Resistance is futile... you will upgrade to 3.5!

[GENEWEIGEL]

Come with me if you want to live!

I've been sent back from the future to stop you from converting to 3.5 because there will be a worldwide original AD&D revival in 2005!



Hell, those of you here that know me, know that I gave 3rd a big chance but I'm not even going to look at 3.5!

When those duds[sic] at WOTC can make something compatible with Gygax's game, still functional, lighter and well-oiled despite what some of you may assume, then let me know.

A robot resembling WOTC's Gwendolyn Kestrel comes smashing through the wall with laser cannons morphing out of her hands.

I was too late!!! They've sent the 3.7b prototype back to stop me!

It's using a rotating feat * called initiative loop but it won't get past my 1e multi-attack initiative override.

Ahem! I know you're still sorting through your feats and such, Miss 3.7b prototype edition, but you're already dead thanks to the streamlined "learn it once" original AD&D game.

Looks up from a book called Chicken Splats for the Soul: The 3.7b Prototype Edition Complete Clerically-Challenged Butt-Kicking Individual* and explodes.

Wait, it's not over yet! I still have the memory of the 3.7b prototype edition!

You'll have to lower me into the pool of molten metal because my hit dice are too high to be forced to take my own life.

Do it!

I know now why you still play 3rd edition.

But it is something I can never do.

Hops on the chain and pulley. Raises a rude finger as he sinks into the molten hot metal.

(*See the 3.7b prototype edition rules for more! - this annotation is a paid space time retro-advertisement brought to you by Time Warner Hasbro a subsidiary of the People's Republic of China Incorporated sanctioned by the Federal Board of Commercial Temporal Saturation of the United Systems of the Spiral Arm Triumvirate.)

 

[francisca]

My current 3.0 group will continue with 3.0 at least until the end of the calendar year.

At that point, it's wide open. we may go to hackmaster, 3.5, or d20 Modern, or something else entirely.

I was slow to pick up 3.0. We're just now getting a good grip on the system as we don't play often enough to expose all of the rough spots.

If we do go to 3.5, I'm quite happy to wit until 2004. Hopefully the 1st wave of errata will be out by then.

 

[Voadam]

I'm going 3.5 (I do some freelance writing as well) but I'm starting off with just the srd. My brother has had the 3 books preordered for months though.

 

[LuYangShih]

Not really. I dislike most of the changes, and the few changes I do like are easily house ruled in anyway. Arcana Unearthed looks far more interesting to me than 3.5E does.

 

[ZSutherland]

No, I will not be changing, nor will my group, at least until such time as the market forces us to comply (which I can't see happening since we don't use much beyond the core books anyway).

Why not? I have mixed feelings about most of the changes. Some I like and some I don't, but I know I don't like what I perceive as the mindset behind those changes. Instead of doing what I think the core books should do, provide the basic frame work for a standard D&D campaign with lots of room for variance in style from group to group, I think they've narrowed their focus to combat too much, and even that has narrowed down to right ways & wrong ways (i.e. dex fighters out, two-handers in), which I don't appreciate. Money's not really a pragmatic issue for me (though I can certainly find a better way to spend $100), but it is a vocal issue. My money is my vote in the marketplace, and I'm casting my vote to stop jacking things around just so you can get people to re-purchase books they already own.

The whole thing could have been fixed with a 100 page book that I'd have been happy to buy with the updated classes/races/spell descriptions/feats & a great big chapter at the front that explained in layman's terms how the SRD & OGL works so that they could conclude as thus. "It is our endeavor by making much of our work open source, to allow the RPG publishing community to enrich everyone's experience with their contributions while at the same time avoiding the marketing pitfalls that plagued the latter years of TSR. However, it is the job of every DM to look carefully at any material from a third-party publisher and decide what is appropriate and what is not for or her campaign. Rule-0 lives."

I say that because I think by and large, most of the changes that everyone's griped about so much stemmed from abuse of the core rules when combined with third party stuff. It's not WotC idea to police the core rules to prevent abuse by other people. For one thing, it's impossible. That's each DM's job. That'd be me.

Z

 

[cildarith]

I will not be purchasing the new books. I don't care for the changes. I don't care for the price. If 3E is so much better than previous editions, why did it only last 3 years?

It is way too soon for a major rules revision. WotC will not have their paws in my wallet this time around.

 

[dcollins]

The multitude of changes, only 3 years after the original game, looks like a transparent strategy to create incompatibility intentionally to sell more core rulebooks, and that irritates me.

One thing is that I spend a noticable amount of time creating supplements and tools to efficiently support my game -- spell rosters, monster lists, stat cards for core monsters, conversions, etc. I sort of do all that assuming that they'll be useful to some point in the future. If WOTC's new strategy is to recast the rules every 3 years, making those tools incompatible, then I can't convince myself that the labor converting my campaign is worth the effort.

In addition, the number and types of changes haven't been what WOTC was forecasting with Open Gaming and the d20 System license. At one point the theory was: open gaming improvements will be incorporated into the core rules, but that's not happening. Pre-revision advertising was that the revision would be entirely compatible with major problem rules clarified (e.g., ranger, haste, harm), but that's not happening either (e.g. more spell changes than any prior edition of D&D). The incompatibilities with 3rd-party works seem intentional.

I was excited with 3E and d20 looking lke D&D was becoming more responsive to the player community. With 3.5E I'm seeing the opposite. I don't feel like I want to support that with my money.

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

I probably won't buy the books.
I will print out the SRD changes.
The tough decision won't be in converting my campaign...
It'll be deciding what "spirit" changes I will want to do for my products.
Currently, myself, and the others who work on my products, have no desire to get rid of all Save or Die spells, like 3.5 does, nor do we plan on putting out "nerfed" spells.

Still, I will probably end up buying the books, WotC almost insured it with the crappy covers on my 3.0 books (My PHB cover is a total loss, with my DMG running a close second) they handed off to me.

Still, I dislike the changes for the most part, and personally, agree with the previous speaker who stated: "They changed the things that needed to be changed, but not the way they should have been changed."

 

[Ferox4]

The multitude of changes, only 3 years after the original game, looks like a transparent strategy to create incompatibility intentionally to sell more core rulebooks, and that irritates me.

....I was excited with 3E and d20 looking lke D&D was becoming more responsive to the player community. With 3.5E I'm seeing the opposite. I don't feel like I want to support that with my money.

Agreed. I think it's ridiculous. As someone else stated earlier, if 3E was so supposed to be so revolutionary why is it being overhauled in less than 3 years?

I'm not making a knee jerk reaction to change. There are some incongruities in 3E that each gaming group needs to address, not a total reprint of the core rulebooks (the term "rule" book still irritates me, they should be guidebooks). I plan to go out and buy a few 3E PHBs and other corebooks before they are out of print (I am assuming this will be the case) and use the SRD as a touchstone for judgements about possible future changes in my campaigns.

Cheers, F4

 

[misfit]

While I may eventually purchase the new revision, I won't be playing 3.5. I finally found a local gaming group, but they have collectively decided not to upgrade to 3.5 - they cite expense as the main reason not to upgrade. I'm just happy to finally use my collection of 3e books rather than just read 'em.