This was originally posted on EN World – another of a sequence of essays I seem to be writing about 4e and reactions to it – well, mostly my own reactions! I have observed a belief by some forum members that the upcoming edition of D&D will leave them behind, relegating them to grognard status whether they want to or not. The previous sentence just … Continue reading Adapt or Perish!
When I first heard about 4e being released, I was quite apprehensive. That didn’t last long. After all, I’m blindly optimistic, right? Well, not quite. It’s probably more accurate that I tend to see the successes of companies I like more than their failures. So, although Wizards have had disasters like the Tome of Magic, DMG2 and the Map Folios, the joy I’ve gotten from … Continue reading My thoughts on 4e so far
This is a post I first wrote for EN World, but it’s a bit bloggish, so I’m going to add it here as well (so my friends will see it, and I’m going to be able to find it again as well). Does 4e sound more D&Dish to you than 3e did? It’s perhaps a strange question, but there are a few things that I’m … Continue reading Does 4e sound more D&Dish to you than 3e did?
From the discussion on EN World, where I posted this: D&D has always been about having its major roles filled – particularly those of Fighter, Cleric and Magic-User. (If you check the early modules, there’s a lot of talk about balanced parties there). D&D 3E not only wants the four roles to be filled, it provided a bunch of other character options that couldn’t provide … Continue reading More on D&D Character Roles
Andy Collins notes in a post on his forum“I hate the fact that if I want to play a ranger, or a monk, or a binder, or yes, even a bard, that I have to make sure that all the “normal” bases are covered in the party first, because my class isn’t good at the basic functions that every party needs. The game doesn’t have … Continue reading D&D Character Roles
Rich Baker’s latest article, Points of Light, describes a form of the D&D campaign world that really hit the spot for me. It’s also apparently the default D&D world in 4e. Some may see this as the “Wild West” version of a D&D setting; or alternatively a “Dark Ages” mediaeval setting. Either way, it connects with me. Partly because it also evokes one of my … Continue reading Islands in the Wilderness
Another day, another few 4e updates. It’s probably worth saying at this point that we really know very little about 4e. A lot of what we’re theorizing is going to have no basis in reality. However, that really doesn’t make it any less fun to do! So, what came out of yesterday? MonstersThe big thing here was this article on the Wizards site. We’ve also … Continue reading Latest 4e updates
Well, GenCon is over, and there’s been a bunch of 4e stuff posted. Mostly it seems like it will be similar to 3e, Star Wars Saga, but simpler in many, many ways. One of the goals of the revision is to produce more “per encounter” abilities rather than “per day”. It’s been observed that the way the 3e system works, you get 3 encounters that … Continue reading D&D 4th Edition
Well, well, well. My, my, my. Oh dear. I already have *too many* D&D 3.5e books. What will happen to me now? For those in my existing D&D campaigns: Don’t worry. Yet. Yes, I’ll definitely be getting the 4e books when they are released, and most likely I’ll begin running campaigns with them… but… …I won’t convert a campaign unless most of the people are … Continue reading It’s confirmed: 4th edition D&D.
A little over eight months ago, I wrote an article about Wizards upcoming releases and how they applied to the release of 4E D&D. Well, we’ve just had the releases for the first four months of 2006 revealed. How do they change things? Well, not much. As I mentioned in my last essay, most of these books are dependent on you having books other than … Continue reading 4E is still coming!
