D&D 4E Will 4E be announced at D&D Experience?

[pedr]

Besides, although I know nothing about the industry as such, isn't mid-February a ridiculously bad time to launch a new edition? Too close to Christmas, for one thing, possibly also too close to the end of accounting years (I don't know how much that is a factor). And as they aren't launching in 2007, to announce now would mean longer than a year to launch if they don't launch in Feb 08. It doesn't seem to make much sense. GenCon does still seem to be the place to launch a major product to the market. It would be very strange not to. Unless they go for a 6 month delay between announcement and launch, but that would leave us at this point next year looking either at a release schedule or lack of release schedule and 'knowing' even if they hadn't announced that they were going to do so.

It all seems a bit odd, to be honest!

 

[megamania]

Anyway, unless they manage to come up with a really good revision of the rules, the chances that I'll be moving my games forward to a 4E is very low. Things I'd like to see in the 4E (like less focus on tactical combat and characters being more important than their magic items) won't happen anyway, so I stick to the version of the rules I've already put a lot of money into.

Cheers,

Ditto here.

The current group knows the rules, there is tons of stuff I bought but have not fully used. Until then I am not going with 4e.

 

[kmdietri]

I freakin hope not!

 

[Emirikol]

I don't think it will be announced. I think it will be RELEASED! I think they'll have the first of the PHB booster packs and main-pack out AT THE CON.

The Complete Warrior booster packs will be released first.

jh

 

[Gundark]

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!! The end is nigh when the official enworld optimist posts a 4th edition thread. *Sob* REPENT!!!! The End it near!!!!!

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

While I know WOTC has publicly stated any D&D announcements will be at D&D Experience, there's no denying Gen Con is THE place to preview new product. IF they make an announcement of 4E at D&D Experience, it'll be just that, and any previews will be held for Gen Con this summer, IMO.

 

[Troll Wizard]

I am fairly sure that one of the WotC employees said that they won't be making any big announcements at GenCon again.

Yep and that we will get about a year's notice before it hits the streets. Thus a announcement at D&D Experience 2008 and a release at D&D Experience 2009 would be valid.

 

[Umbran]

Amazing! Back in 2003 when I started mentioning my belief that 4E will be released in either 2006 or 2008 (depending upon whether or not they just cut short the one 5 year development cycle (2008) or reduced it to a 3 year development cycle (2006)), many folks called me a doom-sayer and such.

There have been so many people making so many predictions, statiscially speaking, some of them had to be right.

It seems to me that, "I told you so!" is going to be the among the 5 least constructive things we could see in threads like these.

 

[Shroomy]

I think that WoTC is in a pickle. If they don't go to 4e, they're going to eventually see diminishing returns on the 3.5e product line, but if they go to 4e, they are going to further splinter the D&D fanbase. Even if the majority of current 3.5e players go to the new edition, can D&D really absorb a relatively significant hit to its customer base given the size of the market and the profit expectations of Hasbro? Personally, I do not see a reason at this time to go to 4e. I have plenty of 3.5e rules and setting materials (more than I ever bought in 1e, 2e, and BECMI D&D), and don't get me started on adventure resources (three Paizo APs alone should keep me in business for years, not to mention all the adventures released by other companies, let alone WoTC).

I've heard rumbles about further emphasis on the digital experience and miniatures in future D&D editions, to better compete with CRPGs and MMPORPGs, but what will a prospective 4e look like, assuming it looks like the PnP 3.5e edition. Well, for one thing, it will most likely be d20 based and will probably be fairly backwards compatible. I can envision a 4e that introduces mechanics like swift and immediate actions, high-level fighter feats from PHB2, the more popular new base classes like the warlock, less restrictions on resource management so we play more encounters per day on average, and some rule changes (like the polymorph errata) to a new core.

 

[LostWorldsMike]

D&D (neither 3e or 3.5) isn't the Platonic Ideal RPG for me (dunno as that'll ever happen), but I enjoy it just the same. If 4e does things that I like more than the current version, I'll buy it. If it doesn't look good to me, I won't buy it. And I'm not making judgments on it's quality before I actually see the thing. In print.