D&D General What if Critical Role had stuck with Pathfinder? Or 4E?

[darjr]

Do you have a link?

I am a HUGE 4e fan, and keep hoping 2024 brings bits of it back for 6e/5.5/anniversary edition... I tried to make my own retro clone but I am not so great at balanceing things.

Here are the live plays.


Note that pet of the new WotC 5e monster changes harkens to 4e monster powers.

And the buzz is in the “net”

I think the big splash will be MCDMs monster book.

 

[Remathilis]

Until the fad of the game's mass appeal ends, we won't be seeing a D&D that rewards system mastery.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

 

[Retreater]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

No, I don't think it's a bad thing.
But I do think it's true nonetheless.

 

[darjr]

No, I don't think it's a bad thing.
But I do think it's true nonetheless.

In this day and age fads are more ephemeral. And soon, a year or so, you get the backlash and squinty looks when you bring the subject up.

I still get people asking to play or mentioning they did and loved it or used to and would love to get in a game. Or some folks I’ll run a couple few games for and I later find out they’ve setup their own club or something.

I just ran a game for brand new folks. And not one of them have heard of Critical Role. One of them showed up with almost every non adventure book.

I have also run intro games at comic cons and 90% of them mention it first.

 

[HammerMan]

Here are the live plays.


Note that pet of the new WotC 5e monster changes harkens to 4e monster powers.

And the buzz is in the “net”

I think the big splash will be MCDMs monster book.

thank you and Subbed... I may watch it tonight

 

[HammerMan]

In this day and age fads are more ephemeral. And soon, a year or so, you get the backlash and squinty looks when you bring the subject up.

I still get people asking to play or mentioning they did and loved it or used to and would love to get in a game. Or some folks I’ll run a couple few games for and I later find out they’ve setup their own club or something.

I just ran a game for brand new folks. And not one of them have heard of Critical Role. One of them showed up with almost every non adventure book.

I have also run intro games at comic cons and 90% of them mention it first.

I helped run COn and FLGS games for years precovid.

I found about 1/3 of the people were new to RP games and young (at least younger then me but a few kids too)
about 1/3 were returning from a pre 4e game situation or non D&D entirely
the last 3rd are people who just needed a new game...but already ran/played 5e.
(this is a gross simplification)

of thoese 2/3 that were not 5e player already I only heard 1 or 2 ever talk CR. (Funny thing is I found the last 1/3 that already played 5e did more) but that is a really small sample size.

 

[glass]

I agree that PF1 is less streaming-friendly than 5e (plus it does not have D&D's name recognition), so CR using PF1 would have been less succesful (while making PF1 slightly more successful). 5e has really benefited from the rise of "watching other people play games on the internet" as a thing; CR is obviously a large part of that in our timeline, but but how much its absence would have hurt 5e is hard to say. Other streams would have picked up the slack, but how much?

I strongly disagree the 4e is less streaming-friendly than 5e; at its core it is simpler and more consistant. Assuming that dates posted upthread are accurate, it was obviously too late to save 4e, so 4e CR would have had an impact similar to PF1 CR (albeit to a slightly greater extent). Now, if Mat Mercer had got the idea of streaming his earlier 4e campaign, that would be a more interesting timeline to spy on....

EDIT: To the people saying that 5e sold gangbusters before CR launched: Of course it did - it was a new edition of D&D! That it continues to sell that well (better even) is a confluence of many factor, but the rise of streaming of tabletop games that CR exemplifies is definitely one of them.

_
glass.

 

[Retreater]

I strongly disagree the 4e is less streaming-friendly than 5e; at its core it is simpler and more consistant. Assuming that dates posted upthread are accurate, it was obviously too late to save 4e, so 4e CR would have had an impact similar to PF1 CR (albeit to a slightly greater extent). Now, if Mat Mercer had got the idea of streaming his earlier 4e campaign, that would be a more interesting timeline to spy on....

It's the one-hour combats, the necessity for gridded tactical combat (which isn't necessarily interesting for non-gamers to watch). As I said earlier, I'm a 4e apologist. I think it would make for bad viewing.
And yes, I've seen Matt Colville's streaming campaign on Fantasy Grounds.

 

[darjr]

I agree that PF1 is less streaming-friendly than 5e (plus it does not have D&D's name recognition), so CR using PF1 would have been less succesful (while making PF1 slightly more successful). 5e has really benefited from the rise of "watching other people play games on the internet" as a thing; CR is obviously a large part of that in our timeline, but but how much its absence would have hurt 5e is hard to say. Other streams would have picked up the slack, but how much?

I strongly disagree the 4e is less streaming-friendly than 5e; at its core it is simpler and more consistant. Assuming that dates posted upthread are accurate, it was obviously too late to save 4e, so 4e CR would have had an impact similar to PF1 CR (albeit to a slightly greater extent). Now, if Mat Mercer had got the idea of streaming his earlier 4e campaign, that would be a more interesting timeline to spy on....

EDIT: To the people saying that 5e sold gangbusters before CR launched: Of course it did - it was a new edition of D&D! That it continues to sell that well (better even) is a confluence of many factor, but the rise of streaming of tabletop games that CR exemplifies is definitely one of them.

_
glass.

No. It sold so well it freaked out WotC.

 

[BRayne]

It's the one-hour combats, the necessity for gridded tactical combat (which isn't necessarily interesting for non-gamers to watch). As I said earlier, I'm a 4e apologist. I think it would make for bad viewing.
And yes, I've seen Matt Colville's streaming campaign on Fantasy Grounds.

Have you seen Critical Role, the show with 3-4 hour combats on gridded terrain?