What would soften the blow?

[GRIMJIM]

I'd go further. Strip out all the crap thats baggage from previous editions. Alignment, random character creation methods, random hit die, vancian casting.

Classes and levels too don't forget.

 

[JVisgaitis]

WotC does a lot of market research, and more importantly, WotC has access to sales numbers. If Eberron is getting more attention than FR, it's because it's currently selling more than FR.

That may be true, but I don't necessarily take that as gospel. One thing you're failing to mention is it's a lot easier to sell more of product x then product y if you push product x harder. Now I certainly don't follow WotC campaign settings all that much, but from a casual observer, it definitely seems like they push Eberron over the Realms. Especially with decisions like they made with Dungeons & Dragons Online and such.

 

[XO]

Cull the Dull...

Prevent Mr Collins from going anywhere NEAR 4E and anything in it...

 

[JVisgaitis]

Prevent Mr Collins from going anywhere NEAR 4E and anything in it...

What's wrong with Andy Collins?

 

[Sammael]

Prevent Mr Collins from going anywhere NEAR 4E and anything in it...

I bet he and Mearls are co-lead developers for it. Oh well, makes it easier for me not to buy it.

 

[Sammael]

What's wrong with Andy Collins?

Nothing wrong with him as a person, as far as I am concerned. However, I think he is not a very good RPG designer at all, and his school of thought (let's empower the players EVEN MORE! let's make drow playable from level 1 by INCREASING THE POWER OF OTHER CORE RACES!) is at odds with what I like in RPG design.

You can see his influence very clearly in the huge power creep of later 3.x products. Designers I know who would have tried to keep the power creep down are no longer with WotC.

 

[Raloc]

I'd buy 4e if it was a significant improvement and it was 1) OGL/d20, 2) compatible with 3.5, fully, and 3) didn't cost very much. Things requiring me to buy new everything from 3.5 will not receive my or my group's attention, though.

 

[Greg K]

Nothing wrong with him as a person, as far as I am concerned. However, I think he is not a very good RPG designer at all, and his school of thought (let's empower the players EVEN MORE! let's make drow playable from level 1 by INCREASING THE POWER OF OTHER CORE RACES!) is at odds with what I like in RPG design.

You can see his influence very clearly in the huge power creep of later 3.x products. Designers I know who would have tried to keep the power creep down are no longer with WotC.

Actually, I haven't viewed Andy as one of the big offenders

1. With the exception of the epic level handbook, his name is not on the cover of any books that found to be huge power creep (of course, I can't think of any other books with his name other than Complete Warrior or Unearthed Arcana which just happen to be two of only a dozen WOTC DND books that I actually like).
2. he wrote an article in Dragon encouraging the limiting of prestige classes to those that are appropriate to the campaign.
3. one of his homebrew campaigns was actually designed to limit the available power of magic (both spells and items). In that campaign, third level spells were not avaible until tenth level and fifth level spells were pretty much the highest level available at eighteenth level. So, he has at least some interest in campaigns where magic is lower powered.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

...what would make you ready for 4th ed? Or at the very least soften the blow?

Given all the shaken fizz on the topic I imagine there would be precious little pop to need cushioning from.

 

[RFisher]

And moreover, its NOT in the RPGA. That alone should say something.

...about the RPGA. <duck> ^_^

(I kid. I have no problem with point buy, even though my group doesn't use it.)

2) compatible with 3.5, fully

I wonder exactly what people mean by this. How much change are you willing to accept as compatible?