth it to you depends on several factors, including how much you spent on 3E, how much you'd spend on 4E, and how much more you like 4E. Speaking for myself, as a 3.5-lovin' completist who owns nearly every single 3E product WotC has released, and hundreds of dollars more worth from third parties, 4E would basically have to give me a spontaneous orgasm every time I pick up a core rulebook.

 

[jdrakeh]

. . . 4E would basically have to give me a spontaneous orgasm every time I pick up a core rulebook.

Oddly, that happens every time that I pick up my copy of Iron Heroes

 

[Baby Samurai]

(2e was what made me start playing Rolemaster and GURPS).

It's what made me and my homies start playing Magic: the Gathering…but boy, did that game bring out some retarded emotions in people I respected.

2nd edition to me; was 1st edition without balls/vibe. Unfortunately it is the edition I've played the most of.

 

[amethal]

Oddly, that happens every time that I pick up my copy of Iron Heroes

Dammit, why didn't you tell me sooner? I'd have picked up the hard copy instead of making do with the PDF

 

[Krolik]

I'm pretty sure that what will happen is that a large majority of players will move to the new edition and there will be a small number of holdouts. Why? Because that's what happened with every other edition change. I don't see any reason why the next time around will be any different.

I think it's going to depend on a lot of factors. We don't know what the economy is going to be like when 4e comes out. Money might be tight and there's always plenty of d20/OGL on eBay.

We don't know if the game is going to have more emphasis on miniatures or moving more toward a cyber model. Part of the joy of gaming is getting to see friends I don't always get to see due to real life. I'd hate to lose that to play online with people I used to see weekly.

We also have to wonder if there is no 4e OGL will gamers be willing to accept only the 3 4e book choices per month from WotC rather then the dozens we currently have? I generally don't have much interest in the things WotC tries to sell me each month and prefer eating more then just vanilla.

I'd also say that unless 4e is radically different we'll probably just end up taking the tweaks we like from 4e and incorporating them into a 3.5/4 fusion of sorts just as I'm currently using things from d20, True20, Conan, and other games in my current play.

 

[satori01]

I think 4e will be a different enough beast (Collectible, Minis required, purchaseale powerups etc) that I think it will hav no interest for a good sized chunck of the current D&D crowd.

WotC seems to love the cash that Collectibility brings, and I can't imagine them not using that model for 4e.

This idea that the next edition will be something more akin to MtG has been floating around for years now, with not a lot of corresponding evidence. This tends to make me think it the projection of fear, and not necessarily an accurate speculative trend.

Star Wars Saga is being released, and while we do not know all of the details, it seems to stay true to the standard RPG model and not be a model of "Collectibility". Given what I have heard,the Star Wars Miniature game was doing quite well for some time, and thus seemed a prime candidate for this dread experiment everyone is so fearful about.

Purchasing Randomized segments of rules just does not seem like it is an appropriate of effective model for a product like an RPG. It works for MtG because MtG is not an RPG.

I see the flag of "Backward Compatibility" is being hoisted again. It is unreasonable I think to assume that a new edition be backwards compatable. In some ways that is a good thing, as it means that the new edition is not some minor rules changes, (3.5 cough, cough).
If Vancian magic is dropped, or considerably altered, chiding the creators for not making the game entirely backward computable is just silly, and unrealistic.

For myself it will all depend on how good the system appears to be in 4e. I am sure I will buy the core books, just to look. Wether I switch over will be a different matter. Like many people I have invested quite a bit of cash into 3.5, so 4e will have to be quite good.

 

[RFisher]

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?

I have never played with a gamer who was devoted to a single system. I recently met one gamer who refuses to play anything but a small set of systems, but it took only one session for him to decide my group wasn't for him.

I've also played with lots of gamers who would vow they would never play System X again only to be the first one creating a character when someone offered to run System X. (Including me, know that I think about it!)

My current group--formed in 2000--has divided our time about equally between out-of-print & in-print games. (If I looked closely, out-of-print might even be a smidge more common for us.)

As hard as it may be for anyone to believe, the whole idea of a group or individual that only plays one system is just as hard for me to wrap my head around. I'm not saying it doesn't exist. I'm just saying that I'm not worried about finding a group to play any system I want to because I've never found it difficult to find players who are willing to play whatever someone is willing to run.

Rather, I'd have a more difficult time trying to find single-system players. (^_^)

 

[Baby Samurai]

Rather, I'd have a more difficult time trying to find single-system players. (^_^)

As a DM, which I always seem to be *sad eyes*, I only run D&D, but if I got the chance to be a player, I would try any system.

I got to play one session in a Call of Cthulhu game – "When you open the door to the bathroom stall, you see a squid in the toilet – make a Sanity check!"

 

[ThirdWizard]

This seems pretty obvious to me:

"Because I don't have to reinvest hundreds or thousands of dollars into the game."

I don't know. Over the next five years, to take an arbitrary amount of time, I don't think I would spend more or less money if they released 4e now or further down the line or never. My spending habits haven't changed much since when 3e came out. I don't know how indicative of the market that is, but I'm going to keep buying books.

I also still use previous edition material converted to 3e. I admit this is mostly because I run Planescape, so I need to do conversions of setting material when I plan on using it, but I can't imagine it would be too difficult to, for example, convert the Bear Warrior PrC to 4e. At least no more difficult than previous conversions I've done. Again, I don't know how typical that is. I would guess that most people just throw everything previous out for simplicity's sake.

But, speaking from my own habits, I have never played a previous edition of D&D after a newer one was released.

 

[Particle_Man]

Warning: I stopped reading these halfway down the first page.

To the OP, I would say that if 4E stays OGL, then people will switch, for the most part. But if 4E is closed, while the OGL still applies to 3rd ed., then all that third-party material still coming out for 3rd will keep more people with 3rd.