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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clavis" data-source="post: 4077851" data-attributes="member: 31898">The problem is that a tactical game, with many PC powers that can interact in unpredictable ways, is much harder to write for as DM. 4th edition look to give the DM many more powers that he has to account for when creating suitable challenges for the characters. Consequently, the DM is forced to either buy pre-packaged adventures (created by prefessionals who can afford to spend time doing the required math), or spend his time creating suitable combat challenges rather than making good NPCs or interesting adventure hooks. Personally, I think that's the point - to make the game so hard to write for (while all the while telling us its easier) that homebrewing DMs will simply give up and buy their adventures and game worlds. As a DM, I see 4th Edition's promises of faster prep and easier DMing as akin to the scams a lot of store pull at Christmas time. They raise their prices by 20%, and then have a 15% off sale. All people see is the sale, and they forget that they're actually paying more than they did for the same items in November. 3rd edition (especially at high levels) made DMIng so hard compared to previous incarnations of the game, that anything will seem easier. I won't compare 4th edition to 3rd edition; that's the comparison WOTC wants me to make. Instead, I can pull out my old AD&D and Rule Cyclopedia material, and compare it to them. And you know what, 4th Edition is going to be a headache to DM, if you are  a homebrewer.I don't want to play in WOTC's world. I don't want them to make flavor decisions for me. From the first time I read the Moldvay Basic rules as a boy, I knew that I wanted to create an imaginary world and watch players interact with it. I wanted to play the villains, and watch the PCs try to spoil my nefarious plots. I wanted to create exciting locations filled with pitfalls, and watch PCs either cunningly avoid them, or die horribly. I bought modules and the original World of Greyhawk, not beacuse I wanted to run them, but to learn from them. I do not want to be reduced to a mere rules referee. I feel like that's what WOTC wants DMing to be.The worst way 4th edition is going to negatively impact roleplaying is that there will be fewer creative DMs, the kind who create and love to play exciting NPCs. Roleplaying certainly suffers when there's nobody to play your role to.</blockquote>

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