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Countdown to: DnD 4th Edition

posted by Chris Fairfield at 11:30 pm.

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This would be the dice part of Dice & Mice.

Dungeons and Dragons (or DnD as we nerds call it) is, by far, the most popular Roleplaying Game ever created. DnD was first published in 1974 by a small, relatively unknown company called TSR. The very first edition (which we’ll call 0th edition) was fairly crude and not well-written. So, in 1977, TSR released what they called 1st Edition. Compared to 0th edition, 1st edition was quite polished and written for more of the average layman. (There was also at this time a split in the rules, with Advanced DnD spinning out of regular DnD; my experience was always with ADnD, so this article will deal primarily with that.) 1st edition established the format that is still in use today. There are three “Core” rule books: The Player’s Handbook (PHB), The Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG), and the Monster Manual. The PHB was truly the only book required to play the game, as people with extremely active imaginations and creativity could make up all their encounters based off of that book. What was more common though, was the person who assumed the role of Dungeon Master (aka the ‘DM’, the person who runs the adventures and adjudicates the rules) would buy all three, and the other players would either share with him or pick up their own copy of the PHB. The DMG contained rules for traps, treasure, magic items and running adventures. Lastly the Monster Manual was essentially a compendium of monsters the players could face against, it was the least useful of the books, but handy to have around in a pinch.

These books stayed on the shelf until 1989, when TSR decided to release 2nd Edition. 2nd Edition was made largely in response to the backlash that had come up surrounding DnD. A lot of people believed that DnD was a game for Satanists and that people were encouraged in the game to actually perform dark rituals and attack each other in Steam tunnels. All of which was a bunch of sensationalist nonsense cooked up by some parent who felt an emotional disconnect with their rebellious teenage child and instead of chalking it up to the natural disconnect kids feel with their parents at the time of puberty or to some sort of parenting flaw they chose to lay the blame on a game. (Sound familiar?) Anyway, the 2nd edition removed any reference to Devils or Demons along with any provocative artwork and character classes that could be considered evil. There were also a small litany of rules changes and the introduction of more non-sword-and-sorcery campaign settings. In 1995 they released a new version of the books with further rules updates and clarifications. People nowadays refer to this as version 2.5. This is also the last version that TSR released.

In 1997 Wizards of the Coast, the company famous for Magic the Gathering and Roborally (among others), purchased TSR (which included the DnD brand). They promptly set to work on developing an overhaul to the system. In 2000 they released 3rd Edition. 3rd Edition was the largest overhaul to the system yet. It streamlined a lot of the rules and made the whole system more flexible overall. That’s not to say it was not without its flaws, but the ideas were fairly sound. It reintroduced some of the more controversial elements removed from 2nd edition, which resulted in a somewhat surprising lack of controversy. In 2003, they released a revised version. This time, they actually called it 3.5. The rules updates were mostly minor, but they did fix a lot of the problems with 3rd edition. Mainly power level issues and the like.

Now, five years later, cometh Fourth Edition. 4th Edition is an incredibly different DnD product than before. Don’t get me wrong, it still has the classic elements of DnD in place, you still make characters and go on adventures. It’s just the actual process of doing such has changed somewhat drastically. They’ve taken many cues from computer and video games, adding in things such as skill trees and World of Warcraft-esque character roles. They’ve cut out things like picking your spells at the start of each day and attempted to prevent situations where one character is completely useless. One of the bigger changes is that they have given fighters what are essentially spells. They now have abilities that rival the flashiness of a spellcasters. You’ll still be swinging the sword each round, but you’ll look fabulous doing it. Spellcasters now have abilities that will prevent them from using all their spells up and being useless. Especially handy during those longer battles, no spellcaster likes to resort to melee combat. That would just be uncivilized. Overall, things have been cut up, shuffled around and remixed. Most importantly, though, the game looks fun. Don’t get me wrong, DnD has always been fun. In fact, there is nothing better than getting together a group of friends and playing a game. However, 4th edition looks fun. Italicized fun. I’ve been reading previews and excerpts online, and from what I can see, the game looks like a joy to play. Obviously I’ll have to reserve final judgment until I get a copy of it in my hands, but that won’t be long now. The game is released in a mere 30 days.

Available June 6th from wherever nerdy books are sold; you can pre-order DnD up until this Saturday from Leisure Time or the Dragon’s Table, here in town.

MSRP 34.95 per book or 104.95 for a Box Set.

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Chris Fairfield: is an avid gamer and web surfer who happens to be hellbent on World Domination. But who isn't these days?