D&D Next, and about the game in general
This whole thing will show how much of a role playing gaming geek I am (as if you didn't know that).
I joined the playtesting for D&D Next, which is the new version of Dungeons and Dragons that Wizards of the Coast are planning on releasing soon.
Now I have been playing the game on and off for 30 years, so before I explain to you what I think, I decided to explain a bit of the history of the game and how it got to be the way it is.
When D&D first came out, it was the classic "red book" version, and it allowed for exactly seven classes - fighter, magic user, cleric, thief, elf, dwarf and halfling. You couldn't be an elven thief or an elven fighter. Elf was the class. There were five boxed sets (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master and Immortal, or as we referred to them, red, blue, cyan, black and brown).
This is the version of D&D I originally learned to play when I played it for the first time. The only thing I remember about that first character (which I didn't create, but was given by the DM) was that his name was Joe Fighter. I will let you go figure out what class he was.
Then in the early 80s, TSR came out with a new game that used a similar engine called Advanced D&D. This game separated race from class, and contained all sorts of new combinations of things to play (Half orc cleric/assassins! Half elf fighter/magic user/clerics! Gnome illusionist/thieves!).
Both of these games used an engine for combat called THAC0. This was a calculation based on your class, your level, the monster's hit dice (which was the equivalent of its level) and its armor.
However, one of the things that neither game had was a way of differentiating between Joe Fighter and Fred Fighter. Other than which armor they wore and which equipment they carried, there essentially wasn't a difference between them. The games simply didn't take into account things like character history or skills.
Then at the end of the 80s, they released 2nd edition for Advanced D&D. The basic engine was still pretty much the same, but they made a lot of changes to characters. Amongst other things, they removed some classes (monk and assassin) and the race of half orcs. They made bards into a class you could take instead of the strange combination of fighter-thief-druid it had been in the first edition.
One of the other things that came with 2nd edition were the Complete series of books (Complete Fighter, Complete Dwarf, etc.) which allowed you to make a more personalized hero.
Then in 2000, Wizards of the Coast (which had since bought TSR) released 3rd Edition. This version completely changed the game engine to the D20 system (where almost all character actions have their success determined by rolling a d20 and adding a bonus/penalty based on the character's skills and abilities). They also instituted a system of skills and feats which allowed personalization of your hero, and allowed you to create a more rich history for your character. It also put back in the half orc race and monk class. The story I heard is that they were originally removed because the game designers didn't think that classes like monk fit in with the more European feel that they felt the game had (due to classes like that of the paladin), and then they changed their minds and said that if your world could fit them together, who are they to say otherwise.
In 2003, Wizards released 3.5. The game engine was the same, only enough changes were made to improve certain classes and abilities. Of all the versions I have played (and I have played *all* of the above at one time or another), this is my favorite.
In 2007, Wizards decided they wanted to make a new version of the game that would attract young gamers to the game. So they released 4th Edition. My problem with the game is that the entire game was now 100% combat oriented. All race and class powers effected combat somehow. I tried running a campaign in 4th edition, and did not like it at all.
Side bar - the fact that the party managed to explore a goblin lair, finding the only possible route that would alert every single goblin in the lair to their presence without actually coming into contact with them until they entered the goblin king's room, thereby causing the entire tribe to overrun them in a single fight is besides the point.
So now Wizards is talking about D&D Next, which will be the 5th Edition (or 7th, if you really want to count all of the above).
What is good is that they are doing it with a public playtesting, allowing anyone to register and download certain basic parts of the game to test and give them feedback on them. I signed up and got the first package. And to be honest, I like what I am seeing.
The package comes with an abbreviated rules book (which basically explains the d20 system and how combat works), five characters (a fighter, a rogue, a wizard and two clerics) and an adventure you can run.
One of the first things I liked was that the adventure is based on Keep on the Borderlands, which was an adventure that came with the Basic D&D set, and was the adventure that pretty much all the gamers of my generation cut their teeth on.
The characters come as is. There are no rules in this package about character creation. But I like the system they are using. You have a race, a class, a background (which provides certain bonuses towards skill checks) and a theme. The idea of a theme (from what I can tell) is a way to sub-divide the classes, so that you have different kinds of fighters (for example), and the feats they receive (and hopefully not just receive automatically, but the list you get to choose from) are based on this.
They have taken away the system of once-per-day/once-per-encounter powers that they introduced in 4th Edition, which is something I am happy about. This was the system that made everything so very much combat oriented.
The actual system itself is still the D20 system, which is fine. They did get rid of the saving throw system that they have had all along. Originally, there were saving throws for specific situations (like Poison or Paralysis), and then it was changed to a three saving throw system (Will, Reflex and Fortitude). The system they have gone with is that each basic ability (the six "classic" abilities of Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma) give you a bonus/penalty and this will act as the relevant saving throw as the situation calls for. So if you are trying to break apart the chains that hold you, that is a Strength saving throw. If you try to escape the chains, that is a Dexterity saving throw. And resisting spell effects would be based on the actual spell itself.
So all in all, I like what I am seeing. I want to see more of the character creation process, so that I can see how many options you have for backgrounds and themes, as well as which races and classes are going to be included (In 4th Edition, bards and druids, which are my favorite classes, were not available in the original Players Handbook and were only added in Players Handbook #2).
And I have not posted any trivia in a loooooooooooong time. So I guess I better do that.
But first I should give some answers to a question I asked a long time ago. I asked you to identify certain comic book super villians based on their civilian names, and to tell me who their arch-nemeses are. The only person who sent me answers was my brother, and he got all four of his answers correct (1, 3, 5 and 6)
1) Harvey Elder - The Mole Man was the first foe that the Fantastic Four battled.
2) Priscilla Rich - Cheetah is one of Wonder Woman's oldest foes.
3) Anton Vanko - Whether you call him Whiplash or you call him the Crimson Dynamo, he is Iron Man's enemy.
4) Leonard Snart - Captain Cold is a member of Flash's Rogues Gallery.
5) Telford Porter - The Vanisher has caused trouble for the X-Men almost from the beginning.
6) Orm Marius - The Ocean Master is one of Aquaman's enemies.
7) Quentin Beck - When Mysterio appears, it is Spider-Man who fights him.
8) Waylon Jones - Killer Croc escapes Arkham Asylum every so often, as do most of Batman's foes.
9) Alexei Shostakov - The Red Guardian was the Russian version of Captain America (and also Black Widow's husband).
10) Clifford Zmeck - Major Force was Captain Atom's nemesis.
So my question is from the world of Literature. I will give a list of people, and you should tell me who their best friends are. So, for example, if I listed Tom Sawyer, the answer would be Huckleberry Finn. Here goes:
1) Richard MacDuff
2) Eto Demerzel
3) George Milton
4) The Hon. Algernon Montgomery Lacey
5) Baron du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds
6) Gabriel John Utterson
7) Fflewddur Fflam
8) "Ratso" Sloman
9) Fahr
10) Hobart Floyt
I joined the playtesting for D&D Next, which is the new version of Dungeons and Dragons that Wizards of the Coast are planning on releasing soon.
Now I have been playing the game on and off for 30 years, so before I explain to you what I think, I decided to explain a bit of the history of the game and how it got to be the way it is.
When D&D first came out, it was the classic "red book" version, and it allowed for exactly seven classes - fighter, magic user, cleric, thief, elf, dwarf and halfling. You couldn't be an elven thief or an elven fighter. Elf was the class. There were five boxed sets (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master and Immortal, or as we referred to them, red, blue, cyan, black and brown).
This is the version of D&D I originally learned to play when I played it for the first time. The only thing I remember about that first character (which I didn't create, but was given by the DM) was that his name was Joe Fighter. I will let you go figure out what class he was.
Then in the early 80s, TSR came out with a new game that used a similar engine called Advanced D&D. This game separated race from class, and contained all sorts of new combinations of things to play (Half orc cleric/assassins! Half elf fighter/magic user/clerics! Gnome illusionist/thieves!).
Both of these games used an engine for combat called THAC0. This was a calculation based on your class, your level, the monster's hit dice (which was the equivalent of its level) and its armor.
However, one of the things that neither game had was a way of differentiating between Joe Fighter and Fred Fighter. Other than which armor they wore and which equipment they carried, there essentially wasn't a difference between them. The games simply didn't take into account things like character history or skills.
Then at the end of the 80s, they released 2nd edition for Advanced D&D. The basic engine was still pretty much the same, but they made a lot of changes to characters. Amongst other things, they removed some classes (monk and assassin) and the race of half orcs. They made bards into a class you could take instead of the strange combination of fighter-thief-druid it had been in the first edition.
One of the other things that came with 2nd edition were the Complete series of books (Complete Fighter, Complete Dwarf, etc.) which allowed you to make a more personalized hero.
Then in 2000, Wizards of the Coast (which had since bought TSR) released 3rd Edition. This version completely changed the game engine to the D20 system (where almost all character actions have their success determined by rolling a d20 and adding a bonus/penalty based on the character's skills and abilities). They also instituted a system of skills and feats which allowed personalization of your hero, and allowed you to create a more rich history for your character. It also put back in the half orc race and monk class. The story I heard is that they were originally removed because the game designers didn't think that classes like monk fit in with the more European feel that they felt the game had (due to classes like that of the paladin), and then they changed their minds and said that if your world could fit them together, who are they to say otherwise.
In 2003, Wizards released 3.5. The game engine was the same, only enough changes were made to improve certain classes and abilities. Of all the versions I have played (and I have played *all* of the above at one time or another), this is my favorite.
In 2007, Wizards decided they wanted to make a new version of the game that would attract young gamers to the game. So they released 4th Edition. My problem with the game is that the entire game was now 100% combat oriented. All race and class powers effected combat somehow. I tried running a campaign in 4th edition, and did not like it at all.
Side bar - the fact that the party managed to explore a goblin lair, finding the only possible route that would alert every single goblin in the lair to their presence without actually coming into contact with them until they entered the goblin king's room, thereby causing the entire tribe to overrun them in a single fight is besides the point.
So now Wizards is talking about D&D Next, which will be the 5th Edition (or 7th, if you really want to count all of the above).
What is good is that they are doing it with a public playtesting, allowing anyone to register and download certain basic parts of the game to test and give them feedback on them. I signed up and got the first package. And to be honest, I like what I am seeing.
The package comes with an abbreviated rules book (which basically explains the d20 system and how combat works), five characters (a fighter, a rogue, a wizard and two clerics) and an adventure you can run.
One of the first things I liked was that the adventure is based on Keep on the Borderlands, which was an adventure that came with the Basic D&D set, and was the adventure that pretty much all the gamers of my generation cut their teeth on.
The characters come as is. There are no rules in this package about character creation. But I like the system they are using. You have a race, a class, a background (which provides certain bonuses towards skill checks) and a theme. The idea of a theme (from what I can tell) is a way to sub-divide the classes, so that you have different kinds of fighters (for example), and the feats they receive (and hopefully not just receive automatically, but the list you get to choose from) are based on this.
They have taken away the system of once-per-day/once-per-encounter powers that they introduced in 4th Edition, which is something I am happy about. This was the system that made everything so very much combat oriented.
The actual system itself is still the D20 system, which is fine. They did get rid of the saving throw system that they have had all along. Originally, there were saving throws for specific situations (like Poison or Paralysis), and then it was changed to a three saving throw system (Will, Reflex and Fortitude). The system they have gone with is that each basic ability (the six "classic" abilities of Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma) give you a bonus/penalty and this will act as the relevant saving throw as the situation calls for. So if you are trying to break apart the chains that hold you, that is a Strength saving throw. If you try to escape the chains, that is a Dexterity saving throw. And resisting spell effects would be based on the actual spell itself.
So all in all, I like what I am seeing. I want to see more of the character creation process, so that I can see how many options you have for backgrounds and themes, as well as which races and classes are going to be included (In 4th Edition, bards and druids, which are my favorite classes, were not available in the original Players Handbook and were only added in Players Handbook #2).
And I have not posted any trivia in a loooooooooooong time. So I guess I better do that.
But first I should give some answers to a question I asked a long time ago. I asked you to identify certain comic book super villians based on their civilian names, and to tell me who their arch-nemeses are. The only person who sent me answers was my brother, and he got all four of his answers correct (1, 3, 5 and 6)
1) Harvey Elder - The Mole Man was the first foe that the Fantastic Four battled.
2) Priscilla Rich - Cheetah is one of Wonder Woman's oldest foes.
3) Anton Vanko - Whether you call him Whiplash or you call him the Crimson Dynamo, he is Iron Man's enemy.
4) Leonard Snart - Captain Cold is a member of Flash's Rogues Gallery.
5) Telford Porter - The Vanisher has caused trouble for the X-Men almost from the beginning.
6) Orm Marius - The Ocean Master is one of Aquaman's enemies.
7) Quentin Beck - When Mysterio appears, it is Spider-Man who fights him.
8) Waylon Jones - Killer Croc escapes Arkham Asylum every so often, as do most of Batman's foes.
9) Alexei Shostakov - The Red Guardian was the Russian version of Captain America (and also Black Widow's husband).
10) Clifford Zmeck - Major Force was Captain Atom's nemesis.
So my question is from the world of Literature. I will give a list of people, and you should tell me who their best friends are. So, for example, if I listed Tom Sawyer, the answer would be Huckleberry Finn. Here goes:
1) Richard MacDuff
2) Eto Demerzel
3) George Milton
4) The Hon. Algernon Montgomery Lacey
5) Baron du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds
6) Gabriel John Utterson
7) Fflewddur Fflam
8) "Ratso" Sloman
9) Fahr
10) Hobart Floyt