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

[Echohawk]

And where, pray tell, did you hear this? I worked on CC, and while I'm not privy to the release schedule at all parts of the process, May is the first and only date I've ever been made aware of.

I suspect (but haven't been able to verify) that Amazon had it listed for the incorrect month when it initially appeared, since my notes also had it pegged for a slightly earlier release. But all of the official WotC information for Complete Champion seems to be consistent with a May release date.

 

[Templeton_Algrith]

4E? Not me!

Strange - that's almost exactly the opposite of how I feel - I'd only buy 4E if it was a major change. Why the heck would I want to buy an entire new set of books just to get minor changes I could implement myself?

Sure, I wouldn't mind buying one book for updates, but that isn't what would happen. First off, there's all three of the core books. And then the rest are going to follow, as surely as the Complete series replaced Sword & Fist, Tome & Blood, et all. Initially the attitude is that those books are still usable, just tweak them slightly. But then the replacement suppliments get released and the old books become distinctly non-core and even dodgy, to the extent that many DMs will consider any material from them invalid, even if it hasn't been replaced with an updated version.

I personally will most likely stop buying more D&D stuff if they go 4E. I've been playing for 24 -- no, 2007 makes it 25 -- years now, and I think I've paid enough of their bills for them anyway.
I understand the supposed need to tinker with things, but that's really what it is mostly, a supposed need and not truly a real one. If you have something that works, don't mess with it. Yes. 3.0 had some problems, and 3.5 addressed most of them. The rest I leave up to the discretion of the individual gamer, and besides, as long as we have Rule Zero, 4E will be pretty much beating a dead equiceph to me.
So, perhaps that's a good thing. If they do go 4E, it'll save me a chunk of change, anyway... With Battletech going into the toilet a couple of years back with a completepy blown chance to expand a good storylin, and a setting change to a point 65 years into the future, I've already probably saved $3K by not following the rear end of that particular gaming lemming as well.
If 4E comes, I will not follow it.

 

[JVisgaitis]

So we're looking at about 18 months, minimum. More like 2 years. Of course, when they're ready to make an announcement, development will be well along.

True if they started today. They probably started on 4e the day 3e was released.

 

[TerraDave]

Didn't I vaguely imply this already?

Yes, I think it is, as I implied on another thread a few days back.

Hmm, so:

• No obvious player release past May (Rules comendium might be, but seems pretty DM oriented from the blurb).

• Some things that are not edition specific towards the end of the year (Realms history, sorceress, and that dungeon survival thing),

• Andy Collins and Mike Mearls are only credited with a march release, implying they may be real busy with some other big project...

• The ongoing rumour that winter fantasy/D&D eXPerience will be were big announcements are made

What does it mean??

It may not be a bad thing. I could use a decent 3.75, at least at some point.

What actually comes out, that is harder to say.

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

4e baby!!

Count me as one who wants 4e to be announced this year. We'll see previews for 4e with the new Star Wars game. It'll be announced this year with release next, an election year mind you. WotC will have the candidates playing the new edition to show how cool it is.

 

[Le Noir Faineant]

What I don't understand is that there's no panic among our fellow Realmers here: Doesn't the Auranoch Adventure title *The Sundering of the World*?

Bye, Drizzt...

 

[JoeGKushner]

Merric, I think you could be right with this, if there wasn't one problem: The coincidence of one of the major D&D franchise moments of the last few years - the release of the Dragonlance film. With all the current d20 stuff out for DL, I doubt that WotC would endanger the success of the one thing that may accomplish what D&D Online and the lousy older movies have failed to do: Increase the popularity of the pen & paper game.

But the d20 stuff out for DL isn't by WoTC, it's by another company.

WoTC will make money off the books, not the RPGs.

 

[Animus]

If we see a 3.75E or whatever, I would expect 4E to be at least 2-3 years down the line. Considering what Pramas shared (which I agree with) and the fact that 3.5 was released 3 years after 3E, a 3.75E seems to be more likely if we get any announcement at all, which would put a true 4E back to 2009 or 2010. That's fine by me.

 

[WayneLigon]

True if they started today. They probably started on 4e the day 3e was released.

I think Monte Cook stated that 3.5 was in the talking stages as 3E was being rolled out the door. I'm sure there is work being done on it, if only unofficially. At some point, though, they'll move to more aggressive development and a series of playtesting cycles. I would not think that has started, yet.

Then again, anyone know when the playtesting cycle for 3E started?

 

[William Ronald]

I think Monte Cook stated that 3.5 was in the talking stages as 3E was being rolled out the door. I'm sure there is work being done on it, if only unofficially. At some point, though, they'll move to more aggressive development and a series of playtesting cycles. I would not think that has started, yet.

Then again, anyone know when the playtesting cycle for 3E started?

Well, I recall that in 1999, one year prior to the release of 3.0, there was a quick preview game at Gen Con. There were early versions of the iconics (I played an elven wizard), and I know play testing followed.

I have not decided when 4E will be announced, but I know that another addition is likely to come sooner or later. It is my hope that WotC will try to collect a lot of information from players --- as they did prior to the release of 3E --- and do extensive playtesting.

As for how 4E could be better, WotC has produced some new rules that could be made official, and there have been a lot of good work from 3rd party publishers. So, perhaps we could look at what has worked well in other D20 products and other games for a clue as to the eventual shape of 4E. I would like to see WotC make an effort to make sure that people can convert characters, adventures, and other materials from 3.5 to a new addition. (The 3.0 conversion booklet helped, but I did hear some grumbling about how mutli-class characters faired in the jump between editions.)

Perhaps the most important thing that WotC can do is ot listen to its customers --- as that is what TSR failed to do by many accounts. So, if WotC is thinking of 4E, I would suggest finding out what customers want and find ways to market the game to new customers. I think that we have to avoid what has happened with some hobbies, and have an aging customer base with few new people participating in the hobby.