I know everyone out there has their “top ten of reasons you should switch to 4e” or, alternately, “top ten reasons you shouldn’t switch”. I frankly don’t care either way, but for those out there who have all those 3.5 and 3e books and think “what’s going to happen to all my books?!” Take heart:
All your books still work.
I’ve been going through my 3e books (all 89 of them) and I’ve found a greater level of compatibility than I previously thought. Your Stronghold Builder’s Guidebook? Still works. With little to no modification, I might add.
Any weapons in the Arms and Equipment Guide? All it takes is adding a few keywords to the 3.0 weapon, and now it’s a 4.0 weapon. Your obscure Ultimate Prestige Classes Volume 2 by Mongoose Press?
Okay, for that, if you aren’t into major conversion, you should probably go onto the ENWorld forums and ask for some help on that.
But my general point is, your books are still usable and viable. It’s okay to switch.
No, really. It is.
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
November 22, 2008 at 11:55 am
Jeff Greiner
I know this has been my experience for setting books as well.
I’m a big Forgotten Realms fan and I have been playing 4e in the Realms almost since the week the 4e books came out (and months before the 4e Realms books).
Using my 3e setting books I was able to play a 4e Realms game seamlessly. I had to do VERY little retconning when the 4e Realms books came out (in fairness I had some knowledge of what the 4e Realms would look like ahead of time).
This is an indicator to me that 3e setting books should be easily convertible to 4e rules. Since we already have full rules on Warforged as a race and Artificer as a class (on DDI), and a Monster Manual version of the Shifter as well, there is little reason that your 3e Eberron books shouldn’t be fully convertible into 4e as well. The only thing it’s missing at this point is psionics, and that can be worked around pretty easily.
November 22, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Dead Orcs
I think “compatibility” is mostly in the mind. I converted to 4E, but I didn’t dump all of my books. In fact, I still occasionally take a peek at the 1st Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide. You know, there’s still a great gem table in there with gem types versus gold piece value.
But you’re right when you say that the 3.0 + books still have value. I still use the Arms and Equipment Guide, the Stronghold Builder’s Guide, and the Ghostwalk Campaign setting, among others. Just because you start to play a new version, doesn’t mean the old stuff has to go away.