Aug 16
Dungeons And Dragons 4th Edition
So, it’s outside the bounds of this site’s normal topic but I have to share: D&D is going 4.0. 4th Edition, rather, the first major revamp of the rules since the game was launched as D&D 3.0 back in 1999. I had the chance to sit in on the press announcement last night, and I’ve had a bunch of time to acclimate myself to the idea already. As a result, my thinking is now more excitement and enthusiasm than anger/confusion. That said, I can understand why you’d be cranky having just read my words.
Cranky, that is, if you’re a current player. If you don’t play D&D, your thinking is probably … ‘huh’? Well if you’re here, you’re likely a MMOG player. MMOG players have a lot to look forward to with 4th Edition, as … “releasing next year will be new Web-based tools and online community forums through the brand new DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Insider (D&D Insiderâ„¢) digital offering. D&D Insider lowers the barriers of entry for new players while simultaneously offering the depth of play that appeals to veteran players.”
Essentially, there is going to be a ‘virtual tabletop’ that will allow players to voice chat with each other. The DM can manipulate an online tile-based map, laying down monsters and traps and such, and officiating for players. There’s no actual gameplay built into the game; it’s not a videogame. It is, though, the most interesting thing to happen to D&D since the 99 rules reboot.
Here’s the schedule for product releases next year:
- February 2008 – First look at D&D XP in Virginia
- April 2008 – Miniatures Reboot, Keep on the Shadowfell Adventure
- May 2008 – Player’s Handbook / Character Sheets
- June 2007 – Monster Manual
- July 2007 – Dungeon Master’s Guide
The official PR text is after the cut. You can expect more fully formed thoughts on the subject … probably at Slashdot. I’ll link it here. An exciting day at the Con of Cons.
Official Release -
August 16, 2007 (Renton, WA) – Whether you storm a mad wizard’s tower every week or haven’t delved into a dungeon since you had a mullet and a mean pair of parachute pants, one thing is certain, millions of D&D® players worldwide have anticipated the coming of 4th Edition for many years. Today Wizards of the Coast confirms that the new edition will launch in May 2008 with the release of the D&D Player’s Handbook®. A pop culture icon, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is the #1 tabletop roleplaying game in the world and is revered by legions of gamers of all ages.
The 4th Edition DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game includes elements familiar to current D&D players, including illustrated rulebooks and pre-painted plastic miniatures. Also releasing next year will be new Web-based tools and online community forums through the brand new DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Insider (D&D Insiderâ„¢) digital offering. D&D Insider lowers the barriers of entry for new players while simultaneously offering the depth of play that appeals to veteran players.
The 4th Edition rules emphasize faster game play, offer exciting new character options, and reduce the amount of “prep time†needed to run the game. D&D Insider includes a character creator that lets players design and equip their D&D characters, dungeon- and adventure-building tools for Dungeon Masters, online magazine content, and a digital game table that lets you play 24/7 on the Internet — the perfect option for anyone who can’t find time to get together.
“We’ve been gathering player feedback for eight years,†said Bill Slavicsek, R&D Director of Roleplaying and Miniatures Games at Wizards of the Coast. “Fourth Edition streamlines parts of the D&D game that are too complex while enhancing the overall play experience. At its heart, it’s still a tabletop game experience. However, D&D Insider makes it easier for players to create characters, run their games, and interact with the rest of the D&D community.â€
Wizards of the Coast will release two 4th Edition preview books in December and January—Wizards Presents: Classes and Races™ and Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters™. The first live demos of 4th Edition will happen at the D&D EXPERIENCE™ gaming convention in Washington D.C. in February 2008. The full scope of 4th Edition books, miniatures, and adventures will be available in the spring and summer of 2008.
Since its first release in 1974, the fantasy roleplaying game DUNGEONS & DRAGONS has taken millions of players on imaginary adventures of epic scale. Today, D&D is universally regarded as the original game that created the roleplaying game category, and the inspiration for generations of game designers. D&D is enjoyed by millions of players worldwide, while countless more remember it with fond nostalgia. For more information, visit our digital newsroom at www.wizards.com/gencon2007.
Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS), is a worldwide leader in the trading card game and tabletop roleplaying game categories, and a leading developer and publisher of game-based entertainment products. Wizards is also a publisher of fantasy series fiction with numerous New York Times bestsellers
D&D Insider Fact Sheet -
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, the industry leader in roleplaying games, is forging its first true path into the digital age with D&D InsiderTM.
D&D Insider (www.dndinsider.com) enhances the D&D® tabletop gaming experience with magazine-style editorial content, a suite of exciting online tools, and community pages powered by GleemaxTM. Prepare to experience D&D the way it was meant to be: maximum imagination, scintillating strategy, and full-throttle fun.
• Character Creator: Your character is the most important part of the game. D&DI allows you to create a 3D visual representation of your character that you can save and print. Create, update, and save your character sheets and images with a click of the mouse.
• DM Tools: D&DI makes Dungeon Mastering easy with ready-to-use maps and stat blocks, a groundbreaking dungeon map builder, instant encounter and adventure builders, libraries of virtual miniatures and virtual dungeon tiles, and online tools to help you create and organize your
D&D campaigns.
• D&D Anytime: Can’t get the gaming group together on Saturday night? The D&DI game table allows you to play with friends 24/7, with a special online forum that allows DMs to find players and players to join games on the fly.
• Dragon® and Dungeon® Magazines Online: D&D Insider is the place to receive news about upcoming releases, errata and rules clarifications, previews of future 4th edition products, exclusive game content, and D&D adventures for all levels of play. Dragon and Dungeon magazines bring you the fun every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday — with collected “issues†at the end of each month.
• One Community To Rule Them All: Get behind-the- scenes glimpses into the making of the D&D game, player rewards for participation in games, and quality time with the R&D team on D&D Insider’s new community forums.
• Free Preview: Check out D&D Insider for free starting in August 2007 (paid subscription service begins in 2008).
Keep on the Shadowfell -
Get a jump on 4th Edition with Keep on the Shadowfell, a D&D® adventure for characters of levels 1–3. This adventure includes a quick-start rulebook, an adventure booklet, a players’ booklet, 3 poster maps, and pre-generated characters. Additional adventure content will be presented on D&D Insider. 96 paages, available April 2008
20 comments20 Comments so far
Hm. I’m cautiously optimistic and honestly sort of excited for this.
It will be amusing to me the first time I talk about “the old days when we played 3.5 and didn’t use fancy computers to support our campaigns.”
Hopefully Wizards will take the innovations from Star Wars Saga, specifically the skill mechanisms and the near-classlessness with tallent trees and the removal of itterative attacks, and apply them to swordplay and spellcasting. Also the per-encounter system instead of per-day. And stuff like that.
The downside that everyone will harp on about is their now-obsolete 3.5 books, but to that I say “Pshaw!”, although that could be because I only have 3, one of which is the PHB and the other two are more fluffy Eberron books :P
If 4.0 allows me to play with people I know who aren’t in front of me, colour me interested. I have D&D friends back in London who have continued the campaigned that I played in 6 years ago, and it would be amazing if I could rejoin the party.
Ive spent over 200 hundred quid on 3.5 books grrr. Lots more places to spend my wages lol
My thought.
To sum-up: D&DInsider (of which the virtual tabletop is only a part) has great potential, but attaching a subscription fee to it is an absolute blunder.
Another thought (which I didn’t express there), is the irony of it including voice chat. Online RPers are typically so anti-voice… but here’s the real-deal RPG with voice.
To the offline-gamer, that debate is going to sound fairly absurd.
No talking! You can’t RP if there’s TALKING! Write everything down!
Well from a buyer point of veiw (I own every noncampaign setting book except ebberon since 3.5 came out) im hopeing the new one’s won’t make the preivous materials complelty obsolete. Im hoping feats and prestige classes as well as spells will be only minorly affected.
Well, I have no interest in playing table-top D&D online, it kind of ruins the experience of a group of friends gathered around a table. What would be good is if these “web-based” and “online” tools can be used offline as well, I’ve found in recent years that a laptop can make a great tool for a DM, and having official software to facilitate that could make things worlds easier both to prepare and to run campaigns. I’ve often liked to link my laptop to a nearby TV or monitor where I can put up visuals for the players while keeping all the secret “DM stuff” on the laptop screen where only I can see. It’s great being able to show them a map a piece at a time as they explore while I have everything they’ll encounter in front of me on Excel sheets for easy reference. Anything along these lines would be very welcome.
AMEN BLACKBIRD!
my god they are turning D&D into a MMO, as a long time player, this is a sad and angry day. the generation of console gamers has finally suck its teeth into D&D and now we sit with a pay to play, complete lack of human experiance, processed, pumped out, manufactured version of the great game that revolutionized fantasy gaming. Monte Cook and the rest should be ashamed of themselves for bastardizing one of the greatest games ever made. SHAME on you WoTC, SHAME! your money grubbing “sell to the masses†mindset has finally pushed me over the edge, hear me now, I WILL NEVER AGAIN PURCHASE ANYTHING WoTC PRODUCES AS LONG AS I LIVE!
-EX FAN
I have to agree with Axle; sounds like an intelligent fella; or personae, anyway. I can picture meself sitting down at a table with the lad/lass? Anyway, to the point:the kids playing D&D nowdays don’t know any better, so I lay the blame on the doorstep it belongs: the corporate-shirts who could care less about the game, and more about the Green-backs going into their pockets. Hey, they’re no different than the Oil Cartel: they’ve monopolized the market, manipulate it, and post billion dollar quarterly profits while crying to us that the arabs hold it over them! C’mon, I wasn’t born yesterday! WoTC, and the 2 or 3 previous owners of the franchise, have totally destroyed the “soul” of the game with their technological hogwash, and endless revisions [requiring consumption of more books which never full fill the need for such; if there ever *was* one!]But Gygax isn’t blameless in this ongoing extinction, either. His *absolute-ism* of AD&D versus the “open-ness” of, just, D&D–where DMs were actually *encouraged* to alter, mutate, delete and augment, the system to suit his or her campaign–unleased the mindset by which these modern *pimps* still operate today. As for me, I’m sticking to *my* version of “Basic” with some “Advanced” stuff *I* choose to include. End of sermon!
While I agree with blackbird, no, I really have no interest in playing the table-top D&D on line, I can see where it would have appeal. Like say, you have to be gone for a few months, and wish to continue long-distance. But I do believe a great deal of the game would be lost in translation. and no, I’m not happy with the subscription fee, and that is the one thing keeping me from D&DI, but that’s the nature of economics.
Furthermore, I don’t agree with the anti-capitalist banter of Axle and Thork. Besides the economic arguments I could unleash on you, and they are many, I will remind you of on thing. Remember, please, that the WotC guys are trying to make a profit, but they’re also gamers, too. This design is to make the game run more smoothly, as much as to promote the sale of more books. And, yes, you can accept the parts of the game that you wish, and reject the parts you wish. That’s the glory of being DM. That’s ALWAYS been the point of D&D. I already have a list of changes I may reject, should they be made. Likewise, I have a list of changes I may make, should they refuse to include it. In fact, there are 3.5 rules rejected in my name in this way. We’ve improvised: how novel.
As for myself, I’m causiously optimistic. Indeed, as a player enamored with the sorcerer, I have much reason to be cautious; my class is one being heavily revised, apparently. (Why power up the Wizard with tomes and orbs and the like and not introduce a balancing mechanism to the sorcerer? Add to this the apparent death of Vancian spell-casting, and I have a fair deal to be anxious about. This isn’t even getting into the major revisions apparently being made to the elven race, which must in some way affect the ahlf-elven race.) In May I will find myself reading the Player’s Handbook in Books-a-Million, hoping what I’m reading is a change for the better and less clunky.
In conclusion, I personally find your pledge to never again buy another WotC product idiotic and I believe the odds that you will carry through with it are minimal. Cautious optimism is fine. Militant and ignorant anti-capitalism, to the point of sacrificing a major pass-time, is dumb.
OK, 4.0. Hum… why do we play D&D, because if it is a fun. Simple enough. The more fun it is the more we play. D&D i idea that i can do anything, and go anywhere with in the limit of my imagination (or well DM’s – well i am the DM not the point) . So anything and anywhere, with all the rules that computers must follow to run then how am i to do anything that has not be already thought of.
I spend hours planing a session thinking of everything i can to as prepared as i can for out comes to plot, add depth to npc, creating new classes, and preastege classes. inventing new spells and casting ways. I dont think short of getting a programer to follow me around and write my new method of casting into a program that they can replace a table top game with me as a dm.
Well my point is, if people want to sit in front of a computer and say they play “D&D” then let them. maybe they will come a actual play the game someday and new players is a good thing maybe 1 of 100 or 1 of 1000 or even 1 of 10000 will become a life long player of the best game ever.
Let WotC make sum money. I don’t care what you or anyone spends there money on. I will continue to host great games (hopefull) with more magic, or imagination, more D&D then anything you find on line. If wizards gets V 10.3.1 or 3.5. as long as they are original. then i will buy them. But in the end the idea of the D&D game is out their and they can’t destroy it, only them selfs. I will read 4.0 before i buy it. (thanks barns and nobles) and then after i have read the last book.(DMG) will i make a choice to buy it or not.
If WotC does not get there act together soon, they will lose their base and fail. Then seeing an more open market something new will come along.
So i drink to the great 4.0 (hopefully) and to the beat game ever where the levels never max out… end that WoW!
[...] hope you don’t mind my talking about the upcoming reboot to D&D, because I’m going to be doing it a lot in the next year or [...]
Well here is my 2 cents on this.
Pros:
1) D&D map building software and DM tools are a plus. I have been looking for decent map building software forever.
2) Easier to build characters is great for the new players. My group is constantly changing and introducing new players. If the software works better that E-Tools then fantastic.
3) These being online tools means no need to carry all the books around, you just need a laptop or web-device that can support the platform.
Cons:
1) Actively promoting this as a virtual tabletop. If you want to play D&D as a MMORPG, then go play Dungeons and Dragons Online.
2) Monthly subscribtion fee instead of just selling the software outright. This will work until the fad wears off and then people are going to design their own tools to do similiar things.
3) Throwing Dragon and Dungeon magazines to the DDI. I believe that they are doing this so they can charge more for the subscription. More items offered is more money charged. Personally I loved the Dragon magazine but hated Dungeon. I also loved carrying a magazine with me to read at lunch.
Personally I am not real enthused for 4th edition. Wizards is still producing products for 3rd edition. Why not stop the production on the 3rd edition stuff and start more on the promotion of the 4th ed?
Having just read through the “Races and Classes” 4th edition preview, I am absolutely interested to see the new edition. They are going to take a ground-breaking version and make it better, simpler, and more defined.
The online stuff could be neat, but that’s not where the excitement ought to be primarily focused… perhaps a place of potential failed confidence, then maybe not that either.
The 4th Edition game is the focus and all you’ll need, to enjoy (hopefully) the greatest manifestation of the Dungeons & Dragons game ever.
I played D&D 2nd edition, quit for a while and then started again playing 3.5. Then I just recently quit again getting into MMOG, such as World of Warcraft. Why play with papers, pencils and dice when a computer serves it to you in great graphics and automated algorithms. However, seeing the new 4th edition is very provocative and it excites me again for D&D.
I think it is great that Wizards is evolving the game to meet the changing times and the expectations that people have about using technology. This is no different with D&D. When I played 3.5 I too used my laptop and fantasy-mapping software to create worlds with continents, realms and to handle encounters. Now the player or DM can have this online. Instead using painted lead miniatures we can use virtual miniatures and I assume a DM can put any amount of virtual miniatures in a virtual dungeon. For example, instead laying out a big plastic layout with squares or hexes, with thingies laid all over denoting dungeon features and a limited supply of lead miniatures the virtual version now offers the DM an unlimited resource of monsters and features. I always hated not having enough Kobolds to put in a dungeon section and had to resort to a piece of paper cut into a square with letter K on it. I am sure many of you can identify with this.
The idea of D&DI is great! The D&D community is large and global at present but it is disconnected. D&DI will create a connected global D&D community where players from all over can come together and enjoy the gaming experience that D&D 4ed will offer. For me I would pay a subscription fee to have access to the online tools and the opportunities to play the game more now that I could be connected to many more players where otherwise I would not.
I applaud and give kudos to Wizards of the Coast for being innovative, being sensitive to market changes, meeting the demands of it customers and continuing to make great products and soon to be new services. It’s an omen that D&D will be around many more years to come for future generations to enjoy a great game.
[...] reference to AD&D 4th Edition, MMOGNation has an informative write-up, including this bit: Essentially, there is going to be a ‘virtual [...]
Wow .. I can’t even remember which version we were using in 1979, but I do remember we had some significant home-grown modifications. I think I finally threw out my worn, ancient dungeon maps and notes about 10 years ago and it was a traumatic experience. I can’t recall how many hundreds of hours I poured into them. *haha*
J
Yes, I agree with the common thread “D&D is changing”. It isn’t 1979 anymore. Although I can see this as a logical progression for D&D to endure, I am saddened as well. What made D&D so different and exciting was the social aspect of the game. Now, it seems to me that it will be nothing more than a video game, out of touch and routine (mechanical instead of personal). There is no more “role” playing when you cannot visually see and hear and experience the game in a personal way. For me, I enjoyed “getting into character” and assuming the life being acted out int he game. With 4.0 it isn’t possible to “role” play anymore. I just don’t think making things easier is always better…often times simplicity robs us of the adventure…LITERALLY!
Well it may be changing that does not mean we have to give up on playing with paper and pen and do as we wish. The ref material may be online but who is to say that everyone has that ability to do so. So get into character play the new version and have fun doing it.
@ChapJohn, and others – Of course you can still ROLE PLAY. i’ve seen a ton of this and similar complaints on blogs and in various gaming forums: 4E D&D = No More Roleplaying. Quite the contrary; the new rules are more streamlined, allow you work out combat encounters more efficiently, provide mechanics for non-combat encounters. This is all so that you can focus on the story development more, character development more, etc. There’s a short post about this here.
Play the new version. It is pwnz 3.5; the amount of role playing is up to you and your group.