D&D 3E/3.5 Players playing 3 or 3.5 E vs 4 E?

[Tequila Sunrise]

I'm under the impression from what I've seen on the net that there are more people still playing 3rd edition D&D or 3.5 E, one of its clones d20 clones like Conan, The Black Company, Thieves World, A Song of Ice and Fire, etc., and additive systems like Pathfinder, than the the amount of players who have adopted 4E.

Spending much time on certain forums gives the impression that most of us play one thing or another. If you posted regularly on WotC, you'd think that most play 4e. If you posted regularly on Dragonsfoot, you'd think that most play...hm, I've never posted there, so something old school I guess.

You get the idea.

...since they went with late-3E classes that haven't been replicated in...3E.

Okay, it's late here, but I'm pretty sure this confusion isn't on my end.

 

[Celebrim]

All I know is that three of the four 4e groups I've met have in the last six months either switched back to 3.X or adopted Pathfinder.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm in a group of 10+ that has 3.5 and 4Ed games active. At this point, I'm in the minority of gamers in the group who would like to see us import ideas from or flat try out some of the better 3.X games, like Pathfinder, AU/AE, Midnight 2Ed or True20. Most of the guys don't even consider them worth looking at.

The two 3.5 games are both popular, but on hiatus while a 4Ed game is being run. The 4Ed game is well run, but doesn't have full participation, and is largely ongoing because the DM is doing a good job...and giving the primary 3.5 DM a break.

My personal take? I'm enjoying my 4Ed PC, and have other 4Ed PC concepts I'd like to try...but its not anywhere close to my enjoyment of 3.5.

As for the OP? As others have pointed out, most real evidence of the relative popularity of the 2 systems is held in the hands of companies that aren't sharing; nearly everything else you're going to see is speculation based on volatile sales numbers and the behavior of people online. My best guess is that 4Ed is still the big seller in the market, but that the 3.X challenge is strong and ongoing, with Pathfinder leading the way. Think Coke (4ED) vs Pepsi (3.X).

 

[Bonadrag]

I'm in no way claiming my experience is universal.

I just got into D&D over the summer and bought plenty of 4E stuff. All the comic shops and most bookstores now carry the essential line, so getting the supplies was easy.

One store in the entire state runs the encounters game.

One. Single. Store.

You can't pay someone here to play 4E. The stores that sell you the newest merchandise all run 3.5 or pathfinder games.

There are a lot of things I like about 4E. The learning curve and informational layout are perfect for new players. Learning that system really helped build a foundation for me. I don't know if I would have had the patience/ courage to have learned the less forgiving 3.5 first.

So I'm completely a 3.5 player now, but what choice do I get? No one here is playing 4.

 

[darknerd]

I looked at 4e and saw a dramatic departure from the evolution of DnD. I didn't want to depart from that lineage because I had vast amounts of material form DnD 0e to DnD 3.5e. I run a custom campaign based off the original boxed sets called Mystara.

Right now I am running a campaign in Hong Kong (before that in South Korea). They were custom adventures in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos setting. I am using DnD 3.75e rules (Pathfinder) as that seems to be an updated version of DnD 3.5. It would not be too challenging to convert older material to Pathfinder.

I think I'm seeing a mix of new players going with 4e, and the previous generation of players go either 4e or 3e (or 3.5e, PFRPG). Seasoned gamers perfer systems all over the map, from GURPS to Hero System to others. I personally like d20 open gaming system, as there were a lot of great ideas out there.

 

[WHW4]

What's ironic is that, for my group, converting from 3E to Pathfinder would be almost as problematic as converting to 4E or (my choice) C&C, since the players with the weirdo characters wouldn't be supported under any of the systems, since they went with late-3E classes that haven't been replicated in 4E and especially not in 3E.

We were able to use the PF conversion guide to pretty good effect, WD; about the only thing we really scratched our heads over is converting something from Savage Species (one of my favorite books). In the end, we decided to just shelve the monster-characters for a while until we learned enough about all the little changes to see what the effect would be.

And hey, if anyone has any guidelines on how to do that, I'm all ears! I want to play Mohg the friendliest wartroll again at some point.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

And hey, if anyone has any guidelines on how to do that, I'm all ears! I want to play Mohg the friendliest wartroll again at some point.

Take the AU/AE approach: essentially make monster "racial classes", complete with HD, BAB boosts, etc., and drop the requirement that you have to take all of those levels before class levels. Instead of spells and the like, "racial class" abilities would be stat boosts and their special abilities. As long as you don't front-load things too heavily, you should be fine.

As a rule of thumb, I used a rough conversion guide of 1 RCL per +1LA, which means some RCLs are "bigger" than others.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

We were able to use the PF conversion guide to pretty good effect, WD; about the only thing we really scratched our heads over is converting something from Savage Species (one of my favorite books).

We've got a warlock and a factotum (same player, unsurprisingly), neither of which, I think, are replicated in Pathfinder.

 

[RainOfSteel]

And internet activity definitely won't show it, considering the small percentage of players who bother to visit internet forums.

You've hit it exactly with this.

I know about twenty local gamers and of all of them, I am the only one who goes online and monitors or posts on gaming forums.

Personal experience with Internet activity doesn't say anything except about Internet Activity.

Likewise, personal experience with your local gaming environment only tells you about that one environment.

 

[Big Mac]

I'm under the impression from what I've seen on the net that there are more people still playing 3rd edition D&D or 3.5 E, one of its clones d20 clones like Conan, The Black Company, Thieves World, A Song of Ice and Fire, etc., and additive systems like Pathfinder, than the the amount of players who have adopted 4E.

I'm not looking to start a flamewar here, so please don't respond if that is your intent. I'm just curious, and I'm wondering if anyone has some facts about the success of 4E and the continuance of 3/3.5 based d20 games even after most of them have gone out of print.

Anybody know?

As others have said, it is hard to get accurate data on this, but if you want some anyway, there is a question floating around on Facebook called: Which editions of D&D have you enjoyed playing?

Maybe, as the sample size increases, you might get some idea of how many people are playing various editions of D&D (not just 3e or 4e).