4th Edition

Possibly better off over on my gaming blog...
Well I got the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition core set on Friday. Courtesy of Amazon where the gift set where it was in the top 10 bestsellers for weeks. Now it's at 39 although the PHB edges slightly ahead at 32. Who says RPGs don't sell?

So anyhow I've paged through, read, skimmed and otherwise tried to get a basic feel for the game. I have to admit I'm not entirely sure I like it. It seems a little too simple now and more focused towards tactical combat to almost the exclusion of everything else. Granted creating tactical situations appears immensely easier and playing looks to be streamlined but many of the roleplaying elements feel removed.

Ok, yea I know me complaining about lack of roleplaying is ironic. I tend to lean towards the tactical/combat aspects of a game. Yet even those things seem more controlled in 4th Ed. However that may be due to the lack of books to provide options. The roleplaying part well even I occasionally like to have interesting side stuff to use out of combat even if I don't make as much use of it as I could. It's not a game killer but it does narrow down the scope of games that can be played.

The monster manual focuses heavily on very easy to use monsters well set for different levels and strategies. I enjoyed that they did this making instant combat easy to do. Unsure how easy it is to adjust levels but I've heard it's not all that hard. The lack of good creatures made me a little sad especially the lack of the metallic dragons. I await to see if they have another manual with emphasis on good creatures or at least a decent accounting of them. The Draconomicon coming out in the fall only covers chromatic dragons so perhaps the second part of that covers the metallics and maybe the third covers the gem dragons (ie the neutrals).

Overall final judgment leans towards a negative reaction but actual game play (alas probably not soon) will be the true deciding factor. Also a benefit will be how I like the updates to the Forgotten Realms. I figure I will probably keep plugged in just to follow that story.