I’ve noticed lately that there seem to be two groups of people who really enjoy 4e, and who are coming back to it after years of not playing D&D:
- WoW Players
- Eurogamers
Now, I think I’ve shied away from pointing this out because early on, these were used as derogatory statements against 4e. (I still probably haven’t gone a week since the game came out without seeing the phrase “WoW on the tabletop.”) However, I take the complete opposite view and call this a Good Thing.
While I am no fan of WoW, many of the members from my various gaming groups have played or are current players. The time seems to have passed where WoW-talk dominates the conversation (thankfully) but the conclusion that I can make is that gamers who I like playing with like WoW. Even when I go to a convention and see friends I haven’t seen for a while, or meet new friends of friends, WoW comes up at least once. (And when groups mix, the question of “what server do you play on?” always comes up, and the answer is always a different server.) Thus I’m quite happy to play D&D with WoW players, even if they use funny terminology for D&D things.
Eurogamers are similar. I have lots of friends who are eurogamers, and I’d be happy to have them in my game if they were so inclined. Many eurogames features the “tough decisions from simple rules” that I value in all my games: role-playing, board, or otherwise. 4e changes the decisions around from previous editions to be a bit more interesting and a bit more tactical than before, and I have to think that has an influence there.
What do they both have in common? In many cases, they both have players that played D&D when younger, but as they got older, it became more difficult. Time became constrained, and they had a harder time getting a consistent group together for the amount of time needed (and complicated DM prep-work does not help that at all.) So these players got into other past-times that could be jumped into easier: you can jump into WoW whenever you want, and it’s easier to setup a boardgame than a nuanced storyline.
But as we all know, all those games scratch different itches. It was only a matter of time before the lapsed D&D players wanted to pretend to be an elf again. Even setting aside how the rules of 4e would appeal to them, even the simplest fact that there was a new edition of D&D is going to draw some players out, and that suits me just fine.
So to those who lament playing next to WoW-players and Boardgamers at your D&D table… well, I’m just glad I don’t have to play with you!
While I’m against making rules like WOW for the sake of being like WOW, there are at least two positive things that came from WOW that work really well in 4e: A firm mathematical basis for the numbers and an emphasis on balance and the relationship between classes.
I think the interview I read with Mike Mearls where he talked about getting inspiration from Eurogames was where I finally realized why my usual group was so ready to jump from 3.5 to 4e after our first game. All but one are voracious Eurogamers. They really dug the simplicity of the game at the table.
(It probably helped that I didn’t make them generate characters at the table too – I think the simplicity of the system is tougher to see when you start creating a character. The character creation rules are really needlessly disorganized and the spreadsheet look of the default character sheets, while similar to 3.5’s default sheet, is actually unnecessary.)
I would argue that there is an obvious group of folks loving D&D 4e that are neglected here. D&D 3e players.
I’m a full convert. In my group of 8, 6 of us are full 3e converts. 1 is a lapsed gamer (2e convert). And 1 is a WoW-gamer.
🙂
Jeff Greiner’s last post: The Tome Ep 74: DDM Starter Set
Svelt: I would agree, but I actually think there’s very little (if anything) just taken from WoW for the sake of being from WoW.
Jer: Agreed on all counts. The character sheet in the book is just horrendous- pre-made sheets with power cards show off the simplicity of the system best.
Jeff: There’s them too, but I figured they had been talked about enough 🙂 (I am one myself, in addition to a Eurogamer)