D&D 4E Will 4E be backwards compatible?

[Minicol]

I can't believe my eyes. 4E truly is coming and so damned early.

Will 4E be backwards compatible is my question. How easily can you adapt your 3.5E material to the material in 4E? Will it be a HUGE change, or simply a change like from 3.0E to 3.5E?

Any thoughts?

I strongly hope it will be compatible without too fundamental changes. Right now I have a library of hundreds of modules, along with several thousands monsters ready to throw at my PCs. If I cannot adapt them easily, I will not convert.

What I hope will remain is the basics : three saves, six stats, the basic combat, hit dices, and so on.

What I hope will change is : all the special manoeuvers (grapple, sunder ...) and other misfit rules.

If the adaptation is seamless enough, I will buy happily. otherwise ... well my stock can last for years as it stands, and I have a devoted base of players, so staying in 3.5 is not an issue.

 

[Wraith Form]

And Cam has another in a long string of brave but lightly armored characters with a penchant for mischief.

Ooooh! Ooooh! An oblique reference to the Hero of Canton!

:: strums guitar ::

"Jayne
The man they call Jayne
He robbed from the rich and he gave to the poor..."

:: wipes away a tear :: God I miss that show.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

In my experience, whether I can do it to my satisfaction & how much work it was for me gives no indication whether you can do it to your satisfaction & how much work it will be for you.

Sure, but they can attempt to make it easy, or they can not attempt to make it easy. Which is it?

 

[Maldor]

Sorry, but if WoTC stops making money by only supporting a product for 20 years, then there will never be any new editions. Just look at how strong the Magic the Gathering cards sell. THere are new cards every 4 months!!! and cards only stay in type 2 formats for roughly 2 years. I am fine with a new edition every 5 years. This will allow smaller companies to rework some of their works and sell them with the new rules. This will give them more money to work on new products as well. And isn't that one of the best things about 3.x was the additional support from other companies? So I don't think you will get much sympathy for a new edition being delayed until 2020.

while i know it is ture that a business must make money it was my inability to keep buying cards that took me out of magic and i hope the same doesn't happen with D&D i play it not only for enjoyment but becuase it is a cheep hobby that my low income can aford
D&Dinsider makes me more upsit $10 for a PDF mag i don't pay that for a real mag not even porn

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Unlike every other edition of D&D? Even 3E had a 2E conversion document. You're saying a completely new game should be created? There are already different games out there...

No. I'm saying that trying to make a NEW edition that MUST work with older editions means you saddle yourself with UTTERLY pointless baggage and ensure that NECESSARY changes are only going to be ineffective half-measures.

Make the new edition FIRST. Concern yourself about conversion only AFTER.

 

[Lord Zack]

If the 4e Monster Manual has a guide to making monsters similar to the 3.5 one I'll be able to convert monsters from earlier editions quite easily. Sure I won't be able to say "well since this has ability X, the conversion booklet say it now gets ability Y," but I don't need to. Same with characters. I don't need to convert them, I can rebuild them. On the other hand Prestige Classes and the like will take a lot of work.

 

[Agamon]

Make the new edition FIRST. Concern yourself about conversion only AFTER.

Okay, I agree with that.

 

[RFisher]

Twenty years?

Are you serious?

My own opinion is that new editions should come after ever increasing periods of time. Because it logically takes longer & longer to find enough improvements to justify a new edition.

(Of course, I also tend to think that most changes end up being more of a trade-off than a clear improvement.)

Sure, but they can attempt to make it easy, or they can not attempt to make it easy. Which is it?

Yes, they can attempt to make it easy, but it will still end up being hard or broken for more people. Because what is easy & what works in conversion for one person/group, is hard or is broken for other person/group. This is the fundamental problem. Even if they try to make a suite of conversion guides to try to please everyone, I suspect it would only be marginally less a failure than the 3e conversion guide was.

But, FWIW, in one of the GamerZer0 interviews, one of them (was it Rob?) said that they've heard the feedback & that they are realizing that because the approach of the 3e conversion guide was a failure, that doesn't mean they shouldn't do one at all for 4e.

But it sounds like it is going to essentially say, "You've got to figure it out yourself." (^_^)

while i know it is ture that a business must make money it was my inability to keep buying cards that took me out of magic and i hope the same doesn't happen with D&D i play it not only for enjoyment but becuase it is a cheep hobby that my low income can aford

I still play Magic with only my two starter decks & a handful of boosters. I just stopped playing with the guys who were beating me through their wallet.

I still play D&D although I've bought very, very few supplements.

I intend to play 4e whether I subscribe to Insider or not.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I'm never purchasing them.

...but if my 3.5E stuff can be compatible with 4E...I might consider it.

Any thoughts?

Are you planning on stealing the 4E rules books?

Oh wait - you are!

Farewell,
Former Support of D&D and Future Pirate of 4E (taking it to the Man! That's right)

 

[Holy Bovine]

I have a bookshelf with 28 books on it which say your math is faulty v3.5 anyone?

Then we have to add in 2.5E (Skills and Powers and other assorted stuff).

And AD&D was dead in 1997. So 4-10 years between editions.