Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition confirmed

[Werthead]

Wizards of the Coast confirmed the fourth iteration of the D&D roleplaying game last month. The new version of the game will ship in June-August 2008 and will apparently incorporate many of the rules initially roadtested in the Star Wars Saga Edition RPG (from the same publishers). It will utilise an updated form of the D20 system, but is apparently designed at streamlining the system with less micro-managing. The Forgotten Realms will be the first setting to be updated, with a new version of the campaign setting planned for release shortly after the core rulebooks. Eberron may be updated the following year. No word on whether 4th Edition will be OGL or not with conflicting info.

 

Apparently there will be a degree of compatability between 3.5 and 4th Edition, and remaining 3.5th products will be more 'lore-based' than rule-based (starting with The Grand History of the Realms out next month) to make them more useful for 4th Edition.

 

The news has generated a lot of contoversy with fans. 1st Edition (published 1978) and 2nd Edition (published 1989) both lasted eleven years apiece before 3rd Edition was introduced in 2000. 3.5 was published a mere three years later and although the changes to rules were minor, they were so numerous that playing a mix of 3rd and 3.5 edition proved impossible. The rulebooks, which were largely identical to the older 3rd Edition books in layout and art, were also inexplicably 50% more expensive. The announcement of 4th Edition a mere five years later has not been well-received with many feeling it's another money-making exercise. On the other hand, the news has been welcomed by those who feel that 3rd Edition (both sub-versions) is innately broken and in need of a major fix-up.

 

As for me, it's been years since I roleplayed regularly but it looks like I may be getting back into it. I'll probably pick up the Grand History of the Realms and the new campaign setting to check out what's going on with my favoured campaign setting, but I'll have to think about getting the core rulebooks (again), especially given the imminent release of the Battlestar Galactica RPG which I might check out.

[SBoydW]

wow... yeah it's been a while my self... I still have 2nd edition... lol and didn't even know about 3 and 3.5.

[Whitestar]

I got annoyed when they came out with 3.5 right after I spend god knows how much on 3.0.  Guess with Magic dying out, they need to make money off of us somehow.  Stupid wizards!

[Canukistani]

3.5ed is much nicer then 3ed though, i'd have just published the 3.5 books and a "What's been changed" pamphlet for those that don't want to buy new books.  I heard that 4ed is not so much 'streamlined' as 'dumbed-down'. 

[Guest Far Dareis Mai]

That would bum me out. I got started on second (confusing for me--though kits were awesome), loved 3rd, loved 3.5 even more...but I don't think you can get any easier than 3.5. Unless they are trying to target a younger demographic...and that would be just so very sad.

 

And yes, this sort of angered me, since they have been actively releasing new 3.5 books, and I have stupidly been purchasing them. I really hope this new edition is more interactive with 3.5 than 3.0/2.0 were with each other.

[Barmacral]

I went out and bought the players handbook and the dungeon master's guide for 3.5 today. Will I update to 4.0? Probably not, my friends and I invent our own campaigns entirely, we don't buy all the extra books, so moving on to a new edition of the game is probably a total waste of time for us.