Why I'm not buying the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons anytime soon

[cnoocy]

I'm not a hardcore gamer. I'm an enthusiastic player of pencil-and-paper role-playing games, but I've probably played or run less that a dozen different systems. I like computer role-playing games, but generally only when played as a group, with multiple people in the same room. One thing I have never been able to get into is online role-playing games. I've had accounts on LambdaMOO and Second Life, but I haven't really done anything with them. It's the talking to strangers that does it, I think. I'm not good at striking up a conversation, especially if I don't have any information about the person. (Though I am only marginally better at doing this in person.) So instead of getting into World of Warcraft and EverQuest over the last few years, I've continued playing Dungeons and Dragons.

You know how a lot of people have been reading the 4th edition rules and saying "this makes me want to get out my dice and play again"? I had that reaction years ago with 3rd edition. And I've been playing since. I've been playing with friends while, it seems, all the famous people have been abandoning pencil and paper to do their gaming online. I don't have a problem with that. I think it's great that there's this new type of gaming developing. But it does mean that while a lot of people see the elements from World of Warcraft in 4th edition as two great tastes that taste great together, to me it looks like they're changing the formula for Coke so that it tastes more like Pepsi.

Note: This was set off by Eric Burns's post on the subject, though I don't have a disagreement other than personal preference with what he says there.

Comments

[prog.livejournal.com]

Based on all that I've been hearing, 4E is less a retuning of the rules and more a completely different RPG experience. I imagine that people would probably be uncranky if the pubclishers released this game as "Ultimate D&D Extreme" and supported it alongside 3E, instead of taking the D&D they know and love permanently out of print in favor of this new game.