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 - It's a different, good game. But it's D&D in title only.I think that what it all boils down to is this: Folks like me who have been playing D&D since the Blue Box days and have played through the various editions seem to hate 4th edition. Players who are new to the genre seem to like it. So what is it that's upsetting the older, more experienced players? While listening to the Wizards of the Coast podcast on the differences to 4e they often mentioned wanting to remove the "15 minute adventure day." This is the aspect of D&D where you go in, you fight hard, take damage, and then have to go rest for a day or more to heal up. It's very true that this can be typical of a D&D adventure, especially lower level adventures where the spell casters are very weak. But by changing the rules to eliminate that aspect they profoundly changed the feel of the game. In 4e each player has a set of "healing surges". They can use these throughout the day to heal 1/4 of their hit points. At first glance this may sound like a good idea. But what ends up happening is that a character can be beaten and bloodied (or even unconscious and just moments from death) and use a healing surge to bounce back up to full strength in no time. In fact, if they're unconscious and dying but make their saving throw against death the character can bounce back from near death to 1/4 of his total hit points in 2 combat rounds (12 seconds). If you roll a natural 20 you "wake up" with zero hit points and immediately get a free healing surge. So with the proper roll you can go from dead to fighting in 6 seconds of game time. That seems a bit unrealistic, even for a world full of goblins and dragons. One of the other aspects of D&D is that spell casters are very weak at lower levels. In 4e the spell casters can blast away even at first level. In fact, they have "per encounter" spells that they can cast once per encounter no matter how many encounters they have that day. In every edition before 4e the Wizard or Sorcerer's spell casting would drain them mentally and they'd have to recover from the exertion of calling in powers from other magical planes of existence. The feeling that it's hard work to cast a spell seems to be missing from 4e. This is the kind of thing that the detractors are talking about when they say that 4e is a "dumbed down" version of D&D. On The Other Hand: There are really 2 parts to a D&D game. The combat part, and the non-combat part (the role playing part). The role playing part of the game is still up to the DM and the players. It would take a huge change in the rules to destroy the role playing portion of the game experience. But because the risk of death is lessened, the power of spell casters is increased, and the bounce back healing surges exist I think that the new rules may, in fact, be a big enough change to effect the role playing experience. Players can put themselves into situations that they wouldn't in edition 3.5 because they know they can bounce back and keep going. The strength of the magic users and the power of clerics to heal change the dynamic of the game enough that the role playing part is effected. There's one last thing to consider as well. Did edition 3.5 need to be updated? There may be small things about 3.5 that could be tweaked, and the Pathfinder RPG has done a wonderful job of that. Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beta (Pathfinder) But did 3.5 really need to be gutted and changed? I don't think so. It seems to me that Wizards really needed to produce a new product line to continue to build sales and 4e was that new product line. But the decision seems to have come from a marketing and sales point of view rather than from the point of view of "what's best for the RPG gamer". Pathfinder, on the other hand, seems to be written from the point of view of "What's the best way to continue the arc of the 3.5 story line? How can we give the players more within the 3.5 edition and the open gaming license." I think they succeeded. At this point in the D&D world we have a split. The new players will probably enjoy 4th edition. But the experienced players will most likely stick with 3.5 and use Pathfinder. My prediction is that within the hard core gamer circles Pathfinder will replace D&D entirely. And in a way, that's too bad. There's a feeling of history with D&D. The older players remember the Gary Gygax days. We remember playing in a game where Mordenkainen and Leomund (Gygax's personal characters) existed and influenced our world. We remember grinding out adventure after adventure as a spell caster just waiting to become so powerful that we can change reality with a wave of our hand. There was a certain feel to the older versions of the game that's profoundly different in 4e. And that's what we miss. That's what makes 4e not feel like it's Dungeons and Dragons any more. 4th edition is a great, well designed RPG. It's just not D&D any more. Rating:  - Good StuffI love 4th Edition. These books are a necessity. There is much left out but it will come with later releases. Rating: - Easier on people with day jobsThe main thing I like about DnD 4e is that it makes things much easier for GMs and a bit easier for players too. I enjoy GMing but under 3.5 didn't really have the prep time to do it right, particularly since I run NPC rather than monster intensive campaigns. Rating: - An overall improvement over 3rd/3.5 editionThe first time I played 4th edition I was in a group of 4 players plus the DM, and our DM had the only set of core books (everyone else besides myself was brand new to the game). I had skimmed sections of the books as I was making my character, and I was VERY apprehensive. It seemed to me like this was a completely different game, and in some ways it is. I have some friends who don't like it (though they've only played one session), simply stating that "it's not DnD." For any who have had experiences similar to this, I say give the new edition a few more tries. It's jarring to get used to the new system, which in some ways is more streamlined and in some ways is not. First, the bad. The addition of powers is the most radically different aspect of this game. While these are the meat of your character's combat abilities, they are a bit more difficult to organize than a 3rd edition character's abilities (unless you enjoyed complicated spellcasters in 3rd, in which case the powers makes it a bit easier). In 3rd, you had everything on your character sheet, for there was really only one basic attack with each weapon. As long as all of your bonuses and modifiers were kept track of, it was simple. You just add those numbers to your attacks/damage. The powers of a 4th edition character give them more flavor (I think it makes combat come alive more), but since each power is different you must keep track of them separately. Some give different bonuses or cause different effects than others. If you're unorganized, at higher levels this could get really complicated. You may end up resorting to referencing the Player's Handbook every time you use anything other than an At-Will power (which are usually simple, CAN be written right on your character sheet, and are used so frequently that you shouldn't have any trouble remembering what they do). What I've done is cut standard 3X5 index cards in half and I write each different power on a card. I then place them in a plastic card protector page (the type that you can put in a binder to display collectible cards, much like a photo album) and keep that page with my character sheet. The best thing about this system is that you can make a mark on the plastic over the power with dry erase marker when you've used the power, and it erases right off at the end of the encounter or day. Some might say that a system like this in addition to the character sheet shouldn't be necessary to play a DnD character, but it works. Now for the good. Going back to my first 4th edition game, I mentioned that all of the other players were completely new to DnD. With that in mind, I thought that they caught on fairly quickly. In the case of a 1st level 4th edition character (who only has a few powers), character creation is a bit easier than it was in 3rd edition. I don't want to say more intuitive, because I found MY first character frustrating to make because I was used to the 3rd edition process. Now, however, I can make a given character much quicker. This is assuming that in both cases I'm using just the core books. Even as a 3rd edition player, I usually didn't stray too far from the core books, as it made character creation more of a chore than it should have been. Now, a lot of DnD players like this aspect of 3rd edition. Perhaps when more supplemental material comes out for 4th then the new system will succumb to the same fate. For players that love multiclassing 4 different classes and 2 prestige classes, 4 edition is not for you (you can only multiclass into ONE other class, and even then you just dabble). However, you don't NEED to multiclass to make your character different then another member of the same class. And although base classes have different builds, until more supplemental material comes out you probably won't be satisfied. But I have digressed, and I must now reiterate: the basic process behind making a character is easier. Players new to DnD or who have played 3rd edition only a couple of times would benefit from starting with 4th. Additionally, as of now the 4th edition classes seem to be much more balanced than the ones in 3rd. I don't know how many times I've been asked "why are you playing a ranger? A two weapon or archery fighter is a mechanically superior character!" And everyone knows that when it comes to combat, Bards rarely hold their own (this is coming from someone who does actually LIKE the Bard class). In 4th Edition you will be much less likely to be penalized for making a poor character choice. Furthermore, little mistakes in the advancement of your character can actually be alleviated: you can now retrain feats and powers (one at each level) in case you made a bad decision. Personally, I feel that having balanced characters allows you to focus more on concept, flavor, and background since you don't have to worry about mechanics as much (and those who don't think 4th edition has enough options, just wait for the supplemental stuff to come out if that's how you like to play DnD). Finally, I come to the best aspect of 4th edition. This is the reason that I gave the product 5 stars, because otherwise there are aspects of 3rd edition that I prefer. This reason is, it is a LOT easier and more intuitive to DM. So if you DM in your group, definitely consider making the switch to 4th edition. Building encounters of the appropriate level is a breeze: there is a table with an experience point pool, and you simply add in enemies until their combined experience point values equals the total encounter experience. And instead of the vague concept of CR (I've DMed a few years now, and it still takes forever to plan an encounter with multiple enemies using the CR system, partially because it's restrictive and vague), the enemies are given a LEVEL, much like the characters. Also, the DMG has simple rules for scaling a given monster up or down (within about 4 or 5 levels). The monster manual has never been so easy to use! And because the rules in general have been streamlined, the DM has less to remember and look up while playing. In fact, there is a table on page 42 of the DMG that solves all of your misc. DC and damage issues not directly addressed in the rules. The result: a flexible and simplified mechanic that allows you to focus more on plot, storyline, and roleplaying. And as an added bonus, DMing should be less intimidating, so more players can give it a shot (allowing the poor DM to actually play a character every once in a while!). So to sum up a longer-than-expected and somewhat rambling review, if you don't have any/much DnD experience and want to give the game a shot, 4th edition is the system you should use. If you're an experienced player/DM who simply wants to experience a new take on DnD, give it a shot. If you like creating character concepts more than fiddling around with complicated mechanics that may or may not work to your advantage, you will prefer 4th edition. If you like said fiddling around with mechanics, you might want to stick to 3rd edition. Rating:  - Back into the DungeonFirst of all, a short introduction: 1. I'm not a native English speaker. Sorry for any mistakes. 2. I have been playing D&D since its 1st Edition. I have also played many other RPG games, including Warhammer 2nd Edition, Rolemaster, Paranoia, Runequest, Call of Ctulhu,... 3. Usually I was the Master/Director of the game, but other times I've played as player. I'd say the balance is somewhat in the 60% Master / 40% Player. 4. After many disappointments with previous editions of D&D and their business methods, I was cautious to try 4th Edition. Actually, I decided not to try it at all, and went on playing other games. Then, a friend came and said he had bought the gift set, and that we should give it a try: Advantages: - The combat system is really streamlined. The only times the rules of the game have to be "broken" is because of special powers. As you can have them in cards in front of you, you'll need to check the book during the game very few times. - The flow of combat is very smooth. Any time you want to do something, the rules are intuitive, and no rule seems to be "strange". - Because of the above, you are able to simulate battles with incredibly complex terrain (I'm now remembering a memorable one with some Kobolds in our last session). - As every class has the same number of special powers/tricks at each level, everybody has something important to think about almost at any time; nobody feels completely out or doing repetitive things. Nobody has "just to roll dice" or to do the same trick over and over. - No unfair hit point system. In previous editions you felt crippled when your character rolled low on his/her hit points. - Skill system much better. Still, I don't find it as nice as in d100 games such as Warhammer, Call of Ctulhu,... but it's not the ridiculous system of previous editions... anyone remembers the "blind" Fighter? Disadvantage I have seen none yet (though I must say I have not played this game as much as previous editions). Maybe that you'll need to use miniatures if you want to make use of the nice new combat rules (I love miniatures anyway, but I guess for some people this can be a bad thing). Advantage or Disadvantage? (this will depend on your style) - The rules are there to make combat interesting and streamlined but, will that detract from the roleplaying experience? - Well, the role aspect of the game is still clearly there. I always thought that this aspect does not depend so much on the basic rules but on the scenario the DM decides to direct (and D&D had always a huge selection of scenarios), and on how interested are the players on the role aspects of the game. - The game can be clearly played as a normal boardgame, and in this sense it will attract a lot of computer players out there. In my opinion, this is a good thing, as I think it will attract more gamers to the pen-and-paper RPGS and maybe some of them will also discover the joy of the roleplaying aspect. Others are angry that Hasbro-Wizards tried this out, but I think that's just an elitist opinion. Well, all in all, I'm quite pleased with the game so far, and I've even decided to buy it myself and direct an scenario or two with my friends. I wish Hasbro good luck with it, and hope that they'll try to keep with this edition more time...no 4.5 edition at least in 4-5 years, please! In association with Amazon.com | |