Some interesting news about 4th edition

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

-1 for invoking Bugaboo after I did. boo!

Darn,

Missed that - Good on ya PW!

 

[Staffan]

I give it a three.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

Darn,

Missed that - Good on ya PW!

recognition - yay!


Anyone remember Bill Door? (I don't know why this reminded me of him).

 

[The Shaman]

Because it's not just "greiving grognards" - it's something like an estimated 4 million people playing the game in its current form.

I'd like to know more about the age profile of that four million D&D players - if it's heavily weighted toward teenagers, then I doubt that making a radical change would be too terribly painful for Hasbro. Maintain a game that is a cult favorite among a dwindling number of twenty- and thirty-somethings, or focus on the awesome power that is teen spending? Seems like an easy choice to me.

I also wonder if CCG gamers gravitate toward becoming RPG gamers or not.

 

[Remathilis]

Ok, check THIS idea out.

D&D: The Gathering

One book. Gives the Generic Rules, some default classes, spells and feats. Low level monsters and spells.

Buy a boosterpack. You get 8 cards from among the following types:

Treasure: Magical items or what-have-you

Rules: Expansions with new feats, class features*, or something like this.

Magic: Spells, duh.

Monsters: Monster Stats on a card.

Heroics: Lets you do cool things like Action Points can

A simple game lets you begin with 4 cards, but as you level, you can get more cards in your "Hand" some are only useful to certain classes and/or races so trading is encouraged. DMs set up dungeons using tiles and minis, etc.

You play for "XP" that levels your character. This can also unlock new character options (new classes, like PrCs) and such. It also expands your "goodies" card hand.

Lots of kinks to iron out, but might be a fun afternoon. Not sure I'd trade in my current D&D for it, but a pleasant distraction...

 

[tensen]

My FLGS owner, who is a close friend of mine, was told by a source at WotC that 4th edition will be integrated with Magic: the Gathering. He was vague on *how* this would be done, as 4th edition is still very much in the preliminary stages. But the terms "feat cards", "spell cards" and "power boost cards" (?) were used.

Please note: this is NOT just another "4e rumor". I've known this FLGS owner for years now, and his WotC insider friend is a man of honesty and integrity, who was with TSR long before WotC took over.

At any rate, I thought I'd share it here. Personally, I'm looking forward to it already!

Was it this year, or one of the past years, that this was brought up on april 1st.
I distinctly recall this being discussed once before.

 

[shilsen]

Anyone remember Bill Door? (I don't know why this reminded me of him).

Yup. Didn't he disappear a couple years ago?

 

[Imperialus]

I agree that the DM would be driven absolutly batty by the constant influx of new feats, special abilities PrC's ect. that would occur if character development was driven by collecting booster packs. Heck one of my biggest complaints about 3.X is that the DM can be religated from a position of storyteller to a mere rules arbiter trying to keep a reign on some of the characters that can be produced by some of the splatbooks. Nevermind the fact that your characters power may well be directly porportional to how much money someone is willing to throw at the hobby which, speaking as a student would be a very bad thing indeed. If 4E turns out to be collectable I might just be forced to organize a LARP of cops and robbers where rules disputes boil down to:
"BANG you're dead"
"NUH UH! YOU MISSED"
"NOIDIDDN'T NOIDIDN't"

 

[doktorziplok@sbcglob]

it's not a horrible idea... on paper. it wasn't even a horrible idea when tsr did it 15 years ago.

remember the original creature cards? they had a picture of the monster on one side (to show the players) and a stat block on the other side (for the dm).

then there was the "deck of" series. the deck of encounters, the deck of magic items, the deck of psionics, etc.

shoot, we even had 3 sets (750 cards each) of "collectible" cards. not really collectible in the end, because you could buy a full factory set in a nice box. and worth nearly nothing now, i just bought the 1991 & 1992 factory sets for a grand total of $35.

the "deck of" series was nice because you could pull out the spells your pc knew and you had a full reference right there, no time wasted paging through the phb. the tsr cards are very handy too. need an npc? pull out a card, here's your npc fully statted out with items. great for on the fly stuff or even as a jumping-off point.

personally, i would embrace revised/updated reprints of the above card sets (complete sets, that is). imagine being able to take a small pack of (refernce) cards to a game rather than hauling around 3 different books. if i could buy a "factory set" of spells, feats, magic items or what-have-you, i would be quite happy. if i had to buy 108 boosters to find a "wish" or "+3 longsword" i wouldn't be buying any.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

I agree that the DM would be driven absolutly batty by the constant influx of new feats, special abilities PrC's ect. that would occur if . . .

It's happening already.

Heck one of my biggest complaints about 3.X is that the DM can be religated from a position of storyteller to a mere rules arbiter trying to keep a reign on some of the characters that can be produced by some of the splatbooks.

Precisely. I think you nailed it with "DM is now rules arbiter". Why I long ago grew disillusioned with 3.0/3.5 and why I don't see a M:tG model for 4.0 as an unusual or unexpected thing.