4.0

O.k. I have voiced a pretty strong opinion on this subject. You guys know that I'm not very enthused by the upcoming version of D&D. I recently had a fairly long conversation with Mike about it and discovered that it may not be as bad as I thought. Well I was browsing today and found this blog posting. I'm not sure that this guy has hard facts but what he writes is mostly in line with the perception I've had of version 4.0. I see this as being a topic we will face in the not so distant future so why not start the conversation now? Here is the post, I just copied and pasted it. Please duscuss.

These days, hack-n-slashers already have nirvana in the form of MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. WoW is all about combat, alone or in groups, for 15 minutes or 15 hours, ready at the click of a mouse. No setup time, no gathering friends around the table, no rules-lawyering or a Dungeon Master that wants to do a “talky bits” session this week. WoW is stripped down, pure, accelerated, uber-convenient hank-n-slash on demand.

So, naturally, D&D 4.0 is designed for hack-n-slashers. Wizards of the Coast acts like the only thing drawing tabletop roleplayers away to online games is the fact that MMORPGs don’t make you gather around a physical table at one place and time. So, they build you a virtual table with virtual miniatures and a virtual map. They’ll force upon you virtual dice, even though dice are the most superstitiously guarded and personal item any tabletopper owns. Sure, D&D 4.0 still requires that a DM build out the map, and that players roll up a character beforehand and that everyone be available at the same time. But, hey, at least everyone doesn’t have to be at the same house or game shop, and for that convenience all Wizards of the Coast asks is that all the players buy into their software and service and upload their characters into the system. I mean, yeah, this does require an investment in 4.0 rulebooks, and you still have the time scheduling issue and the learning-the-rules issue. Oh, and you have to give up your lucky dice and abandon all your house rules and custom character sheets. And you don’t get the tangential social benefit of actually seeing your friends and passing around the snack bowl.

D&D 4.0: We won’t make you leave the house anymore.

And this is going to fell the juggernaut that is World of Warcraft?

If Wizards of the Coast had any sense, they would have gone in the opposite direction with D&D 4.0, celebrating everything about the game that can’t be codified and automated. In a tabletop game, you can abandon the script at any moment. A good Dungeon Master can wing it, adapt, improvise, and keep up with a group of real, live human players who aren’t just in it for a analog version of Diablo II. Strip down the rules, beef up the character development. If you want online tools, design them to make character creation–not graphics creation–easier. Stop treating D&D like a vehicle to sell miniatures and prefab module adventures when there’s no way static maps and immobile figures can compete with 3D landscapes and animated, interactive avatars. Stop trying to beat MMORPGs on their terms, and beat them on yours.

Oh, and accept the fact that the 1970s are over, and D&D is never going to be the dominant geek hobby again. The future is now. Let’s roll.

Author: Jay Garmon