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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5621964" data-attributes="member: 7006">One thing that I always see mentioned when the talk about any supposed 5th edition comes up, is the idea that the 4E DDI suite "goes away"... leaving 4E players high and dry.  They "lose" all their material because WotC shuts down the 4E Character Builder, Monster Builder etc. etc.But let's think about what a "5E" game and online tools would be like.  Based upon all the work they have done to get the CB, MB, Compendium, and VTT up and running... all the years of availability to the public which have basically made them all running open beta tests... doesn't it seem odd the idea that whatever 5E is, that it'd be so completely different from 4E that they wouldn't actually be able use anything they've built for it up to this point?To me at least... it seems much more likely that whatever the next iteration of the D&D game is... that it will use the foundations that have been built within 4E and the 4E suite of online tools such that 4E won't actually stop being a part of the game architecture (because it would be much cheaper and easier to build on what they've learned... doing another but much more comprehensive "clean up" and "adaptation" of the rules... than have to completely reinvent everything for a whole new game.)  Even if you add tiers of complexity like Mearls has talked about in Legends and Lore... you can still do all of that while maintaining the basic game architecture they developed for 4E.To that end... people have been clamoring for ways to "turn off" certain parts of the Character Builder/Monster Builder for quite a while now (in order to eliminate material from books they don't want to use, or to remove feats/powers that have been made redundant over time.)  It seems likely to me that this probably will get added to the architecture of the programs at some point in time.  It's important enough to eventually work on, plus there's a very good reason why to, once "5E" gets added to it.  Doesn't it seem likely that WotC would include as part of the toggleable settings the actual 4E Classic and 4E Essentials games themselves as removable/addable parts within their Character and Monster Builders?  That way... if/when the "5E" material arrives and possibly "resets" much of what has come before (with new versions of feats, new versions of classes and class features, new versions of monsters and equipment), you as a user will be able to "turn off" all of 4E if you don't want to use any of it... "turn off" parts of 4E if you only want to use things like monsters created with the MM3/MV math and beyond... or more importantly, "turn off" all of 5E itself so that you can continue to use your DDI suite strictly for your 4E game if you choose not to move on.  Because after all... so long as you maintain paying your monthly subscription fee, it no longer matters which version of the game you actually use.  You're still "buying" 5E even if you never use it, and WotC is happy.If the foundation of the game remains basically the same... and everything is built such that any and all of it is pretty much compatible with each other... there's no reason NOT to set it up so that players can choose anything and everything within 4/5E they want to use.  And as a result... those of us who subscribe to DDI will truly never lose access to any part of the game we want... even if it moves on to a "new edition" without us.</blockquote>

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