D&D 4E Who else is going to be a deserter when 4e comes out?

[Barendd Nobeard]

3.5 is the end for me. I've got too many books to try and build-up the collection for another edition. I am jealous of HeapThaumaturgist who has only three books; I wish I'd had the kind of restraint at the beginning of 3e. If I do get suckered into 4e, I will stick with Core books only.

If I decide to avoid 4e entirely, I'll probably just fade away into Call of Cthluhu and non-rpg games, with an ocassional 3e game.

So, I won't desert D&D. For the most part. But I'll play it a lot less.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Aye, there's a certain irony there. Despite having become a rabid C&C advocate, I can see that. But I would say that if not for 3e being what it is, we wouldn't need a C&C.

Yet ironically enough, without 3e and the OGL thing, there woudl be no C&C.

 

[jmucchiello]

Then I will retire sooner. There was a time in my life where I thought I could play RPG until my last breath, but now at 36, the thought don't seem realistic.

What does this have to do with a D&D 4e? And, how sad that you think 36 is the start of your RPG playing twilight. I'm hoping by my retirement age there are geek-oriented assisted living homes.

 

[Masked Otaku]

I will always play D&D.

Quasqueton

Even if you have to use Toon to do it.

 

[Blue_Kryptonite]

I'm carefully testing I5, and will likely not leave after it goes live.

... Oh, wait, wrong "DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! I QUIT!!!!1111!!!1eleventeen!!!" board. That's City Of heroes.

Me? I'll buy it if I like it. I won't if I don't.

Then I will retire sooner. There was a time in my life where I thought I could play RPG until my last breath, but now at 36, the thought don't seem realistic.

38 here, playing with 40 year old wife, 19 year old son, 20 year old son's fiancee, and more random ages from 15 to 44.

Heck, right now, I'm on four role play MUXes (On them, as in connected to multiple characters as I type), have City Of Heroes open, and am working on a PbP for here and some campaign stuff for home. All while getting stuff done.

It never has to end if its your lifestyle. Its not everyone's.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

It doesn't make much of a difference to me, except as it impacts the RPG industry and my ability to get work therein.

As a player, I never have to play D&D if I don't want to. As a GM, I can use as much or as little of it as I like. I don't care for the core assumptions, the core story or the core setting, so I'm unlikely to be devastated if I no longer care for the core rules, either.

On the other hand, if I like the rules, I'll happily buy the new books and mine as much from them as I care to. I couldn't care less (with the caveat from the first paragraph) if 4e comes out in 2005, 2010 or 2020, provided the rules are improved.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

4e? Isn't that just a bad joke of a rumor? I have not been paying mutch attention the last few years though, but still. 3e and 3.5e were just released!

When we heard about "3.5" (God, what a stupid name), a lot of people said, "WTF? They just released 3rd!"

But when "3.5" came out, all the zombies marched out obediently and bought it. WotC could release 4th edition tomorrow and it would be a huge success.

Fools. I hate hive minds.

 

[Zaruthustran]

I imagine that D&D 4E will respond to it's biggest threat: online RPGs such as World of WarCraft and EverQuest. So, we'll see:

* 50 character levels
* Classes
* A deck of feats, but a limited hand size (example: have 10 feats but can only play with 4 at a time). The current feat system punishes players; if you play a guy with a bunch of mounted feats and the adventure is underwater the game's response is "tough luck, chump". That's no fun.
* Regenerating hit points and spell points
* Spell points (no more x spells/day)
* School of magic treated like feat chains (example: just like you have point blank shot > rapid shot > manyshot, you'll have basic evocation > improved evocation > major evocation)
* Some kind of system for effectively grouping with (forming a party with) characters that are higher or lower level than your character

I also imagine they'll offer an alternative to those heavy rulebooks. Those things are intimidating to new gamers. In any event, they should bundle a CD-Rom (or make available free online) a form that allows a player to make character choices, apply equipment, autocalculate all modifiers, and print out onto one page.

WotC's refusal/inability to provide a clean, simple, auto-calculating character generator/updator is a great mystery to me. Even gamers with 20+ years of experience sometimes screw up a character sheet.

In short: 4E should lower the barrier to entry. Make it like Magic or the MMORPGS: simple core gameplay, with depth coming from situational tactical choices (positioning, which feats to take with you at the moment, etc.) as opposed to permanent strategic choics (the current "few, permanent" feat system, the current x spells/day system, etc.).

Enough rambling. To answer the original post: of course I'll try 4E, and so will you. Whether we keep buying 4E books depends on the changes and personal taste.

-z

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

-snip-

I loath MMORPGs, but I'd love every single one of those changes. Except that I'd rather have 100 levels (console and older PC RPG style) rather than 50 (modern PC RPG style).

The 'feat deck' is a fascinating idea. If they could be shrunk down to card size, it would be even better, though shrinking spells to this extent would be far more important IMO. WotC has some great templating skills, but either might be a bit of a stretch.

Regenerating hit point and spell points also makes a lot of sense. Perhaps the Unearthed Arcana "recovery pool" system Mike Mearls employed in Iron Heroes will show up as core for 4e? Great way to eliminate the perceived need for minimum one cleric per party.

I prefer spell points (ala XPH psionics) to spells/day. Especially with regenerating spell points.

Again looking to Unearthed Arcana, perhaps the options for each spell school presented there could be made into feats? The core 'specialist wizard' is rather lame for a full variant class, anyway.

It would be nice to have high and low-level characters able to work together effectively. Some efficient means for the former to defend/take heat off of the latter would be great, but I'm not sure how it could work. Of course, a 1-level gap would be the same as a 2.5-level gap in the system you describe.

If core D&D really went in this direction (along with losing the silly 3-18 ability score range for pure bonuses, ala True20), it would probably reignite my interest in the game. Or provide me with some truly great material to houserule in to other systems.

 

[caudor]

I'll be playing some version D&D in the old folks home.

As long as D&D 4.0 still stays true D&D (a class/level game), I'll played it. If other options are added rather than replaced, I'll play it.