[geeks] D&D 4e is here

[jodys at helluin.org]

On Sat, Jun 07, 2008 at 01:50:39PM -0700, Jon Gilbert wrote:
> OMG, just the cost of buying all new books is insane. I realize WotC  
> has to stay in business but... I mean... I know guys that have close  
> to $1000 in books... it seems like yesterday that "3.5" came out...

3.0: 2000
3.5: 2003
4.0: 2008

AD&D 1st -> 2nd ~10 years. Only a bit below par. 

People have a weird relationship with RPG books. Their books so they
shouldn't become "obsolete", but at the same time they are more akin to
software (i.e. there are improvements and bugs to be fixed.) So a lot of
people get upset about new versions, but it's kind of like getting upset
about having to upgrade Photoshop for a feature they want (although 3.0
-> 3.5 was a lot like Office 2003->2007, not a whole lot of difference.)

> Isn't this just unnecessary, really?

I'm no apologist, but 3/3.5 definitely had a lot of balance and "fun"
issues.  Non-spellcasters don't have many interesting choices to
make or intersting abilities to use in combat. This is why there was
such a proliferation of prestige classes (many of which are broken).

It was nice that they had the OGL, which allowed various publishers to
try to fix the problems inherent in the system. This, however, was like
trying to run DJB's software (before he open sourced his stuff), you had 
to fetch the base and then research to find all the various patches to 
get the functionality you wanted. 

I'm interested to see the changes they make and how well they play out.
Our group is still playing 3.0, maybe once they release some additional
books we will make the leap.

Jody