Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 5066456" data-attributes="member: 20741">With respect to the Spell Compendium, there were a number of spells within it that caused my Age of Worms Campaign to die at 14th level.In fact, I think it's fair to say that a vast number number of D&D campaigns died at that power level in 3.5 -- and most for the same reason.While I picked up 4E core and a few in my gaming group did as well, the guys in my gaming circle are all grognards who are resistant when they believe their goodwill has been abused or taken for granted. The loss of Dragon and Dungeon was something that just pissed us off, to be blunt.  WotC knew there would be customers who would be alienated by it. There were - there are - and my group of eight in my gaming circle were those types of customers.  Coming on to two years later, that emotional ill-will is still rather raw for us. When it came down to it, the guys in my group don't want  anything to do with 4E. It's not about play balance, broken spells or power level. Oh you can make an argument about it, but that's not really it (for us).  I believe the essence of it is far more emotional and visceral than those arguments could ever capture; the play balance issues become excuses as much as they are actual reasons.It came down to the fact that most members of my gaming cirlcle have been playing 25-30 years. They liked 3.5 and we all had thousands of dollars worth of books invested in it. The revise/reset/re-sell of 4E was simply too soon for my group, and it was handled in a way that antagonized the hell out of us. There are intellectual arguments to be made pro and con, but to cut through it all with a +7 Light Sabre of Truth, it comes down to a visceral reaction on our part.Paizo, on the other hand, created some of the best products of the 3.5 era. Their claim as "spiritual heirs" of the Gygaxian mantle is, at a certain level, every bit as strong as WotC's. We like their products and we want to like their game. The intellectual arguments are there if you want to find them - and I'm not saying the logic and reasoning should not have a prominent place in the working out of that decision to buy/play Pathfinder.But for all that, the emotional calculus which has lead our group to now move to Pathfinder is as much about goodwill towards the product line and a move towards a new(ish) system at a time when we felt like it, not when some bean counters at WotC thought it was time to sell us some new books we did not need.This is my first post in the General section on ENWorld in almost twenty months -- since the mid-summer of 2008.  When I say my group was put-off by the death of Dragon and Dungeon and the birth of 4E ahead of its appointed schedule - I'm not exaggerating.  In that admittedly embittered context, choosing to move towards Pathfinder  has been an easy sell. Happily, the products themselves are top notch and the Pathfinder Chronicles and accesories line are the best in the industry.</blockquote>

Verification