Well I know there can never be a 9th Edition.
Why?
Because seven ate nine.
Why?
Because seven ate nine.
So what happens after 4E?
- Thread starter Melkor
- Start date
AngryMojo
First Post
I'll agree with the first bit, and disagree with the last bit. WotC really showed no interest in winning back lapsed 2e players with 4e. Even if some jumped back on the bandwagon, most didn't.
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad
I am pretty sure part of the intent of releasing Dark Sun was to try and bring back some 2e players. If nothing else, it shows SOME interest in winning them back.
Mournblade94
Hero
This ALMOST got me to go back to WOTC products. It looked nice, and honestly if Pathfinder was never made I might have gone back and commited to the rules beyond PHB I and played Dark Sun. Its just not worth the buy of the next 2 years of books just to play darksun when i inherently do not like the system. It is somewhat disappointing though.
I suspect if Darksun was released BEFORE Forgotten Realms, I would have been much more tolerant with the changeover.
Darksun was a perfect match. It drastically altered the common tropes of classic fantasy, just as 4e destroyed many of the earlier editions' mechanics. Darksun may have made 4e more palatable for me. I was on the fence with 4e when I first started running it, then when the Forgotten Realms was released I was pretty much convinced the system could not support the way I have always been playing D&D (Except for 2nd edition Darksun), and I jumped ship.
AngryMojo
First Post
Good point. I'll give you that.
Maybe not 2E, but I think making the game simpler after 3.5 was an attempt to win back some of the old schoolers. One of the big complaints my group had as we got into higher levels in our 3.5E campaign was that things were so complex and there were so many rules and exceptions to those rules that combat encounters could take forever (our big climactic battles often took 2 sessions to complete...)
I think making 4E less complex and easier to prepare was a way to win back old school gamers - we have one hard core 1E guy from my old group that is now happily playing 4E in another campaign now.
thecasualoblivion
First Post
4E will last as long as the existing framework will support it. Between exception based design based off of a solid skeleton, and the evolution of the game in the form of digitally supported errata there isn't as strong a need for a reset. Both 2E and 3.5E had gotten to the point where a total reset was the only way forward(3.5E might not have been quite there, but it was very close). 4E doesn't look that way at all at this point.
I'd look at M:tG and Warcraft as examples. M:tG is based off of exception based design, like 4E, and they just keep on putting out expansions year after year. How many has it been? Given the example of Essentials, if they don't mind reinventing things, I'm not sure there is a limit to how far they can go on like they've been doing. As for Warcraft, I look at how Warcraft is constantly patched and updated, like 4E is with the errata. Both Warcraft and 4E have taken the attitude that no mechanics are set in stone, and anything is subject to change based on feedback from actual play. Bugs and wrinkles in the game get complained about, and then fixed. A big pile of things bothering people isn't allowed to pile up, and as time passes the game looks less and less like the one originally released.
I'd look at M:tG and Warcraft as examples. M:tG is based off of exception based design, like 4E, and they just keep on putting out expansions year after year. How many has it been? Given the example of Essentials, if they don't mind reinventing things, I'm not sure there is a limit to how far they can go on like they've been doing. As for Warcraft, I look at how Warcraft is constantly patched and updated, like 4E is with the errata. Both Warcraft and 4E have taken the attitude that no mechanics are set in stone, and anything is subject to change based on feedback from actual play. Bugs and wrinkles in the game get complained about, and then fixed. A big pile of things bothering people isn't allowed to pile up, and as time passes the game looks less and less like the one originally released.
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