My thoughts on WOTC saying "we'll give you a leat a years notice" saying at GenCon.

[beaver1024]

So, even if the decision was made TODAY, "let's make a new edition," then it takes anywhere from six months to a year to develop and do initial playtests, then it gets announced 8 months to a year before release. Chris was saying "we have no current plans" in the subtext. His bases would still be covered if he got back to the office from Gencon and was told they should seriously consider another edition right now.

Playtest? What's that?

 

[beaver1024]

All it took was for one NPC to use "hasted, harm, magic missile" to utterly take out a PC with no save possible before all the PCs in my game clamored for a switchover to 3.5. It certainly fixed most of the egregiously broken elements of the game.

All it took was an NPC to say "Blasphemy" and we went back to 3.0 with minor tweaks to Heal, Harm and Haste.

 

[JoeBlank]

Doesn't WotC still have a lot invested in 3.5? They are about to launch D&D online with the 3.5 rules, right?

And it would seem to me that any announcement of 4.0 would have the effect of killing sales from the time of the announce until the time of the release. So they better be damn sure they have gotten all they want out of 3.5 before they even announce 4.0.

I feel confident that 4.0 is at least 3 years away, probably more.

(Curses, I have finally been sucked into a 4.0 thread, after resisting for years.)

 

[fett527]

...And it would seem to me that any announcement of 4.0 would have the effect of killing sales from the time of the announce until the time of the release...

Unless they take a lesson from Microsoft and run a buy 3.5 books now and get x% off 4.0 or be the first to be able to buy it or etc.

 

[Mercule]

Um... They did announce 4E at GenCon this year. It's due for release next GenCon.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Um... They did announce 4E at GenCon this year. It's due for release next GenCon.

Riiiiight......

For those who hadn't read it, here's the original statement (as reported on GamingReport.com) that the thread starter misquoted and took out of context:

As you heard here last year, D&D is doing so well, it's the most popular it's ever been, all RPGs evolve and change. Maybe someday, but right now the success, how much fans love it, how much we love it, we'll not monkey with it just for the hell of it. We'll give you 1-2 years warning. We'll change it if the game needs it. We won't spring it on you.

So, no intention of doing it right now... and one or two years warning. Which means they'll probably be working on the actual changes for a year before that. You don't just create a new edition out of thin air.

And really, it just doesn't make any economic sense right now for them to make such a change, let alone sense from a game system perspective.

 

[ForceUser]

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! And it's bringing an unnecessary new edition of the game that I hope suits my personal tastes more than the current edition, because I dislike classes, levels, and the spell system! Those things need to be cut from D&D like a tumor for the game to survive and match my personal vision! The sky is hopefully falling! And I love to speculate when I should be working!

/parody off

Nothing to see here. Move along.

 

[Mercule]

Riiiiight......

Spoilsport.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Ah, you miss the true evil of WotC's intentions...

5th edition comes out next week, giving 4th edition a complete miss!

The Auld Grump, well, it worked for Paranoia...

 

[Staffan]

Ah, you miss the true evil of WotC's intentions...

5th edition comes out next week, giving 4th edition a complete miss!

The Auld Grump, well, it worked for Paranoia...

Leisure Suit D&D?