DungeonCraft (Part Four)

Jul 01, 2008 23:00

A continuation of the initial reviews and observations made from playtesting 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. Having set out to see how the rules and mechanics functioned and having fuddled through multiple sessions, our party of intrepid friends began to formulate some opinions about 4th Edition.

Verily, the dice-rolling was perhaps the most bothersome aspect of the game--at least for us. When it was your turn, whether you're the DM or the player, in situations where you use the game mechanics (and remember, our group intentionally set out to test the mechanics), it is guaranteed you'll be rolling multiple dice, and keeping track of different effects was frustrating, at best.

Generally speaking, we longed for the days when rolling one or two dice were all that were ever really necessary, and deciding effects and tracking their resolutions didn't require algebraic formulas. In a game where you aren't put into situations where the game mechanics are necessary, this may not be as bothersome, but it does put a strain on those situations which do. On our first evening's play, tackling the first groups of kobolds took our party of adventurers an hour or more per group, and the game was moved along with minimal outside of game distraction. For many, this says, "Challenge!" but for our group it cried, "Bore!". After all, they were just kobolds, not named critters or arch-villains where hour+ long combats are expected. Clever kobolds, with a little strategy and traps, but still... kobolds.

And aside from the little humor introduction, I didn't even broach the subject of whether or not a person is or isn't a poor die roller. You know the poor sods... the people who only ever roll '20s' when it is unneeded, and fail pretty much every other roll. Someone whose only luck with dice is bad luck? Yeah, 4E is the kiss of death for their enjoyment of the game. You can only fail nearly every roll so many times before you just give the &*^% up, and with 4E, you'll reach that point a heck of a lot quicker than with 3.5.

The restrictions on characters was noticeable. We're not a group that shirks from playing stereotypes, but we'd at least like to have the option NOT to play a stereotype, and 4E doesn't allow that. Sure, I could play Big Gay Al, the crazy human Warlord... but Big Gay Al would look pretty much exactly like every other Warlord on paper. Once you've seen one... you've seen them all. Remember, we're talking about mechanics, here.

And needing to reference every power and what it's opposing roll was every single time it was used got to be old pretty fast, too. I'm absolutely thrilled with the prospect of play-testing higher level characters who have a list of potential powers to use. But do so I shall.

But to be fair, for all my disappointment, 4th Edition as a stand alone is not a bad game and has many good points. I am positive there are gamers the world over who will rejoice in being presented a new playstyle (mechanics) for their own or old campaign settings, and many new people will be lured into the possibilities of dungeon diving with groups of friends. It is no better or worse than any other roleplaying game currently available on the shelves.

I am simply disappointed Wizards of the Coast took thirty years of game development of a pastime I grew up with and love and chucked it all out the window so they could get on board the MMO train. I hoped for more, but got exactly what I expected.
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