Comments on: Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition

By: Taylor

Taylor — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 03:31:55 +0000

Alright, am I stupid here, or does this sound like the end of table top rpgs?
I watched the interview, and did my research, and I’m not impressed. It really seems that they are pushing the “high fantasy” end of things, and not focusing on game quality or story.
A good example would be “racial levelling”… it sounds lame. As a creature gains experience, it gains new powers? How does that make -any- sense.
You could throw the “it’s a fantasy game” comment in there, but let’s look at realism for a minute. I don’t know the kind of players that read this forum – you could all be playing half-ogre/half-minotaurs that spend their entire time looting dungeons with little plot advancement. If you are, and you enjoy that sort of game – there is nothing wrong with that. Roleplaying is a personal experience, and preference.
But for those of you who do run complex stories, and weaving plots in an environment that somewhat resembles life on “earth”, then it seems to me that they are pushing you aside and focusing more on high magic/high fantasy gaming. This is who this post is directed at, and again, I don’t mean any offense to those who enjoy the “kick in the door” style of play.
Another issue is the online gaming aspect. I know that it’s not an MMORPG, but a big part of roleplaying is the social element. Having friends over, sitting around and enjoying one another’s company. By enabling players and the GM to “get together to play” online, seems to be defeating the whole reason people play roleplaying games.
Seriously consider this when considering switching to DnD 4th Ed. Again, I’m going to emphasize that I don’t mean any offense with this post – but I also want to press that those of us who want less “fantasy” and better rules should let WoTC know. Don’t settle with their vision of your fantasy – 99% of the time, your vision is far better than any crap they put out.

My two cents.
T.

By: Yax

Yax — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:27:07 +0000

I was pumped too about the character generator but after using it for a short while I figured it had become obsolete.

Hopefully they have learned from their mistakes.

By: John H.

John H. — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:06:50 +0000

Beware! Those electronic features sound cool, but will they really happen? Remember when 3rd edition was released and it came with that cool (but really overblown, poorly designed and graphic extravagant) character generation program? And how Wizards claimed people’d still be able to buy a suite of D&D assistance programs?

Yeah, those became vaporware remarkably quickly. I still nurse a grudge against them for that.

By: Pé0

Pé0 — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 22:50:44 +0000

A nice interview on 4th ed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAw490qUAjs

By: Stûnibu

Stûnibu — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 10:24:33 +0000

well im glad that not every one is goign to suddenly stop playing and talking bout 3.5e spose it wont be to different anyway! race level?? sonds to confusing for me! but ill be intersted in see how it works! and cheaper! thats an upside books r exspencive for a high schooler like me!