Edition Wars: have you ever changed your mind?

Halloween Jack · February 21, 2012, 10:51:17 AM

Philotomy's site completely changed my mind on OD&D.

Exploderwizard · February 21, 2012, 01:01:00 PM

Perhaps if WOTC D&D practiced hard every day.............

No.

B.T. · February 22, 2012, 04:07:40 AM

No. Edition wars exist for trolling. 4e is shit and I hope it is always remembered as such.

Justin Alexander · February 22, 2012, 04:11:47 AM

Quote from: B.T.;515956No. Edition wars exist for trolling. 4e is shit and I hope it is always remembered as such.

1of3 · February 22, 2012, 04:50:34 AM

Yes. I'm much less excited about 4e today. While I still consider it superior to 3.5 in most ways, I wouldn't play it without certain houserules anymore.

Ladybird · February 22, 2012, 08:28:42 AM

I've never changed my mind, but on the other hand, the only "edition war" I've ever been part of is WHFB 5 to 6, and you will never convince me that 6 was an improvement. I can't remember why you'll never convince me, of course, because it was a decade ago, but that's not the point.

I just... can't bring myself to care enough about RPG editions. I see them as being different games, that happen to share bits of their name.

Doom · February 22, 2012, 10:55:05 AM

For me it was more of the reverse.

I started out as a big fan of 4e (still have almost all the books), but the more I played, the more I saw what the 'haters' were talking about in their arguments, and the more I read of the 4e fanbase's arguments, the less I wanted to be associated with such ilk.

J Arcane · February 22, 2012, 11:16:18 AM

I almost reconsidered 4e for Essentials, but that wasn't really because of arguments so much as some of the arguments made me aware essentials existed. A similar experience nearly occured with Gamma World.

In both cases though, I ultimately said fuck it, and in the end I've more or less abandoned all D&D editions.

Benoist · February 22, 2012, 11:21:34 AM

I liked the idea of Essentials, but in the end that didn't make me play the game. It's just too "meh" for me.

D&D 4e Gamma World, on the other hand, I would play.

ggroy · February 22, 2012, 12:07:08 PM

Initially I thought 4E Essentials looked better (relatively) on paper.

But in practice after playing it for several months back in late 2010, I found that it wasn't really much better than the original Heinsoo 4E. Especially when it came to the length of the combat encounters.

4E Essentials still had the problem of combat encounters taking too long. The simpler martial 4E Essentials classes, didn't reduce the length of the combat encounters. At the time I (incorrectly) thought that the long combat times for the original Heinsoo 4E, was due to the dithering many of the players had in choosing which power to use. (In my previous Heinsoo 4E games, I noticed this dithering was a problem even with experienced players).

misterguignol · February 22, 2012, 12:31:51 PM

Quote from: ggroy;516014Initially I thought 4E Essentials looked better (relatively) on paper.

But in practice after playing it for several months back in late 2010, I found that it wasn't really much better than the original Heinsoo 4E. Especially when it came to the length of the combat encounters.

4E Essentials still had the problem of combat encounters taking too long. The simpler martial 4E Essentials classes, didn't reduce the length of the combat encounters. At the time I (incorrectly) thought that the long combat times for the original Heinsoo 4E, was due to the dithering many of the players had in choosing which power to use. (In my previous Heinsoo 4E games, I noticed this dithering was a problem even with experienced players).

The long combats in 4e are almost entirely due to the absurd amount of Hit Point inflation. Grind, grind, grind.

House ruling this is simple, depending on how much quicker you would like it to be:

Rule 1) Halve all Hit Point and Surge Values in the game.

Rule 2) Once bloodied, creatures take double damage.

Benoist · February 22, 2012, 12:34:06 PM

Quote from: misterguignol;516016Rule 1) Halve all Hit Point and Surge Values in the game.

Rule 2) Once bloodied, creatures take double damage.

About (2): not PCs?

J Arcane · February 22, 2012, 12:35:03 PM

I liked the look of Essentials because the class writeups looked more like something out of 3e, they felt like a D&D class, not a thin framework attached to a bunch of heavily genericized powers.

But the publication was such a fucking mess that I couldn't even figure out which books I was supposed to buy to get a complete game, and the Red Box was a fucking disaster.

beejazz · February 22, 2012, 01:51:45 PM

Edition war type stuff is more likely to make me think less highly of a game, regardless of my initial stance on it.

Melan · February 22, 2012, 01:57:23 PM

They have changed my mind about the amount of time I spent discussing games. Which was 'way goddamn too much'. Lessons learned.