4.0 (or: Why I Hate Wizards of the Coast)

[i_got_one]

So apparently D&D version 4.0 was recently announced, and you know what? I don't care. I don't care if they've streamlined all the rules so that you don't have to memorize 350-page rulebooks to play. I don't care if they've made each basic class 30 levels long, and are simplifying the rules so that combat above 15th level doesn't get boggled down

Comments

[mister_universe]

All good points, but hardly justification for 'hating' Wizards of the Coast. We went through the same rigamarole when 3.5 came out. "Oh, their making us buy new books just to get our money." Well, they're a business. They have to make money, and selling new books is how they do that. It hardly seems fair to fault them for that, especially if those books have good content that makes for a better game--and most of the changes I've seen promised on the D&D forums I frequent sound like good ideas. Now, obviously, I'm just about broke now, and I'll probably stay that way through college, so I won't be running out to buy the new books. And you know what? That's OK. Absolutely nothing says I can't stick with 3.5. There's enough splatbooks out there that it won't hurt that there won't be more, and I'll have no trouble finding a group to game with just because I'm not entirely current. Hell, some people still play first edition! Like you, I'm happy to be 'old school' for the time being. But I'll check out the 4th edition rules if I get the chance, and if they're good, I may well switch to them when I can afford it. If they suck, I'll stick to being old-school. But unless a WotC employee actively shows up at my door, puts a gun to my head, and forces me to hand over my money for the books, I'm not going to bitch at them for doing business.

That said, the teaser videos they put up online were awful. The narrator had a ridiculous and utterly unrecognizeable accent (apparently supposed to be an homage to Jacques Cousteau), and it provided no information whatsoever on what was coming, save an implication that they were streamlining grapple rules.