The Brand New Same Old Thing
Well, it sounds like the other shoe has finally dropped, and Wizards has announced Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. Like some Cthulhuian beast clad in only in a shroud of black malice, it slithers forth from the darkest corners of my mind, its wet tentacles grasping, reaching. It is a shapeless dread, a formless fear, but I can feel dark eyes upon me, hungry and loathing. The malevolence is palpable.
If you haven’t read the news, stop now, and check out the official announcement, then bounce over to YouTube and watch the GenCon presentation videos, parts one, two and three. Finally, check out this Gamer Radio Zero podcast tries to tackle what this all means.
Honestly, I don't have a particularly good barometer of the general anxiety level that surrounds fourth edition, but I do know this – I am not excited. I agree that there is a lot wrong with the tired old workhorse that is D&D 3.5, but at this point I find the familiar brokenness of third edition akin to the comforting familiarity of a horribly dysfunctional marriage. The fourth edition might be better looking, have a great smile and a perky rack, but the gal I already have will cook me dinner.
What is the old saying? A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush?
Heh, he said bush.
There is also the very real financial investment I have already dumped into building my 3.5 library. I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to my geekish hobbies I can become somewhat… compulsive. When D&D found its way back into my life after a fifteen-year hiatus, my investment in the hobby was fairly significant. I began with the Forgotten Realms, but when Eberron showed up on the scene I was hooked deep. At this point, I’ve own almost every hardcover they’ve put out on both campaign settings, plus a smattering of core books. That’s the kind of investment you don’t want to see just wash away - unfortunately, the early word makes it sound like cross-version rules compatibility is not in the cards.
Theoretically, it's easy enough to just say “I'll stick with 3.5 then,” but I think this is going to be a lot harder to do in practice. From a core rules standpoint, it’s not a huge issue, but it really hurts in terms of setting books. Eberron is only about half-documented at this point in its short life, so what now? Is campaign setting is going to be split across two different versions of rules? Am I expected to re-buy books?
If you follow that idea it leads to the next logical question: What does a fourth edition mean for the third party d20 licensees like the Iron Kingdoms or World of Warcraft? I'm not sure smaller presses (like Privateer Press) have the resources to turn out new versions of their core books...
At this point, I may end up one of those curmudgeony players that doggedly sticks with what he already has even though better alternatives clearly exist. Or maybe the time has come to go off the proverbial reservation and try running Eberron using on of the new-fangled small press system like Savage Worlds or Sprit of the Century?
There's a lot more to talk about, but at this point I've been caught flat-footed - now I get to spend the next few rounds stunned. When my head clears, maybe I'll have a better sense of the gravity of the announcement. In the mean time, I’d be curious to know what anyone else thinks… Is a fourth edition a good thing? Drop me a comment and let me know what you think.
If you haven’t read the news, stop now, and check out the official announcement, then bounce over to YouTube and watch the GenCon presentation videos, parts one, two and three. Finally, check out this Gamer Radio Zero podcast tries to tackle what this all means.
Honestly, I don't have a particularly good barometer of the general anxiety level that surrounds fourth edition, but I do know this – I am not excited. I agree that there is a lot wrong with the tired old workhorse that is D&D 3.5, but at this point I find the familiar brokenness of third edition akin to the comforting familiarity of a horribly dysfunctional marriage. The fourth edition might be better looking, have a great smile and a perky rack, but the gal I already have will cook me dinner.
What is the old saying? A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush?
Heh, he said bush.
There is also the very real financial investment I have already dumped into building my 3.5 library. I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to my geekish hobbies I can become somewhat… compulsive. When D&D found its way back into my life after a fifteen-year hiatus, my investment in the hobby was fairly significant. I began with the Forgotten Realms, but when Eberron showed up on the scene I was hooked deep. At this point, I’ve own almost every hardcover they’ve put out on both campaign settings, plus a smattering of core books. That’s the kind of investment you don’t want to see just wash away - unfortunately, the early word makes it sound like cross-version rules compatibility is not in the cards.
Theoretically, it's easy enough to just say “I'll stick with 3.5 then,” but I think this is going to be a lot harder to do in practice. From a core rules standpoint, it’s not a huge issue, but it really hurts in terms of setting books. Eberron is only about half-documented at this point in its short life, so what now? Is campaign setting is going to be split across two different versions of rules? Am I expected to re-buy books?
If you follow that idea it leads to the next logical question: What does a fourth edition mean for the third party d20 licensees like the Iron Kingdoms or World of Warcraft? I'm not sure smaller presses (like Privateer Press) have the resources to turn out new versions of their core books...
At this point, I may end up one of those curmudgeony players that doggedly sticks with what he already has even though better alternatives clearly exist. Or maybe the time has come to go off the proverbial reservation and try running Eberron using on of the new-fangled small press system like Savage Worlds or Sprit of the Century?
There's a lot more to talk about, but at this point I've been caught flat-footed - now I get to spend the next few rounds stunned. When my head clears, maybe I'll have a better sense of the gravity of the announcement. In the mean time, I’d be curious to know what anyone else thinks… Is a fourth edition a good thing? Drop me a comment and let me know what you think.
Labels: Dungeons and Dragons, Eberron, podcasts, RPGs
I'm in a similar boat - invested in Eberron pretty large, but I'm pretty excited about 4e. I expect all the changes to really be about mechanics, and I like the things I'm hearing about making every level count, and racial feats and streamlining the rules. All of those are very positive things in my opinion.
I don't see why a new edition would require them to change any of the story/history/social elements of the Eberron world. If they do that, I'll be pretty choked, but I don't see it happening.
While my playgroup has a few prestige classes from various books in mind, and we'll use the odd feat from a supplement, most of the supplements just serve as flavor now anyways. I just try to add in NPCs of various prestige classes to build up the world. I can do that without strict rules text for the most part.
We're loving Fantasy Grounds 2 right now, but if the DDi tools can do what they do and be heavily integrated with D&D - I'm sold. If the DM's Kit saves me 4 hours of prep time a month, well I figure that's worth my 10 dollars.
Posted by
Ablefish |
10:44 PM