Promises, promises...what WotC said, and actually did, with 4E

[TerraDave]

Promises, promises…

Its been one year since we saw that counter on the WotC website…and in between the WotCies said a lot of stuff about what we would see over the coming months.

Much of it was true. But for some things, there where clearly a change in plans.

Remember:

-Quest cards

-Rings only high level characters could wear

-Race matters over the first 10 levels

-Emerald Frost and the “tome” implement

-Obad-Hai in the core 4E pantheon

-Buying a print product would get you an electronic version (for a small additional fee)

-3rd party products under the GSL by Gencon (that would be now)

-DDI (virtual tabletop) Beta by now

-Gleemax Beta ever

What other promises where made, kept, and or broken?

EDIT: I am not accusing the WotCies of being oath-breakers or eating my kobold baby or anything like that, just that some things, often stated with matter of fact confidence, turned out otherwise.

 

[Scribble]

Promises, promises…

Its been one year since we saw that counter on the WotC website…and in between the WotCies said a lot of stuff about what we would see over the coming months.

Much of it was true. But for some things, there where clearly a change in plans.

Well they also said from the get go that they dropped the idea of splitting the racial stuff up over various levels, and went with a you get most race stuff at 1st level theme...

I think it kind of still does matter because different paths and feats and powers and stuff are open to you.

 

[Demmero]

Another thing I can think of off the top of my head is 4E updates for some of the final 3.5 books (Like Exemplars of Evil).

 

[Dragonbait]

Promises, promises…
Remember:

-Quest cards

This was a player aid suggestion for beginner GMs and players. Not a fact of the game.

-Race matters over the first 10 levels

You might be thinking about them talking about different ideas. The later idea was to have racial bilities mean something, even at higher levels. And with racial feats in the core and the powers that each race is given, it shows that intent.

-Emerald Frost and the “tome” implement

Tome was removed the day it was posted on the web

DDI, Gleemax, and the like: I think you are adding the word "promise" into a lot of things that they said they were going to try to do. Big difference.

 

[TerraDave]

Oh, there all ideas...but at one point, they where part of the game.

And ya, tome lasted less then a day. Its a good example.

 

[dmccoy1693]

"The game will remain the same."

 

[cangrejoide]

So your point is?

 

[Nadaka]

I was promised d20 spectaculars and other support for d20 modern. Oops, all those resources were either shelved or secretly re-tasked to develop 4e.

 

[Rechan]

A lot of these boiled down to "The internet exploded with hateful bile when they leaked them".

I still have flashbacks of "Angry Over Golden Wyvern" threads. The Golden Wyvern and level limits on Rings hijacked so many discussions.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

-Rings only high level characters could wear

-Emerald Frost and the “tome” implement

Emerald Frost is still there - sort off - the name and the tradition/arcane school is gone, but the "spirit" seems to have survived with "Burning Blizzard".

Both points (Rings and Emerald Frost) where highly debated and critisized in the community. Rings are "video-gamey - no level requirements in our game!" and "Emerald Frost, Golden Wyverns? Why do you force your fluff on me, oh why - never will I be able to create a generic setting or my own setting again, and talk about it coherently with other people on the internet! Why are they destroying my gamer life..." (of course, I will let one point stay valid: The fluff didn't always sound that great. Golden Wyvern justs sound dumb. But I liked the idea, and I wish they had some of it left at least as an optional feature... )

-Race matters over the first 10 levels

I think Race was supposed to be the equivalent of Paragon Path and Epic Destinies. I think they gave up on it because not every race fits that well into the scheme, and they wanted race to matter even longer. I think they even discussed this somewhere, how races "top out" at level 10, and how that might be an issue.


It is interesting to see how the design evolved in the months after the announcement...