Is D&D as we know it dead?

[DemonKing]

I'm not sure yet is I like or hate the new rules (I only got them yesterday) but after a brief perusal I have to echo what a lot of people have been saying: it's not the D&D of old.

I think the thing that I will find most disappointing is the effective end of "low-level" adventuring...1st level characters now seem like 5th level characters under any of the old rules to me. I think this is a shame as I always enjoyed the journey from low level to beyond and the gradual accumulation of powers.

Also it seems like the classes have lost a lot of their distinction for me, which is a shame...and the race options seem a little off too. I'm pretty sure the gnome won't be greatly missed but did we really need the Eladrin to sit beside the elf and half-elf?

I'm not arguing that previous editions were better, but at least there was a sense of evolution to the ruleset. 4E seems to have come a bit out of left field and other than the titles on the spines, I can't see much resemblance between this and the game I grew up with.

 

[JDJblatherings]

Just checked and all the books on my shelves are still there. Drivethrurpg (for example) is also still selling a whole bunch of D&D stuff that isn't 4e.

Don't want to see 4e stick around? Don't buy into it.

 

[CleverNickName]

Not at my table.

How can a new edition keep you from playing your old ones?

 

[Rechan]

As far as I'm concerned, 4e is more D&D than D&D used to be.

But whatever. Play the edition you like.

 

[The Little Raven]

As far as I'm concerned, 4e is more D&D than D&D used to be.

But whatever. Play the edition you like.

I'm with Rechan. I'm loving playing D&D for the first time in years. If you don't like 4th, then just play an edition you like.

 

[Wormwood]

D&D, as defined by the past 8 years, is dead.

Ding. Dong.

 

[Kvantum]

It doesn't stop us, the existing fans, from playing the older editions, but the gamers coming along will (likely) never give the old game a chance.

4e is a radically different game, some would even say not really in the same continuum as the previous games and thus not really "deserving" the D&D name. Maybe it's the (virtual) elimination of Vancian spellcasting, maybe the planar changes, maybe the changes in assumed setting, but there's something fundamentally different with 4e, and for a lot of people that makes it no longer "really" D&D. A lot of the people saying it's still D&D can only define D&D as fantasy role-playing and not with any specifics as to what separates it from other fantasy RPGs. I can't really define D&D much better than a race and class system with Vancian spellcasting, and that may be the kicker right there as to the 4e is/is not D&D - does Vancian spellcasting matter?

 

[DemonKing]

Guys you're missing my point - I'm not saying that I prefer one ruleset over the other, just that the new edition doesn't seem to bear much resemblance to previous editions.

It's probably a decent game but I'm just not sure that it should have been labelled as D&D...it just seems like maybe the designers have gone too far away from the original vision of D&D for it to still be called that.

In any event, people will still play the version they're happiest with.

EDIT: Yes the lack of Vancian spell-casting was one more thing that will really distinguish this product from previous editions. I quite liked Vancian spell casting as it encouraged careful preparation and inventiveness with spell-casting whereas now it seems like spellcasters are more like spam-merchants...it's not necessarilly good or bad but it certainly takes a little bit of the game's original flavour away.

 

[Rechan]

Guys you're missing my point - I'm not saying that I prefer one ruleset over the other, just that the new edition doesn't seem to bear much resemblance to previous editions.

On the contrary. Many here (including Henry, Mouseferatu, etc) see 4e as closer to 1e than the previous editions.

I see it as very 2e-ish, but more tactically focus.

 

[The Little Raven]

On the contrary. Many here (including Henry, Mouseferatu, etc) see 4e as closer to 1e than the previous editions.

Indeed. The feel of the game reminds me of when I first started playing, back in 1988, just before 2nd hit. Sure, the math is different, but it evokes the same feeling of wonder and creativity, which I didn't get when 3rd edition was released (which is not a slight on 3rd... I was ecstatic when it came out, but it didn't feel the same as back when). My boss keeps giving me crap because she'll walk in on me typing up monsters... then she'll have me email them to her for use in the office game she started.