Will the real 4E please stand up?

[RFisher]

For me: Labyrinth Lord, with honorable mentions going to OSRIC and Swords & Wizardry.

Does it really matter?

No, it doesn’t matter. Why would you expect hardly anything discussed here to matter? No, don’t answer that. Meta-discussion matters the least of all. The question was asked because the questioner was interested in the answers. That is enough.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Pathfinder looks like the spiritual successor to 3E, especially regarding the mechanical complexities and level of detail.

4E is the spiritual successor to what I want from D&D (and maybe it is also to stuff like the BECMI, but that's other people talking - I don't know any D&D editions before 3rd)

I know little about the other "alternatives", but I would say that what I've heard, C&C is the spiritual successor to earlier D&D Editions.

In their way, they are all D&D, because they unite so many common tropes of D&D. Unfortunately*, the common tropes of D&D are... vast and can be filled by games that didn't hail from D&D mechanics, too.
Only one of all the possible games has the D&D logo - but that hardly counts for "spiritual" successor.

*) It is not really unfortunate that this is the case. It's a strength of D&D to be able to encompass so many fantasy aspects.

 

[Atomo]

I will not stand up... I do not want to be seen

Seriously speaking, this depends of what you define as the "real" D&D. The 4E seems pretty much D&D for me, but it is not more or less "D&Distic" than any other edition. I really like the combat mechanics and the "fluff feeling" of 4E.

 

[DaveMage]

So my question is what do you consider to be the real spiritual successor of dnd today and what makes it scream dnd to you above and beyond anything else.

3.5 is the best version so far, IMO. Limitless options. The *only* problem with 3.5 that I have is time - both the time involved in preparing/creating and in playing. With infinite time, it's perfect. Unfortunatly, none of us have infinite time.

Pathfinder is still in development, so until it's out, I don't consider it to be a candidate.

Maybe 5E will be that holy grail, but it would take a new business model and delivery method, IMO.

 

[Khairn]

Entirely subjective answers to follow.

Even though it brought an entirely new mechanic, there was a strong effort made by the designers of 3E to maintain the "flavor" of earlier editions of D&D. And it wasn't hard to find those earlier D&D elements in 3E .

The 4E designers have taken the game in an entirely new direction with only minimal effort (IMHO) to maintain the feel and flavor of earlier editions. It's a brand new and completely unique game to anything that came before it.

Because of that I would say that Pathfinder is the "spiritual" successor whereas 4E is obviously the legal successor.

 

[CleverNickName]

Maybe 5E will be that holy grail, but it would take a new business model and delivery method, IMO.

I am inclined to agree. 4E is as good of a product as it could have possibly been, under the circumstances.

 

[tenkar]

Well...

OD&D begot Basic, which begot BECMI, which begot Castles & Crusades

OD&D also begot AD&D1e, which begot AD&D2e, which begot two sons, Hackmaster and D&D3e

D&D3e begot D&Dv3.5 which begot D&D4e and Pathfinder

(D&D3e also had many illicit affairs, and begot Trued20, d20 Modern, SAGA, and plenty of lesser derivatives)

So it depends on what version you start with, you can trace them all back to OD&D, but some are a lot closer on the genealogical tree than others.

Actually, C&C is a spiritual successor to AD&D 1e, not BECMI. Unless you are thinking of the Collector's Boxed set, which tries in evoke the spirit of OD&D in its presentation, but the rules and classes are definitely rooted in AD&D 1e.

 

[Obryn]

Zod is the true spiritual successor.


KNEEL BEFORE ZOD.


-O

 

[TerraDave]

This, this is just wrong:

Spellfire is "The Star Wars Christmas Special."

Now back to the topic, I almost agree with some of the above...but not quite:



ODD->Basic->BECMI

ODD->ADD1->ADD2->3E->Pathfinder
------ADD1->Castles

 

[Jack99]

I'd go with Pathfinder, personally. I think it's a closer relation on the family tree to 3e. 4e belongs in a different branch, he's a cousin.

Powers aside, 4e reminds me more of 2e and 1e than 3e, so you could argue that 3e is the ugly cousin that got invited to the party by mistake.