D&D 4?

[Tom]

Someone linked me to this gem today. Thought it might interest you guys

Its a article about a person's experience playing D&D 4

edit: Seems I missed the other two parts, here they are:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35799 (part 2)
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35811 (part 3)

[Lazybones]

Interesting

[Tom]

There have been a few iterations of rule interpretations that have created oddities, but the playtesting did an incredible job of tweaking those down to make sense. Hell, there was an interpretation of Stealth early on that allowed you to use another player to hide, then jump out and gain COMBAT ADVANTAGE (the 4E version of catching a character flat footed.) This led to a series of comments (and jokes) about a Halfling Rogue in the fighters backpack and ultimately led to a note from the lead developer that read “It shouldn’t work like that. We’ll fix it.” They did.

Aww, I'd have loved to try that That sounds like something Thorne would do.

[Thorin]

Thank you, that was an awesome find.  The guy is definitely very excited about 4th edition.

[Mr. Analog]

I do like some of the changes we discussed today at lunch Thorin, we'll see how it pans out over the next couple of years I guess.

[Thorin]

ENWorld has a great collection of all the D&D 4th Edition news here: http://www.enworld.org/index.php?page=4e

However, what I found particularly useful was this PDF compiled from handouts at the D&D Experience and things posted on the web (Quickstart Rules start on page 16):

http://www.zipworld.com.au/~hong/dnd/Monsters%20&%20More%20(4th%20Edition).pdf

[Thorin]

Here's the Players Pre-4th Edition Handbook: http://dnd4.com/phb

This has basically been compiled from released content over the last six months, I think.

[Thorin]

Hah, PDFs of the core books are available for download already!

They're not supposed to come out for another five days...

[Mr. Analog]

Hah, PDFs of the core books are available for download already!

They're not supposed to come out for another five days...

Gotta luv nerd culture...

[Thorin]

So, the HEALBOT/BANDAID is no longer...  There is still a class called "Cleric", but I would not be able to rebuild Aerindra in 4.0.  On the other hand, every character can use up "healing surges" to heal themselves between combats, so the HEALBOT/BANDAID is no longer necessary.

One thing's for sure, this AIN'T YOUR DADDY'S D&D!  If I were to compare this to Windows...

AD&D 2.x - Windows 2000
D&D 3.x - Windows XP (better than Windows 2000, but took a while to convince people to switch)
D&D 4.0 - MacOS X

Without having played any major MMORPGs but having seen how they're typically structured, I gotta say, this appears to have a *lot* of MMO influences...  Especially in having at-will, per-encounter, and daily special abilities.

[Mr. Analog]

Does that make GURPS the Linux kernel?

[Thorin]

I do like that they've added a default setting and starting town to the DM's Guide.  They haven't done that since the red-boxed Basic and blue-boxed Expert sets for original D&D.  Too bad they didn't include any rules for quickly resolving army battles or getting land, though...

I looked back at the old Rules Cyclopedia (compiles the red-boxed Basic, blue-boxed Expert, aqua-boxed Companion, and black-boxed Master sets into one hardcover, including a detailed wilderness hex map of the Known World), and the rules covering becoming a landowner with peasants that work the farms and stuff only take, like, four and a half pages.  Including figuring out whether the peasants rise up against you this month!

But back to what I was saying, I like that they added the town of Fallcrest to the DM's Guide, and that they included a description of Nentir Vale, which is the area surrounding Fallcrest.

And as much as the basic engine for the game has completely changed, I see great potential for fun in it...

Oh, here's an interesting bit: You start off at the beginning of the day with 1 action point.  When you reach a "milestone", you gain another action point.  A "milestone" is reached every time you finish two average encounters (and there's detail on Skill Challenges, a non-combat type of encounter).  If you take an "extended rest", then your action point total resets to 1.  The idea here is that the action points somewhat replace the abilities you use up during encounters, so hopefully you'll keep adventuring instead of taking a rest.

Here's another interesting bit: You have "at-will" powers that you can use as many times as you want.  You have "per-encounter" powers that you can use once per encounter.  You have "daily" powers that you can use once per day.  Per-encounter powers reset when you take a "short rest" (5 minutes).  You can take as many short rests per day as you want.  Daily powers reset when you take an "extended rest" (6 hours, I think).  You cannot take an extended rest if you've already taken an extended rest within the last 12 hours.

Here's another interesting bit: You have "healing surges", which when you use them cause you to regain 25% of your hit points.  Using a healing surge is a standard action.  More combat-focused characters have more healing surges per day than others.  This means that characters are much more self-reliant than before, with a healbot/bandaid simply not being necessary anymore.

[Thorin]

Here's an excerpt about Fallcrest: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20080526a

And the map from that article:

[Mr. Analog]

Canned adventures, bleh,

[Thorin]

Hah, back in March they made a cake!  To celebrate 4E going to the printers...