Thursday, February 28, 2008
Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Reviewed
Fer Real - a review of 4th edition, now that the NDA has been lifted. On Aint It Cool News:
"Let me just say this upfront. I. Love. 4E. And I didn’t want to. Much like many of you out there, the 3.5 partial reboot just five years ago pissed me off... Just 2 weeks into playing 4E, I boxed up every non-fluff heavy book (of 3.5E) I owned, drove down to Half Price Books and sold them for as much cash as I could get. I knew I would never, ever, touch them again. Yes. 4E really is that good."Yes, it's very positive. Yes, I'm very skeptical, still. Read it yourself - though it's part one of a three parter that will have additional installments Friday and Saturday:
AICN: Massawyrm Has Played Dungeons And Dragons 4th Edition!!
I'm sure there are lots of details out there for interested parties. Me, I'll check it out in June. But... again... I'm skeptical. To me, it still sounds like they were trying to make the game a poor-man's MMORPG.
UPDATE: Here are the other two parts of his review:
D&D 4E Review Part 2
D&D 4E Review Part 3
Important note: "It is very dependant upon maps, terrain and miniatures. That’s great for guys like me with a closet full of toys. But for others, especially those who like to play much more esoteric games all through discussion rather than using maps and positioning – they’re going to find it a lot harder to covert over to that style of play than 3.5. Most abilities and classes are built around their existence on a map grid. And a lot of the abilities just don’t translate to the abstract. I’m not certain why percentage of players out there still play this way – but they’re going to have the strongest argument against converting to 4E."
So... umm.... I guess there you have it. The fairly-unsurprising (since 3.5 has been going that way) business plan of WotC... using D&D to sell a steady supply of collectible miniatures.
Labels: Roleplaying Games
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:20 PM (Permalink)
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Try http://www.basicfantasy.org/main.html instead. Oldschool style! :)
# posted by 
: February 28, 2008 7:55 PM
: February 28, 2008 7:55 PM
The one I have and haven't played yet (but want to) is Castles & Crusades. They kinda abused the D20 SRD / License to make the closest thing to a "new and improved" version of 1st edition AD&D.
Somewhere in the middle of 2nd edition and 3rd edition is where I said, "Enough is enough!" and completely eschewed D&D in favor of RPG systems that didn't completely blow huge piles of steaming sh... erhm, inconsistency.
But if 4th edition turns out to actually be all the gleaming fantastlichkeit that everyone says it is, perhaps I'll recant and take another look.
But if 4th edition turns out to actually be all the gleaming fantastlichkeit that everyone says it is, perhaps I'll recant and take another look.
I'll be checking it out, but 3E really won me over in a big way. In an equal-and-opposite way from how 2nd Edition lost my interest. I'm dubious.
I played it for two games at the D&D Experience last weekend. It was okay... not to start a review, and I assume most of us will just purchase the PHB in June and go from there, but this is what you can expect:
1. Every class has a 'little bit' of healing they can trigger as necessary. A little easier for dwarves. Dwarven fighter is again viable and fun to play.
2. Fighters / paladins have 'mark' abilities that help you get bad guys to go after you instead of the softies in the back.
3. Spellcasters, including clerics, have 'at will' powers they can spam at all times. No more using the bow or sling or whatever, you're rolling a D20 to hit with your magic missle instead. Which leads to the next, more problematic note:
4. All powers except for healing, even the once-a-day powers, involve rolling a D20 to succeed. There may be feats and such we can take to mitigate this but yes, that means you can save up your awesome power to hit the dragon, and you can just miss the dragon because you rolled a 3. True, the GM used to be able to roll saving throws, but this setup seems to depend more on players rolling well. The 2nd table I played at had a number of awful rolls and we ended up wiping, my first TPK.
Overall my verdict is 'meh.' I'm looking forward to playing, but I can't give a wholehearted recommendation to everyone. If you're in a successful campaign now, give it some time before you convert over.
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1. Every class has a 'little bit' of healing they can trigger as necessary. A little easier for dwarves. Dwarven fighter is again viable and fun to play.
2. Fighters / paladins have 'mark' abilities that help you get bad guys to go after you instead of the softies in the back.
3. Spellcasters, including clerics, have 'at will' powers they can spam at all times. No more using the bow or sling or whatever, you're rolling a D20 to hit with your magic missle instead. Which leads to the next, more problematic note:
4. All powers except for healing, even the once-a-day powers, involve rolling a D20 to succeed. There may be feats and such we can take to mitigate this but yes, that means you can save up your awesome power to hit the dragon, and you can just miss the dragon because you rolled a 3. True, the GM used to be able to roll saving throws, but this setup seems to depend more on players rolling well. The 2nd table I played at had a number of awful rolls and we ended up wiping, my first TPK.
Overall my verdict is 'meh.' I'm looking forward to playing, but I can't give a wholehearted recommendation to everyone. If you're in a successful campaign now, give it some time before you convert over.
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