I hate to be the nay sayer here, especially since I love shiny new books as much as the next gamer. However, some experiences in my Friday night L5R game has brought to light a few issues that can come up with switching to a new edition in your game.
Now, from the company’s stand point, a new edition is great. Odds are that most of the people who play/buy the product for the old edition will buy in, they have a pre-established community and track record to build trust, and they have a shiny new book on the shelves to draw new people in. For the most part, everyone is happy when a new edition hits, especially when it does so at a convention – like the recently past GenCon. However, it isn’t all sugar and lollipops.
See, a new edition is – by its very definition – different from the old edition. If it wasn’t different, and significantly different in some ways, it wouldn’t be a new edition; it would be a revised edition or a re-release. That very newness, designed to help bring in new people, can cause issues for the established game if you’re not careful.
Where does this problem come in? It comes in where the new and old editions clash. This may work better with an anecdote, so let me give one: In Legend of the Five Rings there is a mechanic called the Honor Roll. How it basically works is this: when a player fails a roll, they can rely on their honor to pull them through, and they get a reroll. Now, in old editions, they would replace either their skill or their stat with the character’s honor and re-roll. In the new edition, you only roll your honor. Now, at high honor, the new mechanic is more powerful. However, at low honor it is weak to the point of uselessness.
Now, while this isn’t a super huge issue – and is easily fixed with a simple GM ruling – it does cause confusion and issues. Most of the players don’t like the change, and even I am only intrigued by it on an intellectual level. However, the problem is the confusion that it brings up in game. Small or large, the change is a deliberate change and it affects the lay of power in the mechanics. The group makes decisions based on history with the system, and then runs into the wall that the new rules erect. It causes confusion, and breaks people out of the game. This problem has extended to some of the newer players in the game as well, who have become confused by the mixed signals they get. The rules tell them one thing, the other players play like it is something else, and the GM ends up having to rule somewhere in the middle.
These points of confusion are where edition wars tend to begin, and those can be an issue in and of themselves. Sadly, there isn’t really a way to fix it either, aside from for everyone to approach the new edition as if it was a new game that was just very similar to their old one. This is also why you may want to wait until a big break in your game’s action before transitioning to the new edition. Take that extra time to make sure you know the differences; your group will need you to point them out.
Aside from that, have fun, and be ready to carve out the path between the two options you’ve been given. And, of course, enjoy your new game.
Anthony Laffan
Anthony got pulled inside the interwebs in 1998 with, of all things, a first person shooter called Starsiege Tribes. Since then, he trolled around the net claiming to be Delirium incarnate until a wicked fairy bashed him across the back of the head and showed him the wonders of game design and sociology. Now, despite the pleas for mercy from those nearest him, he continues to try to apply both (game design and sociology) to the world and games around him in the vain hopes of understanding something. Do not confront this man, he is very likely dangerous and will talk your ear off at the slightest hint of interest in anything he likes. Profile Page / Article Portfolio
Generally, I like trying out new editions – they breathe new life into what has usually become a stale game (usually).
There are different reasons for new editions. Sometimes a company buys a franchise and just wants to sell more books to an existing fanbase. I’m not very excited about that but there’s a chance that a better game comes out of it. I made a second edition to upgrade and expand my ruleset, address bugs and such. It was a big enough change that it didn’t feel like a revision. For those kinds of new edition, (faster, sleeker, more horse power) I’ll get excited about it.
@ Emmett –
I’m certainly not a fan of a company making a new edition just make a few more bucks, but then again, it does challenge them to make a better product.
Thanks for commenting, by the way.
There are definitely good and bad things about new editions. A lot of fans get upset when a year after they get edition 3 they find out that edition 4 is coming out. I know many in the L5R community were upset when they found out that 4th ed was already entering play testing just a couple of weeks after 3rd ed revised came out.
Sometimes they are needed though. They change things to match the more modern trends, and to reflect more stream lined ideas that could come about due to the experience with the first edition or other games. Sometimes they just fix the focus or scope of the game better. Sadly, sometimes they’re just a cash grab and it is hard to see the difference between the two books.