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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reigan" data-source="post: 4940439" data-attributes="member: 67973">I wonder if facilitating online play (with pick-up groups as well as with an ongoing group) was driver for many of the changes in 4e rather than trying to create something that can be directly ported as a crpg or MMO. This overcomes the issues with interrupts etc. that would cause problems playing as a computer game in real time. It also explains why the grid is so important, it wasn't to sell miniatures.One of the ways that rpgs like D&D are going to survive into the future is by playing to the advantages they have over MMOs like WoW, like a real life DM who can provide an infinite variety of plots and allow for characters to react "out of the box". If this can be transfered online you can overcome the big disadvantage TRPGs have in that it's much more difficult to get a group together around a table once a week or whatever.If you are going to play online, perhaps with new people, the other players and especially the dm need to know quickly what characters are capable of. This leads to the sharply defined class roles and the reduced variance in character capability. You need to know the guy who says he has a fighter can do the defender role, in 3e a fighter can mean a whole host of things (I also think this is why 4e didn't end up like Saga).This also leads directly to the similarities with WoW, the playability and clear cut effect of powers etc. are needed if you are going to play regularly with new people you don't know.In the end the VTT never made it (yet), but if it does become reality and people do want to do the WoW style "looking for group thing", 4e will do that much better than 3e.(Note: some of this if from an original post I made on rpgnet)</blockquote>

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