...I think of 3rd Edition kind of like a first generation console video game in that sometimes it isn't programmed very efficiently. Ever played a first-gen game and seen the "slowdown" effect, where the system can't keep up with the graphics or the number of bad guys on screen? That's how I feel about 3E these days. I like what it's trying to accomplish, but it just doesn't happen very efficiently and things slow to a crawl. 4E on the other hand is like a late-gen game; the programmers have learned better ways to do things on the console, and as such you have even better games that don't experience as many slowdowns.
Basic design things that caught my attention:
- You are not your loot. There's no longer this equipment = power value. In 3.x, the game required that you have a specific value in magic items or you were under or over powered. That's gone.
- Encounter design. There's no longer the boring encounter ratio regarding using your resources. This should play a lot like urban campaigning where you're always challenged with every encounter, since you can instantly go get healing at the local temple.
- Vancian Magic Gored. Yes! Say goodbye to memorize and forget. Both Wizards and Sorcerers will still be included.
- Social Encounters. They have mechanics for social interaction rather than a flat Diplomacy check. I'll reserve judgement on this one, but I really hope it's good.
- No Feat Chains. But we still have prestige classes. There's a conscious effort to remove the "character planning" requirement in which you need to know where your character will be at 20th level when you first roll them up.
- Clunky Combat. It sounds like they're doing away with such favorites as Attacks of Opportunity, along with the infamous Grapple rules and other mechanics that are too complex or too clunky.
- Action Characters. Every character will have actions they can perform at will, per encounter or per day. If you've ever played a sidelined character because they used their one special ability and can't do it again for a good long time (the paladin smiting evil was an example given), you know what I mean.
- D20 and OGL. It's still open source.
If all this pans out, 4.0 should address a lot of the issues that have driven people away from Dungeons & Dragons.
Plus, from what Chris Perkins was saying at Gencon, there will be Basic D&D. This one will be more in line with Moldvay in that you get more than a couple adventures out of it. I don't see it getting much talk just now, but that's understandable as the core books are the thing.
ReplyDeleteBut, this basic thing could attract new gamers the way the old one did if done right.
Plus, I really like the cover art on the core books. Has an old school feel to me.
All in all, I like what I'm hearing from the Wizards so far.
Don
A lot of those ideas sound ok, but the devil, as always, is in the details. How they go about implementing everything is going to make all the difference.
ReplyDeleteI think the video game comparison is apt, and I've used it before to describe D&D 3.0/3.5 in a critical way. It seems like much of the design has been influenced by computer RPGs. The problem is that computer RPGs are optimized for the computer, not pen & paper. If I want to play that kind of RPG, I'll play it on a computer.