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 BerzerkerprimeTopic: D&D 4.0
As most of you who would be interested in checking out this section of the New Olamn forums probably already know, Wizards of the Coast announced that D&D 4.0 will be released in summer of 2008.Reportedly, it will be a further refinement of the D20 system and thus it will be easy to upgrade from 3.5 to 4. However, conflicting news about character classes has reached my ears. One report had character classes being more diversified with more party roles applying to each class. Another said that the number of classes would be reduced to four to reflect the four major party roles of tank, healer, trap-finder, and spell-caster, but with more diversity available in each. Interesting, too, is the switch from the printed medium of Dragon and Dungeon magazines to the interactive internet based D&DInsider. Evidently, the price of subscribing to D&DInsider will be a monthly fee about equal to the price the two magazines together were. D&DInsider will include new things as well, such as a virtual gaming table and a character picture generator. It will, however, also be the only way to get updates to the system such as errata. Comments? Headmaster Berz. |
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 Lady FellshotThis screams bad idea to me. One of the problems that 2nd edition had was far too many "kit" classes that were far to overspecific and there were a whole ruddy lot of them. In the recent sourcebooks, they started to do it again in 3.5 ed. What would have been really intelligent to do is make certian prestige classes attainable at lower levels, ratthe similar to the way D20 Mordern base classes and prestige classes work. As for the switch from printed Magazines to E-zine... Well, all it means to me is that I'm going to Aaron Williams's website to get my Nodwick fixes ^.^ What they plan to do to the Realms for this change is what has been yanking my chain. Oh well... |
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BerzerkerprimeYeah, there are a lot of prestige classes. And yet, you can either find the perfect one for your character, or you can find nothing that will work for them at all. There's not really any in-between. And the ones that can be attained at lower levels are much too few and far between (although, I did just have a friend make a level five character for a campaign and he already has one... can't remember which at the moment). So I know that it is possible, just not too terribly likely. I take it you are of the same mind as I am about the idea of the Living Realms campaign? I'm very nervous about it. FR is by far my favorite D&D setting and it makes me very happy to know that it will be supported by the company for years to come. But the Living campaign gives me some chills. Up until now, Living campaigns have been reserved for campaign settings that have otherwise gone inactive, the idea being that since the company itself isn't advancing the story lines, the players might as well do so. It has been my observation, however, that any time something has been turned over to fan-influence, it has suddenly turned monumentally stupid. I don't want my FR to turn monumentally stupid. Aside from that, I'm worried that my play region will be shoved into the Anauroch desert... Berz, Headmaster of New Olamn. | #3 Sep 10th 2007, 12:38pm | |
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Lady FellshotI never understood the concept of a "living" campaign. As far as I'm concerned if there are players playing it, somewhere it's still going. It also shows that one should never get rid of sourcebooks. There are elements of the Forgotten Realms that still haven't been transitioned over to 3e and can be made useable by creative DMs. I made a game once with a jabberwock in it & found the stats in a very old copy of a 1e monster manual. But I digress... What seems odd to me is that WotC still sounds like they are going to be releasing stuff regarding the Realms. Unfortunately, I think it's going to be mostly novels doing this and that and generally screwing up player's storyarcs. Now, I am ok with running alternate universe games that pay more attention to the source material than the novels, but what it looks like WotC is doing is introducing new lore through the novels rather than having a nice sourcebook or game short and letting players hash it out. I think this is why I've been angsting a little over the most recent Lady Penitent book :-P It has been my observation, however, that any time something has been turned over to fan-influence, it has suddenly turned monumentally stupid. I don't want my FR to turn monumentally stupid. Aside from that, I'm worried that my play region will be shoved into the Anauroch desert... It would be particularly worrisome since a significant chunk of the Realms fan base are Drizzt fan girls and boys :-P In which case the Anaroch wouldn't be such a bad place. I mean you've got the empire of Shade floating above it, the tomb tappers' hoard room below it and sometimes irate bands of Bedine and asabis on the surface. If the alternative is zillions of good drow running around with two swords, my characters are going to learn to ride camels. I think I'm feeling a bit cynical though. |
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BerzerkerprimeI never understood the concept of a "living" campaign. As far as I'm concerned if there are players playing it, somewhere it's still going. It also shows that one should never get rid of sourcebooks. There are elements of the Forgotten Realms that still haven't been transitioned over to 3e and can be made useable by creative DMs. That's definitely true. I've still got a copy of a lot of second edition stuff and use it for fluff and for knowing how the world works. I use it both for my gaming and for my fanfiction stuff. My GM is the same way. The fluff in FR is precisely why we play in the Realms. Even if I upgrade for 4.0, I'll be keeping all my 3.5 and older FR materials for just that reason. What seems odd to me is that WotC still sounds like they are going to be releasing stuff regarding the Realms. Unfortunately, I think it's going to be mostly novels doing this and that and generally screwing up player's storyarcs. Now, I am ok with running alternate universe games that pay more attention to the source material than the novels, but what it looks like WotC is doing is introducing new lore through the novels rather than having a nice sourcebook or game short and letting players hash it out. I think this is why I've been angsting a little over the most recent Lady Penitent book :-P Oh, I dunno about that. Reportedly, FR is going to be the first campaign setting to be published as an upgrade. And besides that, new lore was often introduced in the books first. Look at Moonblades, for example; crunch on them lagged way behind the fluff on them from Cunningham's books. They're still not hashed out with any kind of practicality, although Weapons of Legacy has some definite possibilities. If the alternative is zillions of good drow running around with two swords, my characters are going to learn to ride camels. Boy is that ever a good point. I hadn't considered that. You know that they're having Salvatore churn out yet another Drizzt book? Figures, they're bringing Songs and Swords to an end, but Drizzt keeps trudging through the stupidity that his life has become because he's "that hawt drow-boy!!!111one11!!" and the mindless fangurls will keep buying the books. Sigh... Headmaster Berz. |
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Lady FellshotThe fluff in FR is precisely why we play in the Realms. Even if I upgrade for 4.0, I'll be keeping all my 3.5 and older FR materials for just that reason. And why I'll still be keeping my eyes peeled for anything relating to the Crown Wars. I'm debating a series and Lisa Smedman isn't doing it any justice... Reportedly, FR is going to be the first campaign setting to be published as an upgrade. And besides that, new lore was often introduced in the books first. True. I suppose I should have been more specific. I was angsting more about the Realms Shaking events that are being added to canon, taking away potential dungeon crawls and major player campaigns without really giving anything back and without documentation in the sourcebooks. I would love to make a villain like Saelethil Dlardrageth in the Last Mythal books, but I have to make guesses as to what infusing the soul with demonic essence means in game terms. But I quibble... You know that they're having Salvatore churn out yet another Drizzt book? Figures, they're bringing Songs and Swords to an end, but Drizzt keeps trudging through the stupidity that his life has become because he's "that hawt drow-boy!!!111one11!!" and the mindless fangurls will keep buying the books. And let's not forget the fanboys who like the John Woo-esque fight scenes. I dislike those a good deal :-P But yes I do know that they haven't milked the wangsty drow dry yet. My reaction to the sample chapter can be found here: http://www.fanfiction.net/topic/32910/2754254/1/ If the link thingie doesn't work, it's over in the Dynamic Duo Forgotten Realms forum on this site. I suppose I could hope that WotC decides to de-canon a few books like they did with a all of the Paul Kidd Greyhawk books. | #6 Sep 10th 2007, 10:54pm | |
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BerzerkerprimeIf they do, they'll probably de-canon the wrong ones. It which case, I and probably the rest of my group will stick our fingers in our ears and hum real loud. See, that's exactly my problem with Drizzt. He spends so much time going "oh, all my friends will die before me! Oh woe! Woe is me! Woe!" My character is angsty and has a bunch of non-elf friends, but she doesn't spend every third fraggin' thought on it! Geeze! It seems to me that Salvatore no longer likes the setting and doesn't want to be writing in it any more. So they set things far enough in the future that it doesn't matter; he can pretty much re-create the setting altogether. Talk about lazy. Headmaster Berz. |
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Lady FellshotRAS does publish stuff outside FR. I guess it doesn't pay the bills :-P I've also have a elf character, younger than Drizzt, who has grown up around humans and humankin for most of her life. Really not angsty, but a little sad that her friends of twenty years from her childhood have settled down for middle age and raising families and she hasn't considered doing either. I think maybe I'm just tired of corporate driven storyarcs to sell scads of other stuff. |
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Lady FellshotOn a different note [insert SPOILER warning here] | | | | | ~ The new History of the Realms book has a reference to the "spellplague" in it. All I can say is WotC found one doozy of a way to make the flack hit the fan :-P Should I go on? I won't if it is of no interest here. | #9 Sep 21st 2007, 10:53pm . Edited Sep 21st 2007, 10:54pm | |
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Lady Fellshot If any of you where thinking of taking your characters into the 4e Realms, you may want to read these: Wizards 4e Game System License: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/welcome Paizo's reaction: http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/4thEdition/gSLPosted Candlekeep's reaction: http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11120 This makes me so very, VERY happy that I decided to go AU with regards to the Spellplague in my fics. | #10 Jun 18th 2008, 9:29pm | |
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Berzerkerprime Yeah, they're doing a lot of stuff with the new OGL that seems rather less than legal. To say nothing of what they're doing to the setting. The hundred year jump and inclusion of annoying emo races (*cough* Tieflings *cough cough*). I don't so much mind the spellplague itself, since that to me is an interesting concept that could generate a lot of fun adventures and stories. But the other changes that they're enacting... I'm dubious about the possibilities of it still feeling like the Realms. As of right now, I'm leaning toward accepting everything that's included in Grand History of the Realms and not worrying about anything after that. Berz. | #11 Jun 19th 2008, 9:03am | |
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Lady Fellshot All right, well I played my first 4e game of D&D today. I think it will be the last time I do so. I had issues with how the book was laid out and found the multiple powers thing, the healing surges and other such stuff to be rather irritating. To make things even less fun for character generation, nothing was sett out in table form (like the 3.x books) so it wasn't very clear what you put when and what slot it would go into. Sad to say, I would have done better with a computer generated non-character than being left to my non- MMORGPer devices. It seemed to be greared towards the power gamer and rules lawyer type more than anything else. Funny thing was that combat took as long as it ever had. My lumberjack ranger who liked cooking mushrooms was sadly misplaced :( | #12 Aug 16th 2008, 10:11pm | |
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