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D&D 4th Edition Details Released

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the orc-the-other-white-meat dept.

Wired is reporting that some juicy details of Wizards of the Coast's new 4th edition for Dungeons and Dragons are being leaked on to the web from the D&D Experience in Arlington, VA this week. "Wizards of the Coast, the current custodians of the D&D universe, have been talking about the upcoming fourth edition of the game for months, but they've been fairly cagey about hard details, preferring to tell us more about how elves love footraces than how much damage a fireball does. They're running actual 4e games at D&D Experience, though, and thanks to people with scanners, you can too!"

9 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Well fuck by donscarletti · · Score: 4, Informative

    A hat trick is a term from cricket referring to the rare instance of a bowler getting out three consecutive batsmen out on three consecutive balls. From there it spread to other sports (cricket was still widely played in North America when the term came into use, which was also before ice hockey became common). Cricket players don't tend to be violent off the field, although bowling to the batsman's face is considered legal as long as it bounces first.

    --
    When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
  2. Holy Power Levels Batman!!! by BobMcD · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm looking at the back of that specific Tiefling Wizard's sheet, and it seems to me that conversion is going right out the window. This 1st level character seems pretty beefy to me, in terms of sheer spell face-meltage. Does 'At-Will' really mean "as much as you want, just so long as it is your turn"?

    Likewise it seems the Fighter gets to throw a 3d10+5 blow once per day. Yes, I typed that right. 8-35 damage, once daily, renews if you miss - AT LEVEL ONE?

    If so, wow. Just wow.

    1. Re:Holy Power Levels Batman!!! by BobMcD · · Score: 4, Informative

      Nevermind! I now see that a kobold now has 27 hit points... So that fighter, once per day, MIGHT get to one-shot a kobold.

      I now officially know nothing about D&D...

    2. Re:Holy Power Levels Batman!!! by Yosho · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah, HP levels are getting inflated again. It happened during the move from 2nd to 3rd ed, so it's no surprise they're doing it again. Remember when elder dragons had on the order of 80 HP or so?

      --
      Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
    3. Re:Holy Power Levels Batman!!! by dcollins · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes. One of the very first things that designers said publicly months ago is that conversions will not be possible to 4E. There's a bit of song-and-dance marketing that "the same idea in your head will now have different mechanics applied".

      This is intentional, because they're trying to break compatibility with last edition's Open Gaming License (inspired by the GPL), and make D&D once again totally proprietary.

      --
      We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
    4. Re:Holy Power Levels Batman!!! by debrisslider · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's a complete lie. Here's the press release about the OGL for 4th edition. There is a fee for a prerelease OGL, but once the game actually launches it's free. I assume they charge for the extra work getting the documents to the third party takes, and because there'll be an obvious bonus to other publishers due to the PR frenzy at release. And what's so bad about not being compatible? It's an entirely different rules set, designed to play much differently. It's not like there's a dearth of 3rd edition material that hasn't been played by the average group, and campaign settings have always been described in terms of both flavor and mechanics, so if you're really desperate for new ideas you could just steal them from there (or any other gaming company's publications). Also, I'm tired of hearing people complain about having to buy new books. No one is forcing you to upgrade if you really love 3ed that much, and all your REALLY need to play is the player's handbook (plus DMG and Monster Manual, but that's for the DM). I really wish I had ANY hobby as cheap as PNP RPGing can be; you can buy into D&D4e for less than the cost of two semi-recent video games. Buy a couple of supplements a year and you're still way below the threshold for basically any other hobby. There's plenty of fan-generated material you can get for free on the web, you seriously never have to spend more than $30/$90 plus dice ever to play the game.

  3. Re:D&D sucks by cheesethegreat · · Score: 4, Informative

    [i]I was hoping that someday we would see PnP actually go online, but I'm having my doubts.[/i]

    Yeah, I wonder if that'll ever happen. We'd need forums and bulletin boards,

    If only there were forums or chat rooms where we could play.
    http://forums.gleemax.com/forumdisplay.php?f=278
    http://forums.gleemax.com/forumdisplay.php?f=342
    http://www.onlineroleplay.com/Chat_Rooms_And_IRC/

    Of course, we'd need online dice-rolling programs to do it. Wonder where I could find those?

    http://invisiblecastle.com/
    http://www.aroooo.com/rpg_stuff/dice_roller/

    But that wouldn't be as good as having an electronic online game table sanctioned and run by the publishers themselves.

    http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=905805

    You're right. We'll never see PnP go online. But it's nice to dream.

  4. Re:New rules in the 4th edition by owlman17 · · Score: 3, Informative

    While not quite exact, the list is based on this.

  5. Ain't It Cool has a 3-part review by Robotech_Master · · Score: 3, Informative

    There's a glowing playtest review of the game on Ain't It Cool News. Part One, Part Two. Part Three should be posted some time today.

    --
    Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org