D&D 4E Not going to 4e

[Brother MacLaren]

And if they do find that 1980s game, they'll learn to avoid it because of players like you that will insult their taste because it's different. Way to grow the fanbase!

I didn't see anything at all insulting in Dristram's post.

For anybody just joining the hobby now, 4E is most clearly NOT "the cool D&D game they heard about from the 80's." It's a very different game, and it is no insult to point that out.

Whether or not 4E is a cool game in its own right is an entirely separate issue. Dristram wasn't saying 4E wasn't a cool game.

 

[BASHMAN]

Passing on 4E, so is my group. It isnt D&D to us, and imho they really need to rename the game to Warlocks & Warlords or something.

We are happy with 3.5 for the most part. Yes, some rules could use streamlining but we kind of got used to it already and it seems to work fine for us. Im thankful for some great stuff from Necromancer and Paizo. My group should be fine for the next decade or so anyway.


Hopefully 5th edition comes fast with a return to what D&D was. WotC seems to have forgotten.

Warlocks & Warlords! LOL!

 

[The_Gneech]

FWIW, the reason D&D was cool in the '80s (and the '70s even moreso) was because there was nothing else like it. These days "fantasy roleplaying" is an old idea.

Same way Star Wars rocked the world in 1977 ... but looks a bit rickety and almost stodgy today.

It ain't just the edition -- it's a different world now.

-The Gneech

 

[ajanders]

I didn't see anything at all insulting in Dristram's post.

Then you are an admirably tolerant person and a model to be emulated.

I'm not thrilled about all the changes in 4e: I'm turning down games now because I don't have the energy or funds to purchase and learn entirely new systems.
I'd rather, ironically, have seen D&D 3.75: at least this way I wouldn't need to invest so much time.

 

[Darrell]

And if they do find that 1980s game, they'll learn to avoid it because of players like you that will insult their taste because it's different. Way to grow the fanbase!

Linguistic Nitpick: You don't "grow" the fanbase (you also don't "grow" a business), you build it.

That, I believe, is where WotC is losing its path. Building means starting from a foundation and building upon it. The process of alienating a fair portion of the existing player base, while simultaneously trying to attract new players, is fundamentally flawed. Most of the younger players I've introduced to D&D have ONLY tried a PnP game because I talked them into it. Left to their own devices, they would probably all be playing MMORPGs right now. They wouldn't have given Dungeons & Dragons a second look. Name recognition notwithstanding, D&D isn't "cool." Where, exactly, does the crew at WotC think these 'new players' are going to come from, if older players aren't there to point the way?

To paraphrase: 'Way to [build] the fanbase.' Keep chipping away at that foundation, and you'll eventually bring the whole thing down.

Currently, I DM 4 groups of players--2 groups of 4 players each, one of 3 players, and one of eight players. That's 19 people in all...20 if you count me. I DM for all of these groups because no one else apparently wants to be a DM around here. Come next June, guess how many of 'em are going to be buying 4e? NONE. Why? Because I'm not buying 4e. They want to be in a game I run, and I run under 3.x/d20 or a Basic D&D/d20 hybrid cobbled together from various sources.

Ironically enough, I was actually "on the fence" about 4e until the latest round of changes was announced. Changes to the cosmology I could handle, because we rarely, if ever, use extraplanar material in our games. Thematic changes to the core game, however (the way magic works, the races existing in the world, etc.), change the entire way the 'world' works for the players, and I simply won't allow WotC to do that to our games. Therefore, 4e is (figuratively) dead to me.

Now, I don't want to give the impression that I'm not a WotC customer; I most assuredly am...primarily because I like the minis. I'll keep on buying D&D minis as long as they keep making them; but I won't be using 'em to play 4e.


Regards,
Darrell King

 

[JayBrickwall]

I'm not going to 4e either...

... cause it hasn't come out yet. Maybe after it does though... I guess I'll look into it.

 

[redmagerush]

I'll probably play 4e because what I've seen about it so far makes it seem like a fun RPG to me.

Ironically, a fun RPG to me is something that DnD has never been before.

 

[Guild Goodknife]

And one they get to call Dungeons & Dragons. I bet the boys of Kenzer&Co., Troll Lord Games, Mongoose, Green Ronin, and any other game publisher that's created a fantasy RPG wish they could call their's Dungeons & Dragons. Name recognition is king baby! New D&D players raised on 4e will have no idea they're not actually playing the cool D&D game they heard about from the 80's.

You know what - you're right. 4E isn't the cool D&D game from the 80's. And neither is 3rd Edition. Just ask some of the guys who still play 1st Edition, they will tell you that the fancy schmancy game you play is not the real D&D (and should properply be called something else, like Feats & Prestigeclasses )

 

[Shortman McLeod]

Now it's very likely that I'll soon become akin to Diaglo, except with 3rd edition. Turn down your music. Get off my lawn! Crazy kids.

D&D 3.5 (2003) is the one true game. all the other games are just pale imitations of the real thing.

 

[Aris Dragonborn]

I won't know if I won't be going to 4E until I get the core books in my hot little hands and take it for a test run, to see what it's got under the hood.

If it works for me, I'll most likely switch (easier and faster prep time? Sweet!)

If it doesn't work for me (and from what I've seen from the previews, it might not), then I'll either stick with 3E or try C&C or some other system.