Getting this off my chest!

This past Saturday was the annual gamers guild of Ohio picnic, a day of hanging out with like minded folk, eating talking, and playing games. It was a lot of fun, except when the subject of fourth edition D&D came up. If your argument as to why you do not like something is vague, as in "It's stupid.", then you have really lost me. If you give me reasons like you want more options or rules for different things, I can accept that. When I said "As long as people have fun." the response was "That doesn't matter.". Really!! Not much of an argument, it just tells me you are very close minded, which sucks because I do not want the mainstream populace to think that we as a group are that way. Unfortunately, there are quite a few as evidenced by the anti d20 and now the anti 4E sentiment.

Now, I love games, and can play whatever version of D&D you wanna play. Basic was a fun and somewhat simplified version of advanced, which had all kinds of things you could do. Second edition I never played, but I have picked up some stuff from that era, it looks like there were a ton of options. Third was when I got back into D&D and role-playing in general, they seemed to have worked the game to be a little simpler but have all kinds of options.

Then fourth edition came to pass and I dipped my toe in, going to that first game day and checking it out. It was not love at first site, but it had a certain charm so I bought the Player's Handbook, the next step was trying the Living Forgotten Realms games, and man I was hooked! It had a simplicity while retaining certain degree of options, though I will admit that in the beginning they were limited.

Here is what seems to be the ultimate blasphemy for the haters, with the essentials line, it seems closer to that basic D&D from so long ago. Combat is clearly defined, and can be as technical as necessary, with vague rules for social or non combat situations. It is not exactly the same, that is what the retro clones are for, but there are similarities. If this is horrible of me to think, maybe you should take a step back, we want people to be open minded in regards to our hobby, let us be open minded with each other.

On that note, I bid you all good night, and take care.