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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Melkor" data-source="post: 1093237" data-attributes="member: 10786">While I agree 100% that D&D should be a "living" game, and I do not mind that a new edition would come out every 3 -4 years, I don't think that converting existing material is a 'relatively easy path'.Take Oriental Adventures for example - and it was a complete pain. In a nutshell, here is why:1)I have to go through all of the classes and update skills & feats.2)I have to go through and remove any spells from the Oriental Adventures Shaman, Shugenja, and Wu Jen spell lists that have been deleted from D&D by 3.5. 3) I have to go through and change the names of any spells on the same Shaman, Shugenja, and Wu Jen spell lists who have had name changes in 3.5 (and some of these name change are so trivial that it seems like the reason for the change was just to give people a headache - I know, I know - this wasn't the real reason, but I can't fathom the logic).4) I have to go through every spell that were introduced in Oriental Adventures (and balanced to match spells in 3.0) and see if they are still balanced with 3.5 - A very labor intensive and subjective process, which in the end may or may not end up balanced.5) I have to look at all of the NEW spells that were introduced by 3.5 and see if they should be added to the Oriental Adventure spell lists.6) I have to change all of the weapons over to 3.5.7) I have to change over any NPCs because the Classes they are built on have changed.8) I have to convert over any monsters because the way monsters are 'built' (Skill Points and Feat acquisition) have changed, as well as the 'Monster Type' and Damage Reduction.Do I really want to take the time to do that with the Book of Vile Darkness, Savage Species (Which is not only not 100% compatible with 3.5, but has some serious contradictions with the 3.5 MM), Arms & Equipment Guide, Class Splatbooks, and all my 3rd party stuff ?Can you play an Oriental Adventures character straight out of 3.0 in a 3.5 game without taking the time to convert it ? Yes you can. Will there be balance issues, and rules dilemnas that this causes in play ? You can almost be certain something will crop up.That's why even though I like most of the changes in 3.5, I am really upset about the unecessary changes that cause backwards compatability issues. I think this tends to highlight what you said in regards to potentially isolating some players. I like several of the changes in 3.5....but some of Andy Collin's house rules seem ridiculous to me, and I don't want to take the time to convert all of my 3.0 stuff over.....I'm actually retro-fitting 3.5 to 3.0 instead.I'm already looking forward to a 4.0 to fix what I think is broken with 3.5 - but unfortunately, I don't know how much 'listening' is going to be done by WoTC in regards to a new edition. Here's a quote off of the Wizards boards from Wiz-O-Sith, one of the Moderators:"Look folks, I know some of you are angry, upset, feel cheated, what have you.... but you're not going to find an answer to that here. I'm sorry, but it's just not going to happen. Nobody who reads these forums has any say in the overall policy descisions of WotC/Hasbro. Not a one. Not the game designers, not the WizOs, Nobody in upper management reads these forums. Complaining about the descsion to revise D&D here is comperable to complaining to the cashier at McDonalds that their company uses primarily foreign beef raised in cleared rainforest - the little guys have no controll over those decisions."So I guess we will wait and see how much of a 'living document' 4.0 is. I really hope it turns out to be better than 3.5. In my humble opinion, and that's all it is - my opinion, they could start by bringing back the original design team (Monte, Skip, and Sean), and kicking Andy Collins to the curb so that he can start his own company, write house rules in his own "Alternate Player's Handbook", and leave his home game out of official D&D products that come out in the future./Rant off</blockquote>

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