2013 will go down, at least for me, as the year Fourth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons died.
It was an ignoble death. When 1st ed gave way for 2nd ed there was a feeling of renewal mixed with an attitude of it was a change for the better. When 2nd ed was replaced by 3e there was a feeling (again in my mind) of a reboot, a new era. 4e always started out on the wrong foot.
Many complained it was too video game like, albeit from many that had never actually played it. Others complained it was too soon (though it was shown that we do get a new edition every 8 years or so).
We are now all gearing up for D&D Next and I hope that they don't end up calling it that. What will 6e be called? D&D The Next one after that?
There is a lot to like about D&D Next and I am looking forward to it. But I can't help but feel a bit of remorse for the loss of my D&D4 game.
I will not lie. I had fun with 4e. I loved the books and the fluff and I *will* be recycling as much as I can for whatever I do next. Whether that is Next or even Pathfinder.
I did pick up
13th Age which was described to me as a "4e Retro-clone" . It's not exactly that, but there are some really nice ideas in this to bring 4e closer to 3e and it addresses some of the complaints I have heard about 4e.
While 4th Ed might be retreating to the back of my gaming list I am not done with it. There are few things I wrote for myself for 4e that are going to see the light of day under different systems. I had created a number of new Warlock pacts that I would love to expand on and even some materials I wrote for a Witch class before WotC published their own.
So it is not good bye really. Besides I can still use all those minis, tiles and monster tokens.
