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D&D 4E Will 4E be backwards compatible?
- Thread starter Razz
- Start date
If I were to guess, since I (like most of us) think D&D4 is likely to be heavily SWSE-influenced, I'd say it'll be more backward compatible than 2e->3e, but less backward compatible than 1e->2e. Though I'm not all that familiar with OD&D, I'm thinking probably along the lines of OD&D->AD&D 1e in terms of degree of change.
Razz said:
it will have been what, 8 years since the last really major revision? That's not "early". There are kids now coming of age to play who had not even learned to read when 3e came out...
It may have been fine for us to play, but do remember the economics - WotC needs to earn money. If 3.xe was not generating enough cash flow, they have to invest their resources on something that does generate cash flow. So, either they do a new edition, or they stop supporting the old one altogether to do something else that earns money.
The economics demand that RPG systems, with their small fan base market that is easily saturated, have limited lifespans before they either get replaced, or support trickles off.
pawsplay
Hero
I'm pretty sure backwards compatibility will be pretty close to "Please, oh please, don't make me cross out that nasty 3.5 skill statblock with a big black marker and spend five minutes or less writing the 4e skill values instead."
Pcs and classed NPCs will, however, usually have to be retooled. I'm thinking, oh, "Talents" will be a big thing.
Pcs and classed NPCs will, however, usually have to be retooled. I'm thinking, oh, "Talents" will be a big thing.
Umbran said:
So there'll never be a line drawn somewhere? When 4E slows down, 5E comes, when 5E slows down, 6E comes.
I think WotC is just not running the game properly at all. If you have to make a whole new edition change every 7-8 years, with a possible revision in between, then there's something wrong with the way the company is promoting the game and keeing it fresh. It's definitely not because there's something wrong with the current edition of the game.
A new edition, I believe, shouldn't have to come for at least 20 years.
It seems to me that, unless there is a vast conspiracy of secret playtesters out there, it pretty much has to be a reasonably modest re-tooling of the existing system. In my opinion, at least, introducing major changes to a game ought to merit pretty extensive playtesting, beyond what can be done by a group of "experts" within WotC's walls. (Which is not fail-safe - not to bring up a sore subject, but there are a lot of subtle or not-so-subtle mechanical and balance issues with WotC products.)
Given the many years of experience with the basic 3.0/3.5 mechanics, I'd believe that the WotC folks can tinker with that ruleset and improve them. But I hope, at least, that they would be very careful with major changes that they introduce. I think people would be very upset to see 4.5 come right on the heels of 4.0! Anyway, this suggests to me that the new system will be at least mostly backwards-compatible.
(And by the way, I don't think SWSE qualifies as a playtest - given the lead time on WotC products, they have to be almost done with 4e by this point to release it next May!)
Given the many years of experience with the basic 3.0/3.5 mechanics, I'd believe that the WotC folks can tinker with that ruleset and improve them. But I hope, at least, that they would be very careful with major changes that they introduce. I think people would be very upset to see 4.5 come right on the heels of 4.0! Anyway, this suggests to me that the new system will be at least mostly backwards-compatible.
(And by the way, I don't think SWSE qualifies as a playtest - given the lead time on WotC products, they have to be almost done with 4e by this point to release it next May!)
Tiberius
Explorer
Razz said:
Five years is a pretty good amount of time, especially since we've had 3E for seven. Speedy new editions of games are not necessarily bad things. Take, for example, some of White Wolf's offerings:
Vampire 1st edition: 1991
Vampire Second Edition: 1992
Vampire Revised Edition: 1998
Time of Judgement (end of the line): 2003
3 editions in 12 years
Werewolf 1st edition: 1992
Werewolf Second Edition: 1994
Werewolf Revised Edition: 2000
ToJ: 2003
3 editions in 11 years
Mage 1st edition: 1993
Mage Second Edition: 1995
Mage Revised Edition (/spit): 2000
ToJ: 2003
3 editions in 10 years
Exalted 1st edition: 2001
Exalted Second Edition: 2006
Currently active
2 editions in 6 years (and counting)
New editions in each line are, for the most part, backwards compatible. If I were running a Vampire Revised game, I could use 1e Vampire stuff with only a little tweaking. Each edition brought with it some rules and setting tweaks and were generally better than what came before (a notable excepting being the MRev fluff). So long as backward compatibility is maintained, periodic rules revisions are not bad things.
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