KarinsDad said:
My first reaction was: Cool!
My first reaction was: Damn! :\
Mainly because I've only started playing D&D again in the last 2 years, and being a bit of a collector, I've spent a lot of money on 3.5 splatbooks and on the Eberron setting. However, I view the money spent much the same way as KarinsDad:
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.
But I moved house last year and had to downsize my games collection. There was stuff there going back more than 20 years, and I ditched it. With a bit of a pained wince, sure, but not too many tears were shed. I had copies of games I hadn't played in decades, and even games I'd never played but just thought were cool. I'd kept them for reasons of nostalgia, but frankly I never looked at them and they were just taking up space.
That's not to say it wouldn't be disappointing to ditch the 3.5E books I've amassed in the last 2 years, but if our group does switch, I'll happily spend more money buying more books, and if I have to buy one less soda a day to do so, I can live with that. I can probably even recoup some of the money by selling my old 3.5 stuff off.
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.
Again, agreed. I haven't GMed for over 10 years, but starting to play D&D has got me thinking about it again - hence the Eberron collection. But one thing holding me back is the size of our group. We have 8 players when everyone's present. I GMed RuneQuest for that many, so I've done it before, but D&D is slower and clunkier in combat - at least the way our group plays - and I'm not confident I know the rules well enough yet to run fast moving melees. I think that could take some of the fun out of it. Running a game for large groups is challenging enough, trying to keep everyone involved and engaged, without struggling with the rules.
Also, while I appreciate the greater flexibility 3.5 offers over 1E for character creation, I still feel constrained sometimes, and I know the other players do as well. We're used to classless games and D&D feels confining - and multiclassing has its own problems. I'd much rather be able to create the character I want
without having to hunt down an obscure prestige class that fits.
4E has got me thinking - they're trying to improve and streamline combat and character creation/development, and both of those things appeal to me. Partly for personal reasons, because it'll answer some of my concerns as a player, and partly because it sounds like it will make it easier for me to put on my DMing hat again.
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
Agreed - but I have to acknowledge that I have a decent disposable income and can afford to spend a reasonable amount of money on leisure. 4E sounds like it could make playing more fun, and answer some of my concerns about DMing. All in all I'm hopeful that it'll fulfill those promises, but only time will tell.