Hasbro announced that they’ll be bringing out a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons only a few years after releasing 4ed. I don’t really have skin in this particular game — I don’t play fantasy settings, so I haven’t played in a D&D game since 1993 or so. However, I am aware of the absolutely insane response to the release of 4th edition — friends apparently not talking to each other, game groups breaking up over whether to play 3rd or 4th edition. It’s the sort of thing that makes we gamers look the nutbags we are portrayed as in media.
You don’t like one system? Don’t play it. You have players who want to play one edition or the other, compromise.
I will admit I was unimpressed wtih 4th edition (and more specifically the Star Wars Saga Edition.) I found the mechanics looked to be trying to emulate the RPG video games, rather than emphasizing role playing. But that’s my opinion; you may feel otherwise, and please do. Here’s the kicker: I don’t like 3rd Edition either…in fact, I think d20 is a terrible set of mechanics in general and its the reason I don’t do D&D oriented material here at Black Campbell — I don’t play it, so I have no opinion one way or the other. Additionally, there’s plenty of sites dealing with fantasy-based settings, so I target old, dead systems and settings that aren’t as typical for RPG blogs.
The Black Campbell 
9 January, 2012 at 23:25
I think this may be too little, too late, to regain the initiative from Pathfinder. All the 3.0/3.5 splatbooks were rewritten and hacked apart for 4e, and I can’t see people dropping a ton of money to replace them so they’ll be current.
IMO, the people who were loyal and bought the 4e books have every right to be upset unless there’s some sort of trade for credit or something to ease the pain. Everyone i know that has done 4e has mentioned the cost of the books and now after less than three and a half years finding out that they’re going to be playing a system that appears to be orphaned…not very happy.
9 January, 2012 at 23:36
I should be sympathetic, considering every system I’ve ever liked dies an untimely death.
More the issue, I think, is that D&D isn’t the only game in town, anymore. There was plenty of competition in the 80s and 90s, but White Wolf, and the OGL stuff really bit away at the old girl, and the wealth of solidly good indie stuff and computer RPGs gives people very good (if not better) alternatives to D&D.
9 January, 2012 at 23:48
There was competition in the 80s, but until the advent of White Wolf, there wasn’t anything that came close to the volume that TSR enjoyed. GDW had Traveller, Chaosium had CoC, Runequest, and Stormbringer, and even when White Wolf came on the scene, there wasn’t a fantasy game that had the popularity or sales figures as AD&D and AD&D2e.
Throughout the 90s, and with the advent of the internet for collaboration, more and more well designed games hit the market. Then, with the OGL, Wizards completely changed the landscape by pretty much killing new design and innovation. Sure, other systems and games were released, but they were the exceptions and not the rule.
OGL gave anyone with an idea and some time the ability to mod D&D for their own use and that stifled original creativity. I’m currently working through Arcanis, which is one of the more innovative systems I’ve seen. It sure beats Anima and Artesia.
I *want* to like Gurps. I *want* to like Cortex. But try as I might, I just can’t get to the point and say, “Yes! These are great games that model their “game world” really well!” Gurps is very mathematical and for me that restricts a lot of the flexibility of a tailor made rules set for the setting. Cortex has other issues as well as that one.
I grew up during the “golden age” of gaming, the late 70s and 80s, and was a 20something in the early 90s when the thrice damned MtG was released. I miss the game systems created for the game world. I miss simple but workable systems. I miss games that have more design than flashy artwork.
10 January, 2012 at 07:34
I could never get into GURPS or Hero/Champions…simply way too much math. When your first character takes two days to make, that’s too bloody much. I do like Cortex (go figure, judging from the content here) because you can craft a pretty reasonable facsimile of a character in minutes and be ready to go. There are a few mechhanical issues, but I have those with every game system.
11 January, 2012 at 17:43
I did Gurps twice and tried to do Hero/Champions once. I don’t mind detailed characters, but I despise systems where you “build” characters and whoever knows the best loopholes can create a character that is qualitatively superior to everyone else…not to mention I really don’t like the whole point buy genre.
I want to like Cortex, but the more we played the more issues we found that had us shaking our heads.