D&D 4E Where was 4e headed before it was canned?

[hbarsquared]

Does anyone perhaps have a link to the old Legends & Lore (I think?) articles from 2011? I know Mearls was writing them, then Cook for a bit, then back to Mearls after they made the Next announcement.

It'd be fun to read through those again, knowing that they were already talking about 5E at that point...

 

[Tony Vargas]

Does anyone perhaps have a link to the old Legends & Lore (I think?) articles from 2011? I know Mearls was writing them, then Cook for a bit, then back to Mearls after they made the Next announcement.

It'd be fun to read through those again, knowing that they were already talking about 5E at that point...

They're a bit hard to find, even on the internet archive. …

::board stutters::

 

[Tony Vargas]

Does anyone perhaps have a link to the old Legends & Lore (I think?) articles from 2011? I know Mearls was writing them, then Cook for a bit, then back to Mearls after they made the Next announcement.

It'd be fun to read through those again, knowing that they were already talking about 5E at that point...

::board stutters::

... [MENTION=2525]Mistwell[/MENTION] posted part of one recently, though, maybe he has a line on 'em?

 

[Mistwell]

::board stutters::

... [MENTION=2525]Mistwell[/MENTION] posted part of one recently, though, maybe he has a line on 'em?

Hmm. Well there is this. But that ends in 2009. And then the next one I found was May 2014.

Oh, wait, I did find some from 2011. It's here. Click sort oldest to newest on the upper right corner. The earliest listed is MODRONS' MARCH; D&D ALUMNI - 01/26/2011; By Bart Carroll.

 

[MockingBird]

Late to the party here. Touching back on the Essentials line, I really liked the box sets. Never played the included adventures but I appreciated them being included. I still use the monster and hero tokens included in the sets in my 5e game (when battles are too large for TotM). Essentials excited me when it released. It was definitely doubling down on classic aesthetics and it worked on me Haha. Never got to really play the line very much so I'm not sure how much of a departure it was from core 4e.

Someone mention KotSF earlier. I have seen this module get some hate. It was the first adventure I ran for 4e. I enjoyed it and my players (not quit sure how 4e should be played) seem to have fun with it. As a whole we just didnt know the focus of 4e was tactical combat. Most would just spam their basic attack. We were all returning players/DM from 2e and that's how we tried to play it. Looking back now and maybe taking more time with the introductory rules I often wonder if we would have enjoyed it more and stuck with it.

 

[Garthanos]

Someone mention KotSF earlier. I have seen this module get some hate. It was the first adventure I ran for 4e. I enjoyed it and my players (not quit sure how 4e should be played) seem to have fun with it. As a whole we just didnt know the focus of 4e was tactical combat. Most would just spam their basic attack.

I cannot imagine someone even reading the description of their class and choosing to do that not even workable with just essentials... not really

 

[MockingBird]

I cannot imagine someone even reading the description of their class and choosing to do that

They didnt, they sat down and played to the best of their D&D ability. It's a hard enough job to get a group of casual players to focus on what the DM is saying, much less to invest in the game system itself. Maybe that's why 5e works better for the same group? I'm not sure but it just does.

 

[Garthanos]

They didnt, they sat down and played to the best of their D&D ability. It's a hard enough job to get a group of casual players to focus on what the DM is saying, much less to invest in the game system itself. Maybe that's why 5e works better for the same group? I'm not sure but it just does.

I do not even qualify that as casual... never met anyone that casual

 

[Garthanos]

I would say they didnt even read their character sheets or chose feats or anything about their characters...

 

[Parmandur]

I cannot imagine someone even reading the description of their class and choosing to do that not even workable with just essentials... not really

That sounds like most D&D players I've ever met and played with: and per WotC, that's not abnormal at all.