Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Jhamin" data-source="post: 2384713" data-attributes="member: 1023">Give the man a medal!If we go back 4-5 years when this site was Eric Noah's 3rd edition news how many people were there who said that their houseruled 2nd edition rules were perfect and they would never switch?&nbsp; How many said that 3rd edition wasn't needed and their 2nd edition games was all they were interested in?&nbsp; How many of them are still using that binder of house rules?There are OD&amp;D, 1st ed, and 2nd ed holdouts.&nbsp; There will be 3.x holdouts.&nbsp; But I'm betting that if you survey the D&amp;D players of the world 95% of them play whatever is the current edition.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Two reasons1) Because when you pick the game up for the first time, you buy what is on the shelves.&nbsp; All this wonderful D&amp;D material we have avalible to us works cause it meshes with the current rules set.&nbsp; Finding players is easier.&nbsp; Picking up supplaments is easier.&nbsp; Dungeon/Dragon will support it.&nbsp; It's just less work to use what everyone else has.2) There are lots of niggling issues with 3.x.&nbsp; The alpabet soup of monster/PC balancing (CR, ECL, LA, etc), metamagic feats, the epic spell system, high level characters who are more about their items than their abilities.&nbsp; The next edition will fix some or all of these.&nbsp; And the D&amp;D gamer will rejoice.&nbsp; It will eliminate so many of the headaches we have now that it will seem like the best thing ever.&nbsp; 4th will have it's own problems, and we will argue about them.&nbsp; But every time a player makes an ogre ranger PC in a holdout 3.5 game they will untangle the monster HD\class HD\LA they will ask themselves &quot;why aren't we playing 4th where this is all so much simpler?&nbsp; Over time, more and more will be.(And before you talk about just stealing those rules, how many people think you can really fix the HD\Class\LA mess without fundamentally altering the leveling system?)And all that D20 content?&nbsp; It follows whatever WOTC is pitching as the players handbook.The D20 market functions on the principal that since most gamers play D&amp;D at some point why fight the crowd?&nbsp; Just pitch product to a rules set you know most people know and use.When D&amp;D 4 comes out, if it is OGL the current 3.x market will switch in an instant.&nbsp; The 3.5 OGL will stay in place, but fewer and fewer will care as everything moves to the 4.0 OGL.&nbsp; The OGL marketplace will ask &quot;Why try to pitch supplaments to a bunch of people who won't even buy the current core books?&nbsp; What are the odds I can find enough holdouts to make my product profitable?And if 4.0 doesn't go OGL, then the current D&amp;D hegemony will fracture.&nbsp; It will be right back to the 2nd edition days when everybody knew D&amp;D but dozens of other rules sets sprang up to support whatever setting the competitors were publishing.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jhamin, post: 2384713, member: 1023"] Give the man a medal! If we go back 4-5 years when this site was Eric Noah's 3rd edition news how many people were there who said that their houseruled 2nd edition rules were perfect and they would never switch? How many said that 3rd edition wasn't needed and their 2nd edition games was all they were interested in? How many of them are still using that binder of house rules? There are OD&D, 1st ed, and 2nd ed holdouts. There will be 3.x holdouts. But I'm betting that if you survey the D&D players of the world 95% of them play whatever is the current edition. Why? Two reasons 1) Because when you pick the game up for the first time, you buy what is on the shelves. All this wonderful D&D material we have avalible to us works cause it meshes with the current rules set. Finding players is easier. Picking up supplaments is easier. Dungeon/Dragon will support it. It's just less work to use what everyone else has. 2) There are lots of niggling issues with 3.x. The alpabet soup of monster/PC balancing (CR, ECL, LA, etc), metamagic feats, the epic spell system, high level characters who are more about their items than their abilities. The next edition will fix some or all of these. And the D&D gamer will rejoice. It will eliminate so many of the headaches we have now that it will seem like the best thing ever. 4th will have it's own problems, and we will argue about them. But every time a player makes an ogre ranger PC in a holdout 3.5 game they will untangle the monster HD\class HD\LA they will ask themselves "why aren't we playing 4th where this is all so much simpler? Over time, more and more will be. (And before you talk about just stealing those rules, how many people think you can really fix the HD\Class\LA mess without fundamentally altering the leveling system?) And all that D20 content? It follows whatever WOTC is pitching as the players handbook. The D20 market functions on the principal that since most gamers play D&D at some point why fight the crowd? Just pitch product to a rules set you know most people know and use. When D&D 4 comes out, if it is OGL the current 3.x market will switch in an instant. The 3.5 OGL will stay in place, but fewer and fewer will care as everything moves to the 4.0 OGL. The OGL marketplace will ask "Why try to pitch supplaments to a bunch of people who won't even buy the current [I]core[/I] books? What are the odds I can find enough holdouts to make my product profitable? And if 4.0 doesn't go OGL, then the current D&D hegemony will fracture. It will be right back to the 2nd edition days when everybody knew D&D but dozens of other rules sets sprang up to support whatever setting the competitors were publishing. [/QUOTE]

Verification