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12 months ago ::
Jun 18, 2012 - 2:45AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Apr 28, 2009
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The player in question is afraid all of the Next characters will play "boring or squishy."
The kid in question, who will be called "Fred," started playing 4E when I was excitedly getting into it, and I hosted Pyramid of Shadows and a homebrew module(crazed cleric of Moradin unleashes zombie/construct army trying to revive an fallen Exarch-- good times) at the FLGS where I have my second job.
He later joined my regular group(other players being in their 20s to 40s-- my girlfriend & I, a married couple, a couple of bachelors), playing in some homebrew, Eberron, Forgotten Realms games as time/school permitted. Fred eventually did a pretty good job of running a mix of my D&D group and FLGS regulars through the 4E Revenge of the Giants.
While playing, Fred favors sturdy types (Minotaurs or Revenants) of the Fighter class, that specialize in grabbing, knocking prone, and breaking objects. After downloading the Next playtest materials, he told me he was not interested in playing-- he found the fighter presented boring, and the wizard and cleric too "squishy." The lack of ANY maneuvers, IN THE RULES (and I explained that he was just supposed to/was able to improvise these things), for grabbing and tripping, and the total lack of attacks of opportunity, sealed the deal for him. Fred is out of the playtest as it stands.
Fred did express interest, however, when someone decided last week to start up Living Forgotten Realms 4E at the FLGS.
Personally, I am hopeful for D&D Next, though not optimistic. The simple rules and frail characters of the core game do not sit well with most of my group-- mostly 4E with some 3.5/Pathfinder fans. I am willing to continue to playtest and hope for the best, but am nearly alone in my circle, in my (muted)enthusiasm.
Anybody else have the playtest, as it exists, turn their groups away from the next edition of D&D?
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12 months ago ::
Jun 18, 2012 - 2:58AM
#2
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Date Joined:
May 17, 2009
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I haven't had any refuse to playtest it, but the two basic responses I've gotten from other players were "I think I'll be passing on this edition" and "I'll wait and see if it gets better than this, but if it doesn't, I'll be passing on this edition"
Seriously, though, you should check out the PbP Haven. You might also like Real Adventures, IF you're cool. | Knights of W.T.F.- Silver Spur Winner | |
4enclave, a place where 4e fans can talk 4e in peace.
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12 months ago ::
Jun 18, 2012 - 2:59AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Jun 29, 2008
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No... our group enjoyed it, but it is still too early to tell if Next will be good enough to move the group away from Pathfinder. We need to see more before it is possible to tell.
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Every time the system is limited we lose options.
Breaking an RPG is like cheating in a computer game.
As a DM you are the punkbuster of your table.
Dare to say no to abusers.
Make players build characters, not characters out of builds.
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12 months ago ::
Jun 18, 2012 - 4:05AM
#4
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I haven't had any refuse to playtest it, but the two basic responses I've gotten from other players were "I think I'll be passing on this edition" and "I'll wait and see if it gets better than this, but if it doesn't, I'll be passing on this edition"
This is so alien to me. The response I've gotten from everyone I playtested with was stuff like:
"I never liked D&D before--I can't believe I enjoyed this so much."
"This is awesome! Are you sure this is D&D?"
"I really missed D&D, and I'm so glad it's back to something playable."*
And the Fighter was considered the "best" character by every person I played with (by whatever personal metric they used).
*Keep in mind these are not my thoughts--I thought D&D was plenty playable. I enjoyed 3rd and 4e about equally. But my normal gaming group hates them, so it was frankly a miracle I got them to try it at all.
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12 months ago ::
Jun 18, 2012 - 4:09AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Aug 10, 2006
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My group loves what we've seen so far, but we left 4E a year ago with no intention of going back (I sold all my stuff).
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12 months ago ::
Jun 18, 2012 - 4:15AM
#6
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Does it make it any more or less significant that an 18 year old 4e player did not want to play test DnD Next?
I mean, is that the cut off age? 18 years and under do not want to play but 19 years and older do?
Or is it just an individuals decision based on what they want to play?
Pro DnD Member of the Axis of Awesome Fighters: Using socks to kill monsters since 2012 DnD Next: Now with more then 4 minutes of Roleplay per gaming hour Spoiler:
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"If you can't make an interesting human fighter, then you aren't ready to play anything else yet" Edymnion
"The idea of resting up between encounters to fill-up on hit points and spells struck my meta-gaming nine-year-old as a distinct possibility. "Are you mad?" says my seven-year-old "This place is full of monsters!" "jamesgrahamuk
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Sometimes that story is short and sometimes it is long. They can be tragic, comic or absurd. Some teach. Some are just to fill the empty spaces in our lives. Rarely it is a transcendent fugue only half remembered but wondered at. And frequently: "it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." -William Shakespeare
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12 months ago ::
Jun 18, 2012 - 4:20AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Mar 27, 2004
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Brining up age is not the wisest of ideas in these forums. Dang kids Vs the grumpy old grognards is right behind the edition war in terms of most common pointless arguments. This guy has every right to his opinion, but you're going to have a lot if not most of the older players dismiss it because of his age.
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12 months ago ::
Jun 18, 2012 - 4:24AM
#8
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Obviously outright rejection is very sad to see, and as others have said there have been less extreme reactions, but it's especialy troubling to see the young demographic being turned off, I can't help but feel it's related to "this let's go for nostalgia" tactic 5e is using.
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12 months ago ::
Jun 18, 2012 - 5:46AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Aug 18, 2007
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I'm part of a group that is in the 35+ age range. We have been playing 3.75 (Pathfinder) exclusively. We tested the waters with 4ed, and a few bought the books but dismissed it since it didn't fit our playing style.
When 5ed was announced, two of the group members said they would not play it at all. One stating he didn't want to learn any new mechanics since he knew the current rules inside and out, and the other just didn't want to start buying a whole new series of books. No one said anything about the fact that we all had our doubt that the developers would do 'right' after what we considered was a total failure in 4ed. Not being harsh but I was the only one that thought it had some merit, and the more I read the more I disliked it. So the playtest came and I downloaded the materials. I enjoyed reading the 'new' idea's and hungered for more. I expressed my interest to test it with the group, even offering to DM it which is something I don't do. We took the opportunity to test it when one of our players wasn't going to be available for a few weeks. It allowed us to pause a current game and jump into the Playtest. The results. The player who didn't want to try it, really enjoyed the adventure (and the wizard). The others thought it had merit as well, and were willing to keep testing materials as they were provided. Our biggest issue thus far is the Cleric. None of us thought it encompassed what our idea of a cleric was, too weak, not enough healing, and the severely limited turning... but I digress. The point. We tried it, and enjoyed the material. So we are eagerly waiting to see what direction they are going with it. Hoping that they improve what we dislike, and keep going with the things we do like. My two coppers K
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12 months ago ::
Jun 18, 2012 - 5:53AM
#10
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Date Joined:
May 24, 2012
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Anybody else have the playtest, as it exists, turn their groups away from the next edition of D&D?
I've had two groups react this way.
First group is my 4e campaign, and we were in the F&F playtest. Two of the players dislike the system but will play it if the rest of us do, one thinks it's a confused, misguided and ineffective hack job that has the trapping of D&D but none of its soul (her words), and the last is contractually obligated to be optimistic about it but doesn't actually like it. This group threw a party when Cook quit, no joke. Also, coincidentally, this group is composed of a bunch of wargamers; we played many games of Warmachine in order to wash the bad taste of the playtest's combat system out of our mouths.
This group is planning on continuing with 4e unless Iron Kingdom Mk. II kicks as much ass as we expect it to, at which point we might jump ship from D&D completely.
Second group is a bunch of diehard Pathfinder players who can't even be in the same room as a 4e book without making snide remarks about its mother. All six have an irrational, burning hatred for 4e despite not a single one of them actually understanding it (as usual). Their concensus is that the playtest is underdeveloped, boring, and kludgy in all the wrong ways and that by attempting to shoehorn in everything from every other edition of D&D ever, it's going to end up an unplayable mess come release.
This group sees no reason to stop playing PF. As much as I dislike PF, I agree.
Personally, nothing has ever made me want to play 4e as much as seeing the playtest materials. The first night I was flipping through the playtest packet, I made a comment about not being sure I wasn't having some horrible nightmare where the only D&D that existed was all of the worst parts from the last forty years of it.
You know that eerie look you get from someone when you say exactly what they're thinking, exactly as they're thinking it? Yeah, I got four sets of eyes with that look in them pointed at me. Nobody laughed.
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