Plans to upgrade/switch?

[Dice4Hire]

Ill give 4E a good look, and then decide. I seriously doubt it will be an upgrade, I will be satisfied if it a similar, but improved game as 3E was.

 

[KarinsDad]

Ditto.

I've already told my players that we will be finishing Age of Worms using 3.5.

Ditto.

Our current campaign is scheduled to end (i.e. the anticipated end of the modules that we are using and currently planning to use) between October 2008 and February 2009 (depending). The players voted to stick with the 3.5 campaign until it is complete.

 

[Nail]

The players voted to stick with the 3.5 campaign until it is complete.

That's what we plan on as well (more or less ). The PCs are 9th level now, and they'll be at least 18th by the time 4e is fully "out". There's little point converting so late in a campaign, IMO.

 

[KarinsDad]

There's little point converting so last in a campaign, IMO.

Or even so "late" in a campaign.

 

[Nail]

Doh.

 

[arwenarrowny]

I'll check out the new edition before I make a firm decision. Regardless, I won't likely be converting any existing campaigns over to 4e. Unless, of course, I luck into playtesting 4e, in which case the game I'm DMing will be switching over, since we're 1 session in and 2nd level.

 

[KarinsDad]

Doh.

Here I thought you meant that you were going to be the last group to convert to 4E. My bad!

 

[Nail]

Here I thought you meant that you were going to be the last group to convert to 4E. My bad!

My first reaction to 4e coming out was "Oh crap."

Since then, my reaction has mellowed. I'm still not pleased, but I'll look it over when it comes out (and I'll wait until next August, and not fall for any of this "preview" and "quickstart" garbage).

I'm almost to the state now where I hope 4e will be good. Give me some more time....

 

[KarinsDad]

My first reaction to 4e coming out was "Oh crap."

Since then, my reaction has mellowed. I'm still not pleased, but I'll look it over when it comes out (and I'll wait until next August, and not fall for any of this "preview" and "quickstart" garbage).

I'm almost to the state now where I hope 4e will be good. Give me some more time....

My first reaction was:

Cool!

I think the reason was because I liked the mechanics for the Star Wars game so well and suspected that 4E would have similar well thought out mechanics.

I like good game mechanics. I loathe poor ones. And although 3.5 improved upon 3E, it still left a lot of clunky mechanics like Turn Undead in the game system.

Another thing I like, which I know many other people do not like, is the throwing away of the bigger, better, badder syndrome of all of the splat books.

Yes, we paid a lot of money for all of our books. In 7 years, I've probably spent $1500 or so on 60 or so 3E or 3.5 books. As a lump sum on the surface, that sounds like a lot of money. But in reality, it's $0.60 a day. A lot less than I spend on soda each day. A lot less than I used to spend on gas each week, just getting to our weekly gaming session (we game at my house these days, so that is not an issue for me anymore, but it is for all of my players).

Playing an RPG is a lot less expensive than many forms of entertainment. People will spend that same $1500 (or more) on a single vacation and guess what? After the two weeks are gone, so is the money.

Most people have probably spent more than $1500 in the last 7 years on going to the movies and/or Blockbuster. My memories of old gaming sessions is similar to my memories of movies. Incomplete, but famliar.

So, I have no qualms about blowing off all of the old splat books. I can still use the fluff from the Forgotten Realms books (a significant percentage of those books), I just need to re-create the NPCs.


I'd much rather play a better designed game system and ignore most of my old books than play a clunkier system, just to save entertainment money that I will just go spend on some other form of entertainment like a vacation if I do not spend it on DND. I'd also rather spend my future entertainment money on 4E better designed products than a boatload more same old same old 3.5 products. I'll eventually be spending the money either way.


And in this same vein, it'll be nice to get down to 3 core books again. I used to carry a large briefcase and a backpack to my gaming sessions. Talk about a pain in the butt. Just in order to have each book there in case a rules question came up (usually for a PrC or a non-core feat). It'll be even nicer when we are back up to how ever many 4E pdfs, all of them on my laptop with fast search.

 

[Anthelios]

Yes, we paid a lot of money for all of our books. In 7 years, I've probably spent $1500 or so on 60 or so 3E or 3.5 books. As a lump sum on the surface, that sounds like a lot of money. But in reality, it's $0.60 a day. A lot less than I spend on soda each day. A lot less than I used to spend on gas each week, just getting to our weekly gaming session (we game at my house these days, so that is not an issue for me anymore, but it is for all of my players).

Playing an RPG is a lot less expensive than many forms of entertainment. People will spend that same $1500 (or more) on a single vacation and guess what? After the two weeks are gone, so is the money.

Most people have probably spent more than $1500 in the last 7 years on going to the movies and/or Blockbuster. My memories of old gaming sessions is similar to my memories of movies. Incomplete, but famliar.

So, I have no qualms about blowing off all of the old splat books. I can still use the fluff from the Forgotten Realms books (a significant percentage of those books), I just need to re-create the NPCs.


I'd much rather play a better designed game system and ignore most of my old books than play a clunkier system, just to save entertainment money that I will just go spend on some other form of entertainment like a vacation if I do not spend it on DND. I'd also rather spend my future entertainment money on 4E better designed products than a boatload more same old same old 3.5 products. I'll eventually be spending the money either way.


And in this same vein, it'll be nice to get down to 3 core books again. I used to carry a large briefcase and a backpack to my gaming sessions. Talk about a pain in the butt. Just in order to have each book there in case a rules question came up (usually for a PrC or a non-core feat). It'll be even nicer when we are back up to how ever many 4E pdfs, all of them on my laptop with fast search.

I couldn't agree more with this post. This is pretty much exactly how I feel. When I first picked up my players handbook of 3rd edition, I couldn't believe how much they changed. After one game session I had decided I was never going back to 2nd edition and its THAC0 and other clunkiness.

When 3.5 came out I was a little skeptic. Until I read the 3.5MM. The creature formula in the back sold me on the new version.

I expect to be blown away by the 4E PHB when it comes out. If i'm not, I wont be upgrading. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to be blown away. ToB: Book of Nine Swords was freaking awesome. Most of their more recent books have apparently been test material for 4E, and I've really liked the switch of focus to per encounter resources instead of daily resources. We'll get more of this in 4E, and I look forward to it.