Dungeons and Dragons 4E Cosmology and Core World
One of the massive changes taking place in Dungeons and Dragons 4E is the creation of a core world. Up to this point, D&D has only ever provided players with elements of a core world or core cosmology - such as the old Greyhawk Deities in D&D 3E.
This change is a long time coming. Think about it: you’re a new D&D player. You pick up the core books at Barnes & Noble, and you want to run D&D for your friends. As it stands today, you either have to buy a campaign setting or create your own world from scratch. Do you know how overwhelming it is for a first-time DM to do either one of those? With the number of campaign settings, the neophyte won’t even know where to begin. Even if he does, what if he picks a crappy setting? He and his cohorts will write D&D off altogether. And don’t get me started on how lost the new DM feels trying to create a world. I’ve been DMing for almost three decades, so I enjoy campaign creation; and that new DM will too, in a couple of years.
Including a core setting and cosmology doesn’t forbid anyone from creating their own. In fact, WotC is now making the various campaign settings part of core. This means you can have a near-infinite number of settings and cosmologies without breaking the game. That’s a sweet deal, and it’s overdue.
For some other thoughts about these changes, check out this article at Critical Hits: D&D 4e: A Whole New World.
So, what do you all think? Is this a good move, or not?
What If? On 4E and the Future
What if it sucks?
Worse…
What if I don’t think it sucks, but the rest of my group does?
I’ve been asking myself this lately, as I think my good friend Phil has convinced Randy and the rest of our local group that 4E is going to be bad. REALLY bad.
Aw, hell. It’s not fair to blame it on Phil. There are things that look like they might be bad.
At any rate, what happens if I like it and they don’t?
Way I see it, I’ve got 3 options:
- Keep playing whatever everyone else wants to play. This means I’m stuck with Spell Compendium (etc), and I get no rules reset.
- Play something different altogether, like Vampire or Savage Worlds.
- Find another group with which to play 4E. (Note: I’m not talking about dumping the guys; they’re my friends, and nothing will change that. D&D or no, we’re compatriots.)
So, is there something I’m missing? A fourth, better option? If not, which of these three is best? Your thoughts are appreciated!
Will you always play DnD?
I want to tell you all about a couple of conversations I’ve had lately.
The first one is an ongoing discussion with my friend Randy. Randy and I tend to have these big idea discussions about D&D, about our group of friends, and about our lives. One discussion revolved around whether the people you play D&D with are your friends, or whether they are just the guys you play a game with (like a softball league, for example). That ongoing discussion tool us the better part of three years; by the time we came to a real conclusion, it was a moot point because all of the people we played D&D with were, without question, our friends by that point.
Randy and Me, deep in discussion. I’m the one with the hat. 
photo credit: ohhector
Anyways, that’s not one of the conversations I wanted to tell you about. That one was free.
The conversation Randy and I have been having for about six or eight months is this: Do you ever see yourself stopping D&D? If so, at what age? 50? 60? Will you be a 70 year-old man playing D&D? I think we’ve both, at this point, answered “No, I don’t see myself stopping. I might stop buying new stuff, but I won’t stop playing. I’ll be rolling dice as long as I can lift them.”
“I just rolled a nat 20, Bitches!” (Age-progression photo. You can tell, I still have the hat.) photo credit: Thomas Tribe
The other conversation I’ve had was with another D&D player. He’s decided to retire. He’s done, ready to move on. He wants to do some other things, and the 4E Malaise has really gotten to him. My suggestion was to wait until the 4E hype dies down and we all know whether we’re going 4E or not. He didn’t seem especially interested.
so, here’s my questions for you all today: Will you ever stop playing D&D, or will you retire? If not age, what would make you retire?
The 4E Malaise
If your gaming group is anything like mine, you can’t stop talking about Fourth Edition.
Every blog post or article at WotC, every entry at EnWorld, and every goofy comment (no offense, boys) at Critical Hits and my guys are chatting it up. It is as if they are a knitting circle that just found out that the pastor’s daughter is pregnant.
Anyways, this whole thing has put us in a bit of a tizzy. Our other DM, Randy, hasn’t run Dungeons and Dragons in over four months, choosing to instead explore Savage Worlds and some other games.
For the most part, we’ve all stopped buying new DnD books. I bought the Wizards Presents books, but none of the other guys did.
The 4E announcement put us into a funk of sorts.
The question is, then, this:
If 4E doesn’t appeal to the group, will we start back up with 3.5? I don’t know about the others, but I’m liking the way 4E looks. In many ways, as goes the DM so goes the group. Still, there is the strong possibility of a peasant uprising if they don’t like 4E as much as I do.
How about your group? Are you all experiencing the 4E malaise?
Why I am getting DnD Insider
Just now I was able to make it through The Game’s amazingly thorough play-by-play account of the 4E seminar at DDXP.
I was skimming along, trying to get the bird’s eye view, when something caught my eye.
I did a spit take.
Then, I did a double take.
After cleaning off my laptop, I read it again:
“Rules Database. Searchable online content database with realtime information- includes new books, Dragon/Dungeon content. Access all content without having all books there. D&D Insider subscription gives access to all books, not just the ones you’ve bought. ”
That can’t be right.
All of the rules from all of the books in one spot?!?
You mean I don’t need to bring every supplement with every feat on my character sheet?
I don’t have to go to Barnes & Noble and copy down monster data on the one good monster from MM IV?
Holy crap.
This is huge, folks. This will completely change the way that this game is played, and in a good way. How? Let me give you an example. The following is a conversation I had with one of my players (we will call him “Teddy” - but that’s not his name) several months back:
Teddy: Hey! I was thinking. Do you care if I take Vow of Poverty for my monk?
Me: (Not yet having Exalted Deeds) I dunno. What’s it do?
Teddy: Oh, you give up all your worldly posessions and get a couple of feats in return.
Me: Hmm. Can you read the description to me? I’d like to see it, I think.
Teddy: Sorry, I’m in the car right now. I can scan the pages in and email them to you later, if you want.
Me: Nah, that’s a lot of trouble. Don’t worry about it. Besides, this let’s me screw you on magic items, so I’m all good.
Teddy: Ha ha. (to himself, “sucker.”)
So, here’s how that conversation will go after DnD Insider:
Teddy: Hey! I was thinking. Do you care if I take Vow of Poverty for my monk?
Me: I dunno. Hang on, let me check the specs.
-waiting-
Me: Crap. My Wi-Fi’s down. What’s Vow of Poverty do?
OK, so maybe it won’t be all that. But still, it is a definite selling point for me.
4E at DDXP - SEE IT NOW
Just because I’m off messing with a new blog and haven’t had much time for D&D this week doesn’t mean you can’t get your DDXP 4E info right from the source.
Get over to Critical Hits and check it out!
Primary Group Cohesion in Dungeons and Dragons
Stupid Ranger has an insightful post today about the way that players should work together in a D&D game. I won’t rehash her points, you can read them over there for yourself. I will add something to the conversation, though.
When I was getting my Master’s degree in History, I had a professor who turned us into the idea of “primary group cohesion.” This is the idea that soldiers on the battlefield have a connection to one another because they share the same ideas and ideals. While I don’t entirely agree with the thesis (I think people on the battlefield connect because they’re all in a world of sh!t more than anything) I do think that players in a D&D game need to have something of a camaraderie.
For the most part, I think I see this cohesion when we’re talking about roleplaying issues. What amazes me, though, is that the players tend to want to shine on their own during combat; no one ever thinks to move into a flanking position for the rogue, or to block a line of charge to the wizard. You would think that the opposite would be true: that these characters who have been adventuring together for years would know one another’s’ tactics, and complement each other.
Food for thought, anyways.
Campaign diary returns tomorrow, for those who have been waiting with baited breath!
4E at DDXP - Get the Down-low.
Just a quick entry this morning.
Get your asses over to critical hits NOW and tell the boys what you’d like to have them talk to the WotC designers about this weekend. Bartoneous and The Game have scored press passes for the event, and have promised to be eyes and ears for those of us stuck somewhere else.
Thank you, drive through.
DnD 4E Rogue - join the conversation
For those of you who are scroll- or click-impaired, and may have missed it over the weekend, Wizards released the 4E rogue in all his glory last Friday. We’ve got some interesting takes on it over at Critical Hits, so I encourage you to check those out. No, really. Go now.
For those of you who absolutely refuse, here are the observations I posted on Saturday:
- Healing Surges. This isn’t new info, but I have to admit: If there is one element I’m not sure about from the 4E previews, it is this. I’m just not convinced that it makes sense, from the flavor perspective. We will see how it winds up playing out, however.
- Weapon Proficiencies. I think I am glad to see them back. As a DM, it was sometimes frustrating to watch the versatility that players had with weapon groups. MWAHAHAHA!
- Simplified Skill System. No new info here; we knew that they were going to move this direction, ala Saga Edition. I am glad to see this, in part, because I think it makes the rogue more playable, in the long run.
- Powers. I like the suggested at-will, encounter, and daily powers. This firms up the talk about power durations. I’ve been an advocate for this sort of simplification in spells for a long time, and I think it just makes sense. If you’re not a fan of per-encounter abilities, you’re not going to like 4E. For me, it’s a long time coming.
- Brawny and Trickster Builds. I like the two builds. It’s a cool way to present archetypes to new players, inexperienced players, or players that haven’t played a given class before.
- Shuriken. I’m not sure the weapon belongs in core, even if it is cool, and even if Midnight used them. That’s a long-standing complaint, though.
- Sneak Attack Damage. This seems waaay too nerfed for me. Having said that, I will have to see what a 22nd-level encounter looks like to know for sure if 5d6 is too little.
- Powers Again. I’m a sucker for flavor text, and I love the power descriptions.
All in all, I give the new rogue a B+. That could rise to an A-, once I’ve seen what he’s up against at various levels.
DnD 4E Update - The Rouge is out!
Critical Hits just caught this one. The Fourth Edition Rogue has been released!
I’ll post my initial reaction over there.
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Updates
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Awesome Deals!
