Rule of three - Feb 21


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I don't know if I believe that quality is the whole reason to make books disappear. That sounds more like they are using complaints of errata as an excuse. If was just quality control dates would have been changed instead if products cancelled.

No. I believe they decided they couldn't profit enough with those books or didn't have the manpower to put them out. So we may see them show up in a dragon article with much less content.

Regardless of the why. I just would like to have that content. I had all 4 of those books pre ordered and still want to buy them whether they show up printed or on ddi.
 

Yeah, I don't care why they were cancelled, or what happens to the books themselves, as long as I get the material within. I'm hoping via DDI, but I am not counting on that.

They mention that Themes are going to show up in Neverwinter. I have no interest in that product, so I hope the themes show up in the compendium and the builder (preferably also in the 'home campaign' options as well).
 

New Rule-of-Three posted...

Rule-of-Three 2/21/2011

1. Why have themes not been implemented everywhere?
2. Where did those scheduled products disappear?
3. Dragon and Dungeon no longer offer monthly compilations. What are you doing to improve the experience with their updates and with individual PDFs?

Poll Question: Elf or Dwarf?
 
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If they want to make it easy to download/find articles, build a page for each of the major types of articles, so I can find Classes on one page, monsters on one page....then indicate the update dates on there.

Not really that hard to do.
 

I actually really don't like it.
But in a way it's only consequent: The existing 4e classes were already devoid of any in-game relevance. Class names are just convenient labels for archetypes. So, I shouldn't be surprised by the vampire 'class'.

Actually, I think classes have always been somewhat more or less archetypes for fantasy role playing, with varying degrees of in-game relevance. I may have had my character describe himself as a wizard, but rarely had one describe himself as a 'fighter' (unless, of course, as opposed to being a 'lover';)). In this context, describing oneself as a 'vampire' makes as much sense as 'fighter'. Now I'm not to thrilled about the whole "now you can play a vampire" concept myself, and they can still botch the implementation, but I see no reason why it can't be a class if that is the defining characteristic of a PC.

I mean the class is where it is at as far as representing the character you want to play. Yes, races add a little, but its mostly flavor and window dressing. Remember, during the lead up to 4th edition when one of the design diaries mentioned making a 20th level elf fighter stand out and be different from a 20th level dwarf fighter? Then it turns out that there were a number of people disappointed by the fact that they really didn't succeed to well in that aim. I guess that it is difficult to have anything that makes you mechanically stand out that much in a class based game that isn't a class. Sure, feats, races and skills (and now themes) help calibrate the character you want; you can even add on more layers with templates, paragon paths, epic destinies and such, but at some point you're just layering in complexities for little gain. You might as well go back to the basic class structure and go from there if you have a unique enough concept.

I wonder if we might see an 'elf' or 'dwarf' class in the future?:hmm:
 

They mention that Themes are going to show up in Neverwinter. I have no interest in that product, so I hope the themes show up in the compendium and the builder (preferably also in the 'home campaign' options as well).
I'm in the same boat. Themes were one of the best new additions to the game but they will not make me buy a product for the FR setting.
 

I wonder if we might see an 'elf' or 'dwarf' class in the future?:hmm:
Well, in 3e we got the racial paragon classes in UA which I thought was a nice idea. It just didn't work out well mechanically.

Similarly in 4e we already have racial paragon paths and racial feats. But what would really make sense are racial _themes_.

In the DSA/TDE rpg a character is created by combining three components:
- race
- class
- society

I.e. if you play an elf that was brought up in a human border town, you start with a completely different set of skills and powers than if you lived in an elven forest community for your whole life.

Imho, themes are the D&D 4e equivalent of this society component. They also remind me of the 'careers', ''professions', or 'parent's occupation' of other rpgs.
 

I'm in the same boat. Themes were one of the best new additions to the game but they will not make me buy a product for the FR setting.
Neverwinter seems to be less about the FR and more as a new sandbox that can be plugged in anywhere.
 

Neverwinter seems to be less about the FR and more as a new sandbox that can be plugged in anywhere.
Well, just personal preference I guess, but I'd kind of like to see WotC stop "crossing the streams" in this way. Calling it Neverwinter makes it less appealing / interesting / useful to me, and I don't really want to drop $40 on a few themes. The article states that they're looking for the best way to get this material out - for me that would be the products as originally offered. Hero Builder’s Handbook and Class Compendium: Heroes of Sword where the two products I was really looking forward to in 2011, and having them reduced to piecemeal pdfs or worse kinda sucks for me.
 

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