There’s no whining in D&D!
It’s been ages since I’ve played D&D or similar with a regular group and my last experience in DC left a lot to be desired. Still this gave me a chuckle:
I haven’t picked up a D&D book in a long time, but the word around the net is the 4th edition changes up a lot of stuff and of course people aren’t happy with it — nerds don’t much care for change unless it’s upgrading technology. But it is nice to know that a good old fashioned GM beatdown still works.
* For the non-geeks out there, an Illithid is also known as a Mind Flayer. I realize that probably won’t help the non-geeks very much so here’s the wikipedia entry. For those too lazy to read: they control ur mind, u do whut they say, u be ded nao.
I’ve only played Magic, and that was at the nagging of an ex. And then I kicked his butt and I wasn’t invited to play anymore. I stuck to my Star Wars movies. :/
I’ve played a few demo games and run one, since they were short a DM at the event last weekend. It does change a fair few things mechanically, but the big changes are in the way the characters are handled; of course, since that’s what players focus on, there’s a good deal of fan rage there. I’ve yet to hear anyone complain about the game after actually playing it, even the people that were dubious about it going in. Usually the worst complaint afterwards is that it feels more like an MMO than they’re comfortable with.
All in all, I think it’s an improvement. Combat tends to run faster, the non-combat encounter stuff is a lot tighter, and they’ve eliminated the 5 minute mage problem (“I’ve burned all my spells for the day in one combat. Time for a nap.”). In addition, all of the classes scale a lot better now. It’s no longer the rogue and fighter’s show for the first 6 levels, then the wizard and cleric until the end.
@Liz: Indeed, I always let the current bf win… the first game. Especially if it’s “their game”. 🙂
@BCOJ: I really would like to find a local group to play, but I think that I’m way too out of practice. Getting myself into character at the same time as trying to retain what’s on the relevant game book pages always gets me into trouble.
When playing d20, I was always trying to sort out which die to roll and when!
Ah bless the Sniper of Doom – some things cross all boundaries 🙂
I wouldn’t worry too much about being out of practice. In the demo I ran on Saturday, we had someone who hadn’t played in 10 years, and after the first couple of rounds of combat, he was fine. There’s a much lower barrier to entry now, and the systems all mesh much better than they did before. Probably 80% of the time, you’ll be rolling a D20, and always looking for a high number, and the rest of the time is things like rolling damage.