D&D 4E Merric's thoughts on 4e

[Wulf Ratbane]

Frankly, I'm withholding judgment

You are?

until I see the solid rules; not what they intend for the rules to result in.

See you in June.

 

[med stud]

Med Stud,

AD&D as a base system was fairly balanced as I recall. It was no more unbalanced than any other system. I'm afraid you have misconstrued my statements about the balance of AD&D v. 3.5. I am saying that AD&D was fairly easy to play out to high levels without extreme amounts of work by the DM and Players. In effect though, generally, intelligent people play these games. They will find ways to break the system any which way you go. I gave up on game balance loooooooong ago. No such thing.

As for the market research questions, yeah I do question their abilities. I've seen and participated in their surveys. The resulting actions they take however, don't mesh with their surveys. Besides, if implementation from market research was as easy as you think, GM and Ford would still have a stranglehold on the U.S. auto market.

OK then I misunderstood what you meant by balance. My view of balance is how well do one class or race compare to another and in that aspect 1st and 2nd edition was very imbalanced. The races being balanced against humans by level limits were one of the worst ideas ever IMO, you function at 100% effectiveness until you hit a certain level, then you are out of the game (if you want to have levels). Wizards were so much more powerful than fighters that it wasn't funny at high levels and very weak at low levels. The thief could be replaced by spell casters by lvl 5-6. Above lvl 9 it was essentially meaningless to advance as a fighter; sure the lower THAC0 is nice but otherwise it's just 3 HP per level.

For ease of running: I can imagine that 1st and 2nd edition was much easier to run than 3e at high levels. I won't protest that.

Ford and GM is another matter as other car manufacturers are a more serious competition to them than the other RPGs are to D&D. I consider WotC to be the Microsoft of RPGs more than the GM of RPGs.

About the surveys; I haven't participated in them but I don't think WotC rolls a dice to see what races they exclude etc. They must lean on something. If they implament it optimally is another matter but I think they most likely hit their mark (as shaky as they can be considered, most 4e ideas got about 90 % approval at the polls in this forum, for example).

 

[Hussar]

Ty, you keep saying balance. I do not think that it means what you think it means.

 

[Ty]

Hussar, yes, it is a poor choice of words. I do however, see multiple different potential items of "balance" in D&D. Class balance, game balance, power curve balance, etc.

 

[hong]

Great. History does include the Gettysburg address. You get a gold star. If history was unimportant to D&D, then why did WotC release the 30 Years of D&D compendium and why is there a "History of the Miniatures" on the frontpages of the D&D website?

To make money off a cash cow, as opposed to doing real work.

It's because the nostalgia and history of the game is what keeps bringing back the old folks like me.

And eventually, old folks die.

You know, the one's with the stable careers (cash) breeding the next generation of geeks to inherit the hobby...

You mean the ones playing World of Warcraft?

 

[Hussar]

I <3 hong with all my body including my pee pee.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that while nostalgia IS a factor in keeping a brand alive (Goodman Games for example), gaming companies that don't innovate and keep trying new things fall by the wayside.

For once, the designers seem to have the cojones to stand up and try to really make a new edition instead of simply retreading the same water time and time again. There's a name for that, it's called Palladium.

 

[Ty]

Hong,

Witty. Very witty. You should do stand up sometime.

It's good all you "young whipper snappers" have a place to congregate and practice your comedy routines.

As for the circle of D&D players I know, none play World of Warcraft. None intend on purchasing 4th Edition unless it happens to be extremely good. We all happen to have multiple children and incomes in the top 10% for the country though. Wow, Hong is wrong again.

However, while you all are enjoying the "internet gangbanging" so much, I'd ask you to refer back to my original post regarding a lead designer's comments instead of attempting to engage me in trying to futilely defending a game system from 1980, 1988, etc.

ACTUAL POINT HERE FOR THOSE WITH SHORT ATTENTION SPANS:

It doesn't cause anyone here any concern whatsoever that a lead designer for D&D entirely dismissed two editions of the game; didn't even play them?

Oh yes, that's right. This isn't about engaging in an honest discussion as to D&D's past and where it is headed. This is a stand up comedy routine.

Ciao.

 

[Mean DM]

It doesn't cause anyone here any concern whatsoever that a lead designer for D&D entirely dismissed two editions of the game; didn't even play them?

No.

 

[Cadfan]

It doesn't cause anyone here any concern whatsoever that a lead designer for D&D entirely dismissed two editions of the game; didn't even play them?

Didn't bother me any.

As for the circle of D&D players I know, none play World of Warcraft. None intend on purchasing 4th Edition unless it happens to be extremely good. We all happen to have multiple children and incomes in the top 10% for the country though. Wow, Hong is wrong again.

Do you think this might be a feature more of you and who you hang out with, than of the D&D playing public?

 

[Wormwood]

It doesn't cause anyone here any concern whatsoever that a lead designer for D&D entirely dismissed two editions of the game; didn't even play them?

Nope.

Relax.