D&D 4E Is my friend's unwillingness to try 4e irrational?

[Wolfspider]

Sounds to me like you are the one being irrational and inconsiderate. You're giving your players an ultimatum - play 4e, or else. Can you really be surprised when at least one of them lashes back at you by giving you an ultimatum of his own? Even if you do manage to force him to back down and accept the new edition, his ability to enjoy it will be diminished due to your strong-arm tactics. Nobody likes to be forced into doing something, especially not by a friend.

I tend to agree with this sentiment, although I won't go so far as to call the poster irrational and inconsiderate. That's fairly harsh.

It does seem pretty hasty to me to decide months in advance of even seeing the rules that the whole game is going to switch over to the new edition and that your one less-than-enthusiastic friend can either take it or leave it.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I tend to agree with this sentiment, although I won't go so far as to call the poster irrational and inconsiderate. That's fairly harsh.

It does seem pretty hasty to me to decide months in advance of even seeing the rules that the whole game is going to switch over to the new edition and that your one less-than-enthusiastic friend can either take it or leave it.

But so far, the only alternative seems to be not play at all, because 3.5 isn't really an option for the potential DMs in Dragonblades group. Well, if it turns out that 4E sucks and isn't "DMable" either for them, well, that's bad. But this still means that someone has to buy the rulebooks and make a test session - unless maybe all reviews say that the game isn't worth the effort...

 

[PoeticJustice]

Doesn't seem like an ultimatum if everyone else is on board but Bob. Just seems like the democratic response.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

[*] If consensus can't be reached we hold a vote using IRV. Winner runs their game.

I would just like to say that assuming IRV mean Instant Runoff Voting, you are just cool.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Doesn't seem like an ultimatum if everyone else is on board but Bob. Just seems like the democratic response.

No, he gave the ultimatum to the other fence sitter (there were originally 2).

 

[Dragonblade]

No, he gave the ultimatum to the other fence sitter (there were originally 2).

True. But that approach was based on me knowing him and what he likes. Also when we had that particular conversation we were joking about it. And even though I meant what I said, the delivery was part of the banter we always engage in. That didn't come through in my original post.

Bob, although he is a friend, is not as close a friend as the other player and his personality is different. Also the game that Bob currently plays in is not a game that I DM. And even if it was, I would never approach it in the same manner.

I'm really not a tactless jerk, although I could see how some people came away with that impression in my initial post.

 

[DonTadow]

I tend to agree with this sentiment, although I won't go so far as to call the poster irrational and inconsiderate. That's fairly harsh.

It does seem pretty hasty to me to decide months in advance of even seeing the rules that the whole game is going to switch over to the new edition and that your one less-than-enthusiastic friend can either take it or leave it.

But it does seem irrational and inconsiderate when you or anyone else has haven't seen the rules. What the OP wants is for everyone to take perform this experiment with him, and for the opposing player, rpg'n is not an experiment.

Yes the DM has a lot of say so on how the game is run, but the decisions still comes from the group. I"m not sure what type of god complex some of you dms got, but there are 5 other people at that table playing with you, even if you own the table. Sure I put in house rules to either speed up or help me manage the game better, but I sure as heck don't just flip to a new system until its agreed upon by all. Heck, i wanted to switch to m&m for a bit but hte players didn't like it and so voted to stick with s20 4weeks a month.

I'm not calling the op a tactless jerk, he probably has the best of intentions. But his judgment is clouded by the shiny new 4e and he's not putting himself in Bob's shoes.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I'm really not a tactless jerk, although I could see how some people came away with that impression in my initial post.

I wonder if you would get the same reaction around here if you wanted to run a game of Shadowrun or Unisystem. Just suggesting that Bob might have fun in 4e seems to be something of an insult.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I wonder if you would get the same reaction around here if you wanted to run a game of Shadowrun or Unisystem. Just suggesting that Bob might have fun in 4e seems to be something of an insult.

I don't know about others, but my response would be the same:

(1) If you want to run Shadowrun, you have a perfect right to do so.

(2) Bob, however, is not irrational for not wanting to play Shadowrun.

RC

 

[ThirdWizard]

I don't know about others, but my response would be the same:

(1) If you want to run Shadowrun, you have a perfect right to do so.

(2) Bob, however, is not irrational for not wanting to play Shadowrun.

RC

I... agree!

I'd still try to convince him, though. *grumbles about lack of people willing to play Shadowrun with him*