D&D 4E Psst... hey man, wanna play 4e?

[Rechan]

I didn't play 2e. I had the books, and the desire, but I never could find anyone. Then 3e came out, and as a little nerd lapping up all the news from Dragon, I was excited. And when it came out, I was happy to have my 3e. I wanted to play.

Yet, every where I went, people were really down on 3e. They were 2e loyalists. They weren't going to change. There's no reason to change. You couldn't talk about it without being on the defensive.

It got to the point that I was treating it like a seedy underbelly of the gaming world: I would have to mumble something about 3e to gauge someone's opinion before I even started talking about it. To those who I found who were interested, it felt like we were discussing taboo topics, hushed in the corner so no one would hear us.

I think it took about a year before I saw a real pervasive change in the mood in the gaming community.

Now, I can't help but feel that the days of the hushed whisper, "You like the new edition?" "YOU TOO?" will come back.

Anyone else feel that way?

 

[Crothian]

Nope. But I've been working on my group of friends for a while. I like many different games so I had to break a lot of people of the "I only play this game!!" stance. After we experimented some and they got to learn that different is good I have not had any problems of getting them to play new editions. They won't play anything just yet but of all the weird and scary RPGs out there 4ed is not on that list.

 

[FourthBear]

No, much of my gaming group is responding to 4e almost exactly as they did to 3e: kneejerk rejection. If any design element is brought up, the absolute worst is immediately assumed. Again, exactly as happened during 3e. I remember all the discussion with them about initiative in 3e, some of them swore up and down that the game would be unplayable if you didn't roll initiative every single round. AC now goes up and doesn't have a hard limit? Madness suited only for munchkins! Removal of racial level and class limits? Well they might as well just *admit* they're just pandering to the kiddy video game generation now!

Eventually, I got them to actually play some of the damn game. And they started to get ideas looking at the new game that they couldn't really do well with the old. Grumbling all the way, they ever so slowly started getting used the rules and then learning that they always knew that initiative would just be fine. Now that some of them DM and when I suggest that they could DM a 1e or 2e game for nostalgia's sake: no way!

But, of course, 4e is completely different. This is the one that they just *know* is going to be awful sight unseen. I've pretty much stopped discussing the issue with them at all. I've still got the Adventure Paths from Dungeon to get through, which should take a couple of years at this pace. So they'll be getting 3.5e from me for quite a while. I figure when they actually get their hands on the books, their minds will begin to percolate and they all of a sudden will be interested in maybe trying the new game out. I'm hoping I can get one of them to DM it first.

 

[Wolfspider]

Yeah, those darn grognards! Who do they think they are, criticizing 4e? Why, it's obvious that it's the best game to come out since Cyberpunk 3.0!

*shakes fists at the heavens*

Mark my words, one day they'll rue the day they ever posted anything negative about the one true path to 4dventure!

 

[Rechan]

Yeah, those darn grognards! Who do they think they are, criticizing 4e? Why, it's obvious that it's the best game to come out since Cyberpunk 3.0!

*shakes fists at the heavens*

Mark my words, one day they'll rue the day they ever posted anything negative about the one true path to 4dventure!

Holy overreaction and hyperbole, Batman.

Did anything I ever said whatsoever imply that you're not entitled to your opinion?

No.

In fact, the tone of my post is that I feel uncomfortable being entitled to mine because I got slammed for being interested in 3e.

 

[Spinachcat]

it felt like we were discussing taboo topics, hushed in the corner so no one would hear us.

Ah, the good old days! I miss those days when AD&D players talked about their mighty adventures and the 3.x people sulked in corners worrying about their builds and their class balance and their cries that the GM didn't use the CR chart to their satisfaction.

But those days are gone. Most players who enjoyed adventure now play WoW or at best, some other RPG. Now, I just nod politely while the 3.x people babble on about their builds and class balances and CR until I can not stomach it one more second and I demand to know when we are going to play something FUN.

If 4e can shut these people up, it will be worth every dime.

 

[Brother MacLaren]

I remember a great deal of enthusiasm for 3E, because TSR had gone bankrupt and most people I knew had already stopped playing 2E around the time when 2.5 (Skills & Powers) came out.

3E had a mathematical elegance in its additive multi-classing that made a great deal of sense (and I still maintain that 3E's multiclassing works well for most combinations other than primary casters with more than 2 levels in another class). 3E was also elegant in its reduction of saving throw categories to 3 logical ones (instead of wands and staves being different) and in its unified d20 mechanic.

I saw a great deal of enthusiasm for 3E because 2E was a) already gone and b) not well-loved.

 

[Wolfspider]

I didn't play 2e. I had the books, and the desire, but I never could find anyone. Then 3e came out, and as a little nerd lapping up all the news from Dragon, I was excited. And when it came out, I was happy to have my 3e. I wanted to play.

Yet, every where I went, people were really down on 3e. They were 2e loyalists. They weren't going to change. There's no reason to change. You couldn't talk about it without being on the defensive.

It got to the point that I was treating it like a seedy underbelly of the gaming world: I would have to mumble something about 3e to gauge someone's opinion before I even started talking about it. To those who I found who were interested, it felt like we were discussing taboo topics, hushed in the corner so no one would hear us.

I think it took about a year before I saw a real pervasive change in the mood in the gaming community.

Now, I can't help but feel that the days of the hushed whisper, "You like the new edition?" "YOU TOO?" will come back.

Anyone else feel that way?

The ironic thing is that those 2e grognards who judged 3rd edition sight unseen were right.

D&D 3rd edition was broken, unplayable at high levels, impossible for a DM to run, and, worst of all, completely unfun. Just ask Wizards of the Coast. They won't argue with these facts.

And the 3rd edition grognards will be proven absolutely correct in their prejudging of 4th edition as a munchikin's anime- and computer game-filled wet dream when 5th edition is about to come out.

We've always been at war with Eastasia.

 

[Wolfspider]

I saw a great deal of enthusiasm for 3E because 2E was a) already gone and b) not well-loved.

Me too. 2nd edition seemed very much dead in the water when 3e was announced--nothing like the situation with 4e where v3.5 was still widely played and supported.

 

[Dausuul]

Well, to provide a bit of a counterpoint to the above... my group is positively drooling over 4E (none more than me, of course). Everyone is eager to try out the new classes, and as the DM-elect for our first 4E game, I'm itching to crack the Monster Manual and see what treasures it's got for me. I'm already working out a big fancy campaign world with all the trimmings, even though I'll undoubtedly have to make substantial revisions when I get my hands on actual rules.

No 4E hate around here, thanks.