D&D 4E Will 4e kill PbP D&D?

[The Little Raven]

The people who want to do this are already doing it via OpenRPG or its many kissing cousins.

Blanket statements like this are usually wrong. For example, I would like to do this, but I am not doing it via OpenRPG or anything else until I see what DDI's VTT gives me.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

kill is an over statement, but it will probably put a pretty big dent into it.

For PbP games that try to run in near real time, those will probably shift to DDI mechansims. For games that play out more slowly however, and for those unwilling to pay "real money" to use the virtual tabletop, PbP will stick around.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Domon]

But now with 4e and the increased focus on trigger effects, interrupts and the like, I'm not sure how a PbP game would work.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

play fights (or *most* fights) with the skill challenge system

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think DnD insider will kill play by post.

I can PbP at work. I cannot play a live D&D game, even over DDI.

 

[CarlosDosBrickos]

Do people play pre-3e editions of the game using PbP? If so, why would 3e or earlier games stop just because 4e's been released?

Or does WotC have a shiny new squad of game police all set and ready to raid our clooections of pre-4e material once the new edition ships or something?

Short term sticking with 3.5 is not a problem for Woldian Games. I think the concern for the Woldian site is that we are a large site, and need new blood, players and DMs, to keep us going as natural burnout and real life take their toll on our existing players. If the world turns 4e there's only so long we'll be able to recruit new 3.5 players in sufficient quantity. Increasingly 4e will be the standard, and eventually we'll hit a point where it's "adapt or die". At least that's my guess.

 

[CarlosDosBrickos]

Thing is, none of the systems typically used for PbP games are built for PbP games, but we always find a way to make 'em fit. 4e will be the same. It will require adjustments, to be sure, but so do they all.

That's a very sensible point. Though so is this:

1) Number of rounds per combat is much larger (although each round is faster).
2) Less decisions to make / dice to roll during a round, to speed things up.
3) All classes have access to immediate-type abilties, not just a few.

I remain undecided, I guess things will become a bit clearer when the books are released and more folks start experimenting.

Many thanks for the link to your Raiders of Oakhurst BTW, Troll, that's extremely useful and interesting to follow. If anyone else is running PbP 4e games yest I'd be interested to take a look.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I'm enjoying reading your Raiders PbP. I'm hoping Nightscale manages to get up after the failed save ...

 

[Lindorie]

And my site of choice (Woldian Games)...

This was a pleasant surprise, as I'm a long time member of the very same site. I've been running RoO for my kids and their friends. Things are very slow, but it is mostly due to personality. I'll follow up your RoO play report with my own next week. They started the first fight last week, and totally botched it.

I agree that PbP will be more difficult, but not impossible. If you remember, WG dropped some fighter feats in the 3.5 conversion due to the same issues.

However, the tidbits I've read so far seem to indicate that 4E triggers apply to specific, named events. If this is true, it would at least allow the DM to know and anticipate the immediate actions from the triggers (e.g. bloodied, shift). I'll try to work out some ideas I have.