D&D 4E Whose staying with 4e?

[Mengu]

I have different perspectives of a system in DM chair vs player chair.

I will continue to run 4e until either my campaign ends/falls apart, or until DDI support is discontinued. At that point, I will see what's around, though I don't mind a break from DM'ing for a while. I'm not very good at running a system I don't like, so if I don't like Next, I won't run it.

I'll play whatever my friends want, currently that's Savage Worlds, and 4e. If one of my groups wants to try Next, I'll give it a shot. I've become pretty good at turning a blind eye to elements of a game system I don't like, enjoy a campaign, and focus on role playing my character. If a DM I like, and players I like, are playing a game, I don't care much about what the system is, I'll play.

To be fair, I was super excited about 4e throughout the entire announcement process, I followed ENWorld daily, I tried to get every snippet of information from DDXP and other play tests/previews. I ran demos as soon as they were available. I still love 4e, despite its flaws. Unfortunately with Next, I'm just not excited about going back to the older editions. So I'm taking a more wait and see approach.

 

[S'mon]

After Mike Mearls' recent post about adventures in an hour, I'd probably be willing to play it if a GM I liked offered to run it. Although I'd be equally happy playing Labyrinth Lord.

 

[pemerton]

After Mike Mearls' recent post about adventures in an hour, I'd probably be willing to play it if a GM I liked offered to run it.

I found that interesting too. What I'm wondering about is the mechanical and other tools they will use to make these adventures work.

In 4e, the mechanics come close to guaranteeing a certain sort of drama in combat encounters (subject to the grind issues - I haven't had them, but I know others have). Skill challenges aren't as tightly designed, but create a framework in which, likewise, a certain sort of drama is very likely to emerge.

In classic D&D, on the other hand, the burden is very much on the GM to make sure that an hour-long adventure has genuine drama, rather than just being a string of pointless or trivial encounters - moreso than in a 4e skill challenge, let alone a 4e combat.

If Next is able to apply some of the techniques of 4e encounter design and resolution to produce 4e-level guarantees of drama in its hour-long adventures then it will be a better system than I have been anticipating so far, and (from my point of view) might be worth looking at.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Really depends on how good it is. What I see right now is the intend of the designers to do a grat game. The same as with 4e.

And they held up their word with 4e. So they really have the benefit of doubt here. The only real problem for me was the lack of playtesting which resulted in some terrible flaws in PHB 1 and a lot of errata thereafter.

If they had started with essentials, there had been no need for 5e. But now there is. And before it was announced, i predicted the announcement. And they are addressing all the main issues of 4e (for me)
Are they having it right? Maybe not right now. But they will soon give out a coherent playtest file, which we can try out.

So I guess: it will be polygamey for a while!

 

[S'mon]

In classic D&D, on the other hand, the burden is very much on the GM to make sure that an hour-long adventure has genuine drama, rather than just being a string of pointless or trivial encounters - moreso than in a 4e skill challenge, let alone a 4e combat.

I definitely don't feel burdened runninng Classic D&D; the drama is inherent in the risk of death in combat (or from traps) and lots happens in an hour. I find 4e potentially a lot more burdensome in that I can't just 'run the environment' which was my approach 1e-3e, everything needs to be tailored.

 

[babinro]

I don't intend to put money into 5th Edition because of my investment in 4E.

If one my fellow players buys the initial books to start running 5E games I'll be able to join in. If from that experience I feel it is superior to 4E I will gladly make the switch.

As of today though, I'm not yet willing to put down that initial $100.00 or so investment associated with a new edition as I absolutely love 4E still.

 

[cavalier973]

Well, it seems that Piratecat is on board with D&DN, which is a pretty major recommendation for it. I am curious, but as I wrote in another thread, D&D Essentials seems to have nailed what I'm looking for in an TTRPG. I don't see how WotC can top it.

In fact, I believe that had WotC been able to begin with D&D Essentials, and expanded it out to the core books, then it might not have generated the spite that it did. Unfortunately, the core had to come first, because they were trying something really innovative, and had to see how it played before tweaking it. Perhaps more playtesting would have helped, and perhaps that's why (it seems) that they're playtesting the snot out of D&DNext.

 

[Rechan]

The more I read of 5e, the more I am inclined to stick with 4e. There are a few things I've seen that I liked, but a large number of the fundamental rules the system is built on do not appeal to me in the least.

 

[Firebeetle]

I love 4e. after playing D&D for well over 30 years now, it is my favorite edition by far. I've never had so much fun as a DM. I fully intend to stick with 4e, and desperately hope that digital support will continue for it, as has been indicated may be the case. My one and only issue is the weak GSL.

I'm going to see how the modular nature of D&D Next works out, and see what rules they have that will expand roleplaying and exploration. However, if I do fun 5e, it's going to look a lot like 4e when I do it.

My current plan is to hunt down all 4e products I want and purchase them, stock up on RPGA and Dungeon adventures, and have enough material that I can play 4e for the reminder of my days (I've got to have 3, 4, maybe 5 decades tops left) using 4e. That way I can choose whether I want 5e or not when I want to.

 

[Raith5]

I have been playing D&D since basic and 4th is my preferred edition. The 4th ed campaign I am playing in still has 18-24 months to go and I would still like to DM 4th ed at some stage.

But I will be play testing 5th and while I dont like some of the things I have been hearing from Monte and Mearls, hope always springs eternal that a balanced and flexible game will emerge. I am just not confident that the strengths and weaknesses of 4th edition have been properly understood by M&M and WOTC. But time will tell.