What happens if we don't like it?

[KingCrab]

If we don't like it (and I'm seriously assuming we will not) I'm hoping that the 3.5 community stays together and organizes. How much support do we really need to keep playing 3.5? We have all the crunch books we could want (and a few more than we wanted). There are tons of modules out there (and we can keep writing our own).

What we shouldn't do is give in and buy a bunch of 4th edition products if they aren't really great. If they want me to buy 4e books then they had better make the game so incredible that I actually want to go out and spend money on it. None of us should just buy it for the sake of buying it. If we don't like it, then we need to say so by not continuing to buy their products. We should also continue to enjoy the 3.x products that we paid for and have been having fun with all these years.

 

[T. Foster]

Or play C&C, Conan, True 20, etc. Heck, there are even some grognards out there playing 1e and 2e!

Howndawg

Indeed. I just picked up a new copy of the 1E Players Handbook at the FLGS this afternoon for $5 -- 4th printing (May 1979) with yellow endpapers and stitched binding; a lot of shelfwear on the cover but a pristine interior (except for the former owner's name on the front flyleaf -- c'mon Seth, why couldn't you have just trusted your friends not to steal your book? ). They also had a couple copies with the later orange-spine and Jeff Easley cover art that looked to be in pretty good shape for $7 apiece (and one in worse shape that they inexplicably wanted $10 for...).

 

[F4NBOY]

The only concrete fears I have regarding 4E is its proximity to SWSE.
There are some good stuff in SAGA, and the good stuff is REALLY good.
But there are some bad stuff in SAGA, and the bad stuff is unberably bad!
I hope the presence of Mike Mearls (Book of Irong Might, Iron Heroes and Bo9S) ditches that fear away.
The more 4e comes close to those books and the farther it comes from SAGA(but not that far it can't grab some cool stuff from it), the more happy I'll be.
If everything goes wrong, I think I'm fully back to Malhavoc Press, until 5E

 

[Moon-Lancer]

Yeah, but, that would be, y'know, reasonable and all that. Why would you expect people to be reasonable?

its unreasonable to assume people are reasonable.

 

[F4NBOY]

its unreasonable to assume people are reasonable.

That's reasonable.

 

[Arkhandus]

If you don't like it...

... then you don't like it. Deal with it.

........and there'll still be plenty of us who'll be happy to let you join our continued/new 3.x campaigns!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If 4Ed is a flop because we don't like it and we don't buy it, the following (non-exclusive) possibilities exist:

1) 5Ed gets released earlier than Hasbro/WotC would normally do for business reasons. The accelerated production schedule means the form it takes could be a retro 1Ed/2Ed/3.X release or a new but incompletely playtested form. (This, BTW, is something like what I believe was the motivation for the unusual release of 3.5 so soon after 3.0- 3.0 was rushed to production due to market pressures, but 3.5 is more like what was originally intended.)

2) 4Ed product development gets killed, making it the last published version of the game. Hasbro/WotC continue with M:tG, DDM and other games.

3) As above, but some other company (Paizo? White Wolf? FFI? Mongoose?) successfully wrangles the rights to D&D from Hasbro/WotC, and release a new version...or if they get all the rights, perhaps an old version.

4) Because of the OGL, 3rd party publishers keep 3.X strong, leading to its possible revival or continued success as the hobby leader. A potential VHS/Betamax type war could erupt in the industry/hobby.

5) Hasbro/WotC lets 4Ed limp along until 5Ed is actually ready to be produced (learning from all or most of the mistakes of the past editions) and its so good the new edition lets D&D regain the throne.

6) Hasbro/WotC gives everyone who purchased 4Ed a full refund and a pony.

 

[Cergorach]

I like the look of the 4e design team, and I am certain the product will be considered a success. However, I do not like the sound of some of the changes. So my question is this: what if we don't like it? I don't mind holdouts, I mean, what if 4e is not considered a critical success and does not fully supplant 3.5 in popularity? What if 4e is the Champions: The New Millenium of D&D?

What then?

I'm happy to offer you cryogenic freezing until D&D 5E is released, we'll unfreeze you and you'll be able to evaluate whether you like 5E or not. If not we'll happily freeze you again until 6E and so forth. What model would you like? The standard sized D&D player or the 'happy' sized D&D player (prefiously used to test our freezing methods on mamoths*).

* We would like to note that while you might not have seen any mamoths in recent years, you'll be happy to note that they are extatic with 4E and thus the available space.

Faithfully yours,

Cergorach
Noah Inc.
In business since the last wrath of god...

 

[amethal]

FWIW, Here's a snapshot of my own ongoing struggle with nomenclature.

Thats a useful snapshot.

Have you considered splitting AD&D 2nd edition into 2.0 and 2.5?

 

[crazy_cat]

6) Hasbro/WotC gives everyone who purchased 4Ed a full refund and a pony.

Has anyone asked if WOTC might offer cats or goldfish instead of ponies? I don't really have enough space at home for a pony right now.