D&D 4E What would make you decide against 4e?

[Lonely Tylenol]

I will not even look at 4E if any of the following events occur:

• The PHB costs more than $50.
• I need to be connected to the internet to get a code that will allow me to open the magnetic locks on my books.
• I die.
• They scrap all the standard races and replace them with furries.
• Mike Mearls kicks me in the nuts.
• They announce 4.5 edition in May.
• I wake up and this was all a dream.
• They come to my house and take away all my 3.5 books.
• They start selling tie-in Emerald Frost™ Slurpees at 7-11.
• It totally sucks.

Otherwise, I think we're good. They'd have to screw it up in some very unsettling ways for me to not give it a shot.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

When they made the announcement I was suspicious sure, I still thought a 4th edition might be interesting. I'm just a naturally suspicious sort, so I held off on the enthusiasm, after all I didn't need 4e. Hoped the best for it anyway, as I like D&D and want to see D&D do well.

But the more information I get, especially as the mechanical details have started to arrive, has raised my hackles. I like including the new tiefling/dragonborn races it was a breath of fresh air, even if I think they went overboard with elves/elves-in-all-but-name/half-elves all in the PHB. But now that I'm getting some real details on mechanics there's enough to turn me away. I've already decided I don't want to play or DM 4e. Like I did with most of 2e I'll skip an edition and see if the next one lures me back. I can always stick with what I've got.

 

[FEADIN]

I'll probably never buy the 4th edition because I play since 1981 and I've seen so much games that this one don't seems a bit above.
Because we are a small group now and no one will buy the books and start again to learn new rules, we play far less than seven years ago and far, far less than twenty years ago, it's not worth the money and the time, we'll keep with 3.5 for at least some years and may be we'll buy 4.5 or 5 edition when we'll be old and have more time; like when we were young
I think that no cool rule or other news will change this.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

My group plays campaign long adventures such as War of Burning Sky Sky and the Paizo Adventure Paths. If nobody makes these for 4e we will not switch (we have a plenty good backlog of 3.5).

 

[mhensley]

I think all the really bad flavor they're adding is reason enough to stay away from 4ed.

I'm really starting to feel this way as well. I would have been really happy if they just simplified and streamlined the game. The more info that comes out, the less it looks like D&D to me.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Right now, the only thing that could turn me off of 4e would be knowledge that kobolds would be a core race.

I can handle dragonborn just fine; I don't need my PC to be soft and fleshy. But kobolds...ugh.

Brad

 

[JoeGKushner]

What if Mike Mearls kicks you in the nuts and that kills you? Do the two things cancel each other out?

I will not even look at 4E if any of the following events occur:

• The PHB costs more than $50.
• I need to be connected to the internet to get a code that will allow me to open the magnetic locks on my books.
• I die.
• They scrap all the standard races and replace them with furries.
• Mike Mearls kicks me in the nuts.
• They announce 4.5 edition in May.
• I wake up and this was all a dream.
• They come to my house and take away all my 3.5 books.
• They start selling tie-in Emerald Frost™ Slurpees at 7-11.
• It totally sucks.

Otherwise, I think we're good. They'd have to screw it up in some very unsettling ways for me to not give it a shot.

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Well, since you're asking...take a look at the two sneak peeks into the Races & Classes book. What's mentioned there basically turned off the last bit of interest I had in 4E, to be honest. If you're asking why, it's basically because that thing coming in 2008 now looks so much different from what I view as D&D that I don't really have any interest in it as a "new edition". And since I can't even scrounge up enough time and people to play all the games I currently own and know, I have absolutely no interest in purchasing a new game that covers basically the same niche "my" D&D already does.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'll probably buy the Core 3 and then make my decision as to whether I'll continue to purchase anything else based on my answers to the following questions:

1) Is it priced properly?

If the game is too expensive, I'll be the only one buying any of the books.

While I am sort of a game librarian and even buy duplicates of books that see heavy use, that is by choice- I'd be miffed if it were by neccessity.

2) Is it needlessly complex or oversimplified?

If I look at the mechanics and see areas where I or my fellow co-DMs will be HR-ing again and again, it won't be worth my trouble.

Ditto if a game group with dozens of collegiate and post-graduate degrees can't come to concensus on how a section of the rules is supposed to operate.

3) Does it let me design the PCs I (and my fellow gamers) imagine?

The game has steadily progressed towards increased flexibility of PC design, something of which I wholeheartedly approve. If there is a ChaGen retrograde, I'll stick with 3.X or HERO.

4) Is is still recognizably D&D?

There are lots of FRPGs out there- and I own lots of them- and if 4Ed isn't somehow distinguishable from the others (mechanics and fluff), then there isn't a point to playing the game.

Similarly, some of the fluff that I've seen really doesn't appeal to me as part of the game's Core. I'd be fine with some of what I've seen getting released as supplemental material, but I forsee much "blacklining" of 4Ed material in the hands of DMs in my game group.

5) Is it fun?

I think that speaks for itself.

 

[frankthedm]

I’ll skip 4E if

- CoDzilla does not get Neutered.
- An enemy Caster can negate my Combatant by spending 1500gp for a Force Cage spell with no way for me to avoid it.
- Non winged flight and teleport is still the normal way high level characters move about.
- The extreme damage only available to heavily optimized characters does not get reined in.
-Too many skills are still made worthless thanks to magic.