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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lonely Tylenol" data-source="post: 1491688" data-attributes="member: 18549">4th editionYou know, I have to wonder if maybe this 4th edition thing isn't just a bugbear dreamed up to scare the kiddies (is bugbear OGC?  Yes?  Okay.).The success of the 3rd edition has been in a large part due to the widespread availability of nifty stuff to buy to go along with it, as is obvious, and has been discussed.  But what would a move to a 4th edition look like?  Wizards would make announcements, Dragon would do a countdown, and everyone would be really curious...and then go back to playing 3rd ed, I wager.To use another gaming paradigm, I look at it like a video game system.  If you release a brand new gaming box with a fast processor and sweet graphics, but there are no games for it, no one will buy it.  I remember that no one I knew bought a Nintendo 64, because the Playstation just simply had a better selection of games.  Nintendo 64 never did well, and they've done a much better job on the Gamecube in regard to third-party products to make sure that there's a robust software library for it.  Because without the support, the thing is just a little plastic box.So that's what I see a closed 4th edition ending up as: a useless plastic box.  If it's not backward compatible with 3rd edition (and to be closed, it will have to be), it'll render useless hundreds of supplements, adventures, magazines, web content, and other miscellaneous publications that we've built up since 2000.  We'll have to start over again from scratch, junk our books, and start forking out for the new edition core books, splatbooks, supplements, adventures, etc.  Most of us did this already in 2000 (and again last year, if you count 3.5), so we're getting a bit fed up with it (and skinny of wallet).  Not to mention we'll have to learn an entirely new D&D system if the game is going to avoid being Open Content.  Not to mention that many of the non-rule items that make D&D what it is (Magic Missile, anyone?) are already permanently Open Content no matter what they do with the 4th edition.  They can keep their mind flayers.Even if a 4th edition comes out, the excluded publishers (and probably the included ones, on the side) will continue to turn out great new D20 products and the D20 community will continue for at least a few years on its momentum, even with its big mover and shaker gone...perhaps for longer than a few years, perhaps for a long time.  Will I buy the 4th edition, with its shiny new books?  Or will I buy a D20 supplement about pirate ninjas that works with the other books I already have?I don't know if people will be able to get excited about a 4th edition that's completely divorced from the 3rd edition.  I was only interested in the Playstation 2 because it would run my Playstation 1 games as well as giving me new stuff.</blockquote>

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