What makes a new edition?

[jeffh]

Personally, I think a new edition is warranted when the changes made to the system will improve my fun in playing the game by 50%.

That will never happen. I'm not saying which rules you're playing under is unimportant, but it's not important enough for the contribution made by changing it to ever be responsible for 50% or more of the fun, even pretending for the moment that we can quantify that in the first place.

 

[jeffh]

Oh, no! He's channelling Britney Spears.

I thought Bobby Brown, actually.

 

[Mercule]

The simplest answer to the original question (what's a new edition?) is that a new edition happens when the publisher/author decide to increment that little number buy the title. Seriously and without snarkiness. There are apparently so many different ways to view this that I can't think of any other definition that fits the majority of works.

 

[Torm]

Ricky Bell, Michael Bivens, and Ronnie DeVoe.

ain't New Edition without the others.

This post has made me harbor certain feelings toward you. I won't say what, but I'll give you a hint: If It Isn't Love.....

(But really that's because you beat me to the punch. You know, like Bobby usually does to Whitney. )

Never mind. Perhaps we had best Cool It, Now.

 

[Mercule]

I thought Bobby Brown, actually.

Either would work. But, if I'm going to razz him, why go half-way?

 

[Torm]

In serious answer to the original question, I'd have to say two main things make for a new edition:

1. Simplification of clunky existing aspects of the game - like reorganizing THAC0 into Base Attack Bonus, or like (hopefully in 4th Ed D&D) the elimination of Ability Scores in favor of JUST the modifiers.
2. New rules that allow gameplay to be more involved or better adapted to given situations or character concepts, that end up filling the void that would otherwise leave just a cleaned up version of the previous edition. Like Feats and Templates.

Just #1 is a rules-lite version of the same edition, and just #2 is an optional rules manual (think Unearthed Arcana), but both at once is a new edition.

 

[diaglo]

Oh, no! He's channelling Britney Spears.

i think i did with my pre-edit post.

but i corrected perogative into prerogative.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

That will never happen. I'm not saying which rules you're playing under is unimportant, but it's not important enough for the contribution made by changing it to ever be responsible for 50% or more of the fun, even pretending for the moment that we can quantify that in the first place.

I disagree. It happened for me when I finally found a 3e party. Before that, I played AD&D (because I didn't find anyone to play 3e with me), but already know 3e, and knew how good D&D actually could be. I would go so far to say that it was suddenly twice as fun (but a lot of that is due to the fact that the other DM is much better, so I think 50% is about right)

 

[Torm]

That will never happen. I'm not saying which rules you're playing under is unimportant, but it's not important enough for the contribution made by changing it to ever be responsible for 50% or more of the fun, even pretending for the moment that we can quantify that in the first place.

We can. It is the exact size of a small chocolate bar.

 

[rogueattorney]

Like Mercule said, a new edition happens when the publisher says so. The strange thing is how differently publishers use the word, 'edition'. With Call of Cthulhu, Chaosium tend to use edition as one might use "printing". With D&D, edition has tended to mean "version". Thus while AD&D is only in its third edition and CoC is in its 6th, 1st edition AD&D is a heck of a lot more different from 3rd, than 1st edition CoC is from 6th.

R.A.