Wednesday Knights Blog

Last year when WOTC announced that they would soon be releasing D&D 4E, I was amazed at the backlash that they endured. From my perspective I figured, “so what.” If 4E was good, that would be awesome. If it wasn’t what I wanted, there were plenty of other games out there to play. Plus, our group had been playing 3.0/3.5 since it came out. Although there are certainly some issues with the rules that I take issue with, for the most part, we have been quite happy playing it. I figured that if 4E sucked, there was enough published 3.5 material to keep us playing well into retirement years. Thus, I sort of responded to the 4E announcement with a shrug of the shoulders and a “that’s nice.”

After reading the PH for the same time, my reaction has not changed. It’s nice. I don’t have a great desire to start playing it right now. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be opposed to trying it on for size.

Before addressing some of the particular rule changes, mechanics, etc., I wanted to make a note on my overall impressions of the book. First, it has very nice production quality. It is well bound and well put together. It has lots of color art. Plus the table of contents and the index appear to be accurate and useful. Also, the title of any particular section appears on the top of the right hand side margin of each page. This makes it very easy to flip through the book to find a particular section.

Second, this game is not 3.0/3.5. Although there are some terms that are the same, and some of the concepts are similar (e.g. move action, standard action), you are better off just forgetting anything you know and start afresh.

Third, the book is put together very consistently. By that, I mean that there was clearly a concerted effort to make sure that feats, powers, skills, etc., all work in the same way. Also, all of the classes and their powers work in the same way. Clerics are the same as fighters, which are the same as wizards, etc. Sure their powers are different, but conceptually, they all work the same way. I think that this is a great attribute for the game.

Fourth, the authors did a great job of explaining things at the beginning of each chapter. For example, on the chapter dealing with the classes and their powers, there are several pages devoted to explaining how to read a power description and explaining what the various terms means. I think that this is a great addition.

Related to this, is the fact that the different powers are color-coded. Characters can have three different types of powers: at will powers, encounter powers, and daily powers. In the book, the theme name is color coded. Thus, making it easy to tell, at a glance, what type of power you are looking at.

On the whole, I think that the game and system are put together nicely and that there was clearly a coherent theme guiding the production of the system. From my perspective these are all good things. That, however, does not mean that the game will be a great game. Instead, it just ensures that the rules will be consistent.

With respect to my overall thoughts on the production of the book and the consistancy, I could not give this book higher marks. In my next post, I will deal with the rules system and see how well it turned out.