Why the love for the Edition Treadmill?

[Crazy Jerome]

And we already see the love for the Edition Treadmill in play...

A week ago, however, for the 4e fans, it was still the best edition of the game ever made.

So for the 4e fans that are now ready to move to 5e, how did the announcement change things? Why?

Did the announcement of 5e suddenly show you that those 4e critics were right all along? ...

I think this part says more about your perception of events than the reality of them.

For myself, I don't really care if they do a new edition right now or not. (From a practical standpoint, I think a summer 2014 launch is the earliest the economy will be able to support a new edition, but I have no idea where they are in the process. And I do appreciate the open playtest.) I do care that if they do one, they do a good job with it. If it is a good one, then I might buy it. It will need to not only be good, but do something that I want do, better than something I already own.

That's pretty much the way I approach games. And that's also why I've never come close to "completing" a game edition, and have skipped whole editions. (I got about half of Arcana Evolved, probably the closest I've ever come to getting everything in a multiple book line.) 3E wasn't a problem with little invested in 2E, and most of that source material. And 4E sure wasn't a problem with one 3.5 book to my name. And 5E, if I like the looks of it, won't be a problem with my 10-12 4E books.

Really, the whole angst over new edition or not I think says less about the psychology of people who like to tinker with game rules--and thus discuss things that relate to editions, than it does about people with "completionist" urges that cause them to make all kinds of wild statements about what the existence of a new edition does to them.

 

[drothgery]

If you're going to count 3.5 and 3e as different editions, then you also need to count 4e and Essentials as different editions. And probably 2e and Skills & Powers as two different editions too.

Huh? There are no mechanical issues with running essentials characters and PHB1 characters in the same game. Whereas 3.0 and 3.5 have almost as much difference as 1e and 2e.

 

[Desdichado]

I don't have any issue mixing 3e and 3.5 material other than making sure that all the skills line up, since there was a minor consolidation and cleanup of the skill list.

 

[Greg K]

I don't have any issue mixing 3e and 3.5 material other than making sure that all the skills line up, since there was a minor consolidation and cleanup of the skill list.

This

 

[Alan Shutko]

I agree completely. This is why I've watched only A New Hope, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and The Fellowship Of The Ring.

I think the edition treadmill is more like the multiple editions of War of the Worlds. Same stuff, different format.

 

[Stalker0]

I think the desire lies in Optimism.

With a new edition, there is always the promise that everything we did not like about the old edition will be washed away, while perserving everything we love.

 

[enrious]

I think the desire lies in Optimism.

With a new edition, there is always the promise that everything we did not like about the old edition will be washed away, while perserving everything we love.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-Gl9L36Vhs]"All my sins is washed away" - YouTube[/ame]

 

[harpy]

I'm just patiently waiting for everyone to have tablets and all the books are electronic. Then there can be regular schedule of patch releases that just keep tweaking and updating the rules over the years.

After playing Star Wars Saga I was incredibly excited about the news of 4e because what I was really looking forward to was a fixed 3.5. When 4e arrived I was crestfallen. Rather than being a fantasy Star Wars Saga, it went well beyond the design space into this whole new area. I couldn't stand 4e.

Pathfinder comes along and I'm hopeful for yet again a fixed 3.5, and while Paizo did perform some fixes, it just didn't go far enough.

Pathfinder fell to short, 4e over shot. I just wanted a fixed 3.5

There are different ways to write RPG rules, but the whole 3e/4e age has been written in a very software-like fashion, which would be perfect to be treated as such in terms of updates. I know that we aren't there yet in terms of how the bulk of players interact with the rules, it's all still very analog, but by mid decade tablets will be getting very cheap and so hopefully the shift will have happened and we'll finally have a digital medium in which rules can be updated much the way MMOs get patched. The game is in essence always in development and being tweaked. It never leaves beta and taps into the vast array of brains that can push and test the system far beyond what design and isolated playtesting could yield.

In the meantime I long for a Pathfinder 2e. It's the last shot at a fixed 3.5.

 

[Wormwood]

I was such a 3e fanboy that I cobbled together a group of seven people who hadn't role-played in years to try it out. We rocked for years until we broke under that system's accumulated weight.

When 4e came out---addressing 3e's flaws---I became a system evangelist and edition warrior par excellence. I flamed forums and broke boards extolling 4e's virtues and excoriating 3's vices. Not proud of that, but still playing 4e to this day (barring occasional dalliances with retro-clones).

Tonight, however, I'm just too tired to care about a new edition. Will it be slick and simple? Great. Will it be kludgy and baroque (I'm looking at you, Monte Cook)? Pass.

I've got games and I've got players. If it's good we'll try it out, if not, we'll pass. But I'm not going to beat the drum any more.

 

[Almacov]

Why do I love the edition treadmill?
Because I love to page through a new game.

4e is nice. Designers and the community learned a lot from it. It's a fun game.
3e is nice. Designers and the community learned a lot from it. It's a fun game.
2e is nice. Designers and the community learned a lot from it. It's a fun game.
1e is nice. Designers and the... well, you get the idea.

I like the edition treadmill because it lets fresh air in. It lets us learn more about design, and more about our preferences.

It also gives me yet another fun game.