Some of you folks (especially those on the D&D Facebook page) just need to relax on the whole edition wars thing. Whine all you want, we’re not going backwards. (And, by “we,” I mean the D&D community.)
You know, I appreciate the resistance to 4E. Really, I do. I stuck with AD&D for two years after 3E was released (mainly because we were having such a good time our group only sort of barely realized there even was a new edition).
We got over it, and quickly came to love 3E.
I resisted 3.5, largely because I didn’t want to have to buy a new set of core books after only starting 3E about 2 years prior.
I got over that, too, and appreciate the changes 3.5 brought to the game.
By the time 4E came out, I was already ready for change. The group of folks I was playing with at the time had so used and abused the rules that I had a hard time keeping up.
Today, I love 4E as much as any edition. The group I’m with now has just as much roleplay as any group I’ve ever been with, and the rules don’t really impact it much one way or another.
I don’t hate those old versions. I loved them. Still do. Give a choice, I’ll play 4E.
The claims that 4E prevents roleplaying or that it’s “WoW on Paper” are nebulous. I have yet to see anyone make those statements with any degree of logical support other than, “well, that’s how it feels to me.”
Sorry. I really don’t *care* how it feels to you. If you don’t like the way it feels, play something else. Just stop the whining.
Look. The RPG community is a niche one as it is. Why are you so committed to splintering it even further? Over an edition? Seriously? Are you really that petty?
The war’s over, man. It’s time to move on. Let’s just all enjoy the hobby in its various forms.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Its a money thing in my case. Can’t afford to keep up with changing editions every few years. I have played fourth edition and I did not like it enough to sell all of my previous books to rush out and buy the new ones. Besides, it is kind of crass of you to say everyone is “whining”. Some of us just like the previous edition better.
Who’s fighting? I am very much an OSR player and I simply have no use for later editions. You want to play 3e and up? Go ahead. Have fun. Later editions are just not may cup of tea but I am not going to tell you what editions are best because that is a very subjective thing. I may enjoy arguing over the differences from time to time, but this is just an extension of my love for the old school style and rules. I’m certainly not going to flame anyone who disagrees. That’s just poor form and not helpful. I certainly don’t seek to splinter a niche community, however, at the same time I don’t believe that we could be classified as a socialistic collective in the first place. Each gamer is as unique as the individuals we were created to be. There are as many house rules as there are 2nd edition AD&D ‘splatbooks’, if not more so. That individuality has inspired later editions to be created in the first place. So, let’s play nice. You play what you like and I’ll play what I like. Evangelize me all you want on what you think to be improvements in later editions but also give OSR gamers such as myself room to do the same for earlier editions. We may not agree, but that should not give us cause to hate.
Hey guys –
Recognize the context of this post. It’s aimed – like it says in the first paragraph – at people whining (especially on Facebook). If that’s not you, it doesn’t apply.
I wanted to post input regarding wow=4e. How they seem the same to me is that in wow you have characters spells and abilities who augment and amplify each others spells. Not doing this seriously hampers your characters ability to be maximized and sometimes even hurts your party. I see this same thing in play in 4e, much like wow, it usually is because a person doesn’t know how to play that character or understand their abilities.
Also it seems way to similar in that spells and abilities seem way to bland and blunt in their abilities. I think what people are sensing as “Feeling” like wow is that 4e is just very blunt,bland and mechanical in the way abilities and spells are played out. What i sense myself is a lack of free form the same way a video game feels. The video game feels very mechanical and railroad like in the way you have to play it.
Just my thoughts