Saturday, December 19, 2009

Dungeons and Dragons: 4th Edition

I really want to play Dungeons and Dragons 4e. An I mean REALLY! By play, I mean not Dungeon Master. Most rpg games I've played have come to campaign fruition by my own efforts, because I'm the initiator. I DM for my siblings and some friends, but I don't know many people personally that will DM for me so that I can play a character instead of running the show.

There are a couple of guys that I play d20Modern with, but the DM doesn't keep a campaign for enough time to get any one character past level 5. Recently he's decided that he is getting sick of the d20 system, that it's too complicated. Others in the group have decided they're sick of tabletop gaming and only play Modern Warfare and Assassin's Creed on xbox. Now we've started playing my friend's homemade rpg system with less people.

His rpg system, named simply "E-Z RPG", is well made, and mathematically sound, but I have a few issues with it.

1. It's boring. We still only play campaigns for about 3-4 sessions. Nothing fun happens, and the DM sometimes just adapts movies he's seen to the storyline.

2. Dice. In his system, you pretty much only use d6's. I like using d20's and other weird shaped dice! I just don't feel as nerdy using mostly "muggle" dice.

3. Everything's standardized. A Maul does the same damage as a Sword. All characters are human. There's no magic besides some limited psionics. I like making bizarre characters! (Although, I guess making generic characters is just as bad as investing time and effort to making an awesome character that doesn't make it past level 3.)

So, besides my lack of support, there's also the issue of 4e. I've heard that some people don't like it. I've read about it, thumbed through some books at my local HaJoMaJe ( http://www.hajomaje.com/ ) and downloaded the character creator demo from the dnd website. I like it a lot, from what I see. I COULD get the Player's Handbooks 1 and 2 for a deal right now... but I don't want to have books I can't convince others into using. Blah.

Is 4e worth it? Please comment!

-Kyle Ferrin

1 comment:

  1. Absolutely, 4E is worth it. However, if your group is tired of tabletop games, it's not going to save things. You might try finding a game online or look for an RPGA game in your area to try it out.

    Good luck!

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