'Dungeons & Dragons' fourth edition, online tools just around corner
On June 6, Wizards of the Coast plans to release the fourth edition of 'Dungeons & Dragons.' The latest edition of the iconic game, the first since version 3.5 was released in 2003, will simplify some things for players, such as what roles they play, and the company hopes that that will mean that more people will play the game than ever. Pictured here is the forthcoming fourth-edition 'Monster Manual.'
(Credit: Wizards of the Coast)SAN FRANCISCO--This is not your big brother's Dungeons & Dragons.
On June 6, Wizards of the Coast will officially roll out the fourth edition of the D&D franchise, as well as a new suite of digital tools, and the world-famous game will never be the same.
And this time, it won't require the death of the game's inventor, Gary Gygax, to get D&D into the news.
I got a preview of what's new on Monday, and while I'm certainly no D&D expert, I'll try to spell out what I saw for you here.
To start with, the digital initiative, which is called Dungeons & Dragons Insider, will, for the first time, make it feasible to play a game of D&D with your friends over the Internet and without having to pull out the thick, iconic, hardcover books that have for so long been an essential element to the experience.
This is the fourth-edition 'Player's Handbook.' Among the new innovations that will be released with the fourth edition of 'Dungeons & Dragons' on June 6 is a new Web-based suite of tools known as D&D Insider. This will allow players to play the game online against friends from anywhere, but is based entirely on the paper game. It is not, in other words, a video game, but rather a Web interface for the regular game.
(Credit: Wizards of the Coast)The basic idea behind Dungeons & Dragons Insider is that it will allow players to create their characters using an online avatar maker and then import those creations to a digital game table where they can they wage campaigns online with their friends.
And while the idea is not to turn D&D into an MMORPG--a massively multiplayer online game--like World of Warcraft or EverQuest, there can be no doubt that Wizards of the Coast has taken some cues from those games.
One of the sets of tools included in the D&D Insider is a complete collection of the items, classes, races, and spells from the books, as well as any of the official D&D magazines.
Then, once players have gone through the character creator--which allows them a pretty high degree of customization within all the various classes and races of their characters--they can then begin playing.
But those who are taking on the role of dungeon master can also use the character creator to build non-player characters that they can then put inside the dungeons that players will use as part of their campaigns.
One nice thing about using these online tools is that it is likely, I was told, that the entire process of getting ready to play will be much faster than it has always been to use the hard copy books. That's because, D&D Web specialist Chris Youngs told me, everything is organized in the online tools in such a way that players and dungeon masters alike will be able to find what they need without being required to flip around through the books. Which for anyone who ever played D&D knows is a seriously time-consuming part of the experience.
One of the major features of D&D Insider is the character creator, which allows players to make highly-detailed characters, which can then be imported into a digital instance of the game.
(Credit: Wizards of the Coast)And while the online tools can automate the process of "rolling" a character, players can choose the option to still roll real dice and then input the results into the Web interface.
The last major element of the D&D Insider is the so-called "dungeon builder," a tool that allows dungeon masters to craft the environments where their players will carry out their campaigns.
One nice thing about this is that dungeon masters can set certain areas of the dungeons they're building as off-limits to players until the campaign leads naturally to them entering those areas. Then the DMs can toggle the access to allow the players in.
Practically speaking, this means that DMs can see the entirety of their newly-created dungeons while players can only see what the DMs want them to see.
One other nice element of the dungeon builder is that as DMs add more features--pits, fireballs, monsters, and the like, they can put dynamic lighting effects on those features. This is a nice little design choice and looks great.
As for the digital game table itself, it starts out two-dimensional, but can be rotated into being 3D.
Besides being digital, however, the upshot of all this is that the online version is designed to allow players and DMs to do anything digitally that they could previously do in the analog version of the game.
Yet, in keeping with this still being D&D, the digital setup does not set the rules or enforce them. Rather, the dungeon master is still in control of campaigns and gets to run things his or her way.
This is the fourth-edition 'Dungeon Master's Guide.'
(Credit: Wizards of the Coast)"It's not a video game experience," Youngs said. "It's a D&D experience."
Of course, even as Wizards of the Coast makes playing D&D digitally something to change the game forever, it is also preparing to launch an entirely new version of the game itself.
On June 6, the company plans to unveil the fourth edition of D&D, the first version since 3.5 was released in 2003.
Andy Collins, a member of the fourth-edition design team, told me the major idea behind the new edition is to streamline D&D so that there is less abstraction for players to absorb as they set out to create characters. That means all players will fit into four roles: Defenders, Strikers, Leaders, and Controllers.
The idea is that by pigeon-holing all classes of character into the four main roles, every player will have a sense of what they're doing in the game. Previously, Collins said, some players had been able to choose roles that didn't quite end up having any real place in a campaign.
Or, as James Wyatt, the lead story designer on the fourth edition, put it, "We didn't have the language before to tell you what (all the) classes were doing."
That problem is effectively solved in the fourth edition, Collins and Wyatt said.
"We rebuilt all the character classes from the ground up," Collins said, "to reduce to the core of what made...D&D exciting."
One thing I was curious about was how the emergence of games like World of Warcraft has affected D&D.
Wyatt said that such MMOs--and the ways that they have advanced the fantasy game genre--can help the D&D design team see elements of their game that they can refine.
Dungeon masters will be able to create non-player characters in the character creator for use in digital campaigns.
(Credit: Wizards of the Coast)But mainly, he added, he doesn't see MMOs being a major influence on the D&D team so much as an adjunct to find more depth in how to make D&D richer.
"We're not learning from (MMOs)," Wyatt said, "so much as looking in the mirror."
Finally, while Wizards of the Coast is still aiming D&D at its core players, it is also hoping that the fourth edition can reach many new players, especially those for whom the old versions of the game were effectively off-limits.
What that really means, Collins said, is that the fourth edition does away with some of the complexity of the game that was, effectively, a barrier to entry for many people.
That's possible, he, Wyatt, and associate D&D brand manager Sarah Girard said, because the new edition of the game boils down some of the complexity of the game and makes it simpler for players to find answers to questions that might previously have required spending a long time flipping around through the various books that make up the rule sets for answers.
"We've chosen to spend our complexity capital on things to do," Wyatt said. "Our books are full of options rather than nitty gritty details" that slow the game down and chase away many would-be players.
For now, players excited about the release of the fourth edition are going to have to bide their time. But, on May 20, Wizards of the Coast will release a single adventure, known as Keep on the Shadowfell, that will give players a taste of the fourth edition.
Then, on June 6, the company plans on rolling out the new edition. The following day, game stores around the country and the world will host D&D games so that players can get an instant taste of what's new.
Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel. 
I used to be a heavy D&D player, always being the DM and designing the dungeons myself. I remember making a dungeon using BASIC on a Timex Sinclare 1000 more than 20 years ago.
The idea of doing it on-line appeals to me, as does rolling the characters. However, making all the characters fit into four classes is very dumbed down, and reminds me of what a few MMORPGs have already been doing. It looks to me like they are indeed learning from the MMORPGs, too bad they're incorporating the bad parts.
The concept of four basic positions in the party I can understand...beyond that it's all renamed world of warcraft crap!
1. The 3.0 edition was supposedly "rushed out" and not completed, leading to a 3.5 edition to be released a few years later... and supposedly they (*wotc) knew it was "broken all along, and were working on 4th edition" all the while shelling out books for 3.0/3.5... and I wonder how you feel if your *EXPENSIVE* library just suddenly becomes obsolete.
2. The author's interview on the wizards web site for the 3.0 psionics handbooks was straight forward an admition of plagarism,in the authours own words- because "WRITTING PSIONICS WOULD BE TOO HARD"...
3. Since the year 2001, the majority of the books being released by wizards had MASSIVE editing errors, entire chapters littered with "cut and paste" fall out (*you see folks, MS office does not make changes actualy save with a document but as a seperate temporary file... a file it tends to forget when you edit more than a page at at time).
4. Fans posted content *AND ERRATA to be read by EVERYONE on the wizards website only to see such works be added to other books or magazine articles... Claimed as the sole property and creation of wizards and/or author x,y,or z.
So let's see:
1. being carless with what they have inherited.
2. Writers are not bothering to focus on one product at a time and frequently engage in plagarism- not just from core rule bookls but from their fans too.
3. Fans are being taken as "LOYAL" no matter what changes are introduced... Card games, computers, miniatures, battle maps and more are being made into "play aids". That if you aren't using these EXPENSIVE AND RANDOM *COLLECTIBLES*- well, your just not playing the game right, are you?
Did I say fans are regarded as loyal? Oh no, I meant "Chumps, chumps who will buy anything with the D&d label stuck on it".
I for one do not look forward to D&D with; baddly flawed miniatures, pokemon cards, computers, printers, internet connections, website vaporware with subscription fees, none of it will function as advertised...
You want proof? the current "web based dungeon and dragon magazines" have failed to produce content equal to the size of one print magazine since the print magaizines were killed by corprate fiat...
"Here's your new game, but now you need to buy this, and this, and this and that, and this, and those, and these... ad NASEUM." That is not the D&D game I remember OR currently play. I have better more reliable ways to invest my money and free time.
However, our group found the new editions to be very good in spite of our worries and gripes before we tried them out. Now with 4th Edition, our group have been kind of in the same worried mindset, with a few gripes about buying stuff all over again. However, I have embraced the change, because there is a good chance it will play even better than the previous versions.
I got the books this morning, and having flipped through them, I think it will play very well with my group. I would disagree with this being dumbed down, and say it has more been streamlined for more efficient play. It looks like WOTC have thrown out a lot of time consuming paperwork, and book keeping, so you can concentrate on the role-playing aspect, and not the rule-playing. Personally, I prefer this, as I enjoy the storytelling part of D&D more than the mechanics. However, I know that some players and GM's can be rules munchkins and enjoy all the various game mechanics that they can go into in great detail. Some players I know get great enjoyment from this attention to detail and have a love for the numeracy and mechanics of the game, as much as they do for the storyline and characters. There is nothing wrong with this. If it floats your boat, then stick with it. But there is a saying about roleplaying, that it can be three to four hours of gaming, for an hour of actual fun. Meaning that drawn out combats can be time consuming. I game for about 4 hrs every week, and have had occasions where we did some interaction and plot moving, and then spent a long time resolving a combat, so that the storyline didn't move forward much at all. I think WOTC are trying to sort out this fun glitching with 4th Ed, as well as make it a lot more acessable to new players who might be put off by too many rules and book keeping.
Lets face it, we need the new roleplayers if this hobby is set to continue, as in recent years there have been less younger gamers taking it up, so thats no bad thing.
At the end of the day, noone is making you buy this product. If you play 3.0 or 3.5 there is plenty of third party support out there for you to continue for many years if you run only prewritten games. Many independant publishers have said they will continue to support the older editions, and there is a tonne of free stuff online you can download if you know where to look. Plus because of it's very nature, D&D has as many add ons and adventures as you have in your imagination. So if you have your core rules, you dont need to buy any more books to run your adventures.
A few years back, the hobby market was overun by the magic the gathering card game. It wasn't my cup of tea as far as gaming goes and I wasn't a big fan. However, I could see it's value in keeping the rpg marketplace alive, and getting more people interested in fantasy games, at a time when rpgs weren't doing as well as they had. So even if you balk at 4th Ed, please appreciate that it will further the roleplaying industry. Personally, in a time where more people are going over to MMO's, I think that any new tabletop RPG's that come out have got to be a good thing.
Anyway, I have just played a session. It is different and I like it. I like how they had the foresight to think of a video game translation for this edition. To date there has not been a good interpretation of the rules to a video game platform. The rule always had to be tweaked to accommodate the translation. It seems that it should be much smoother. Hopefully this will allow more content and balance to games such as DDO. Which is a shame, DDO had tons of promise but was built upon a system that was not designed for online gaming.
Now, for the beauty of this edition. If you don't like it you still have the previous editions to play. And they are all great in their own right when played in pen and paper mode.
I honestly feel that the game has been dumbed down, for whatever business reason (not nearly the depth of choices in Spells or Skills, or in the amount of content in equipment and number of Character Classes that I'm used to seeing in the books). Sense of wonder and discovery for Player Characters has been diminished by putting all magic items in the Player's Handbook. 4et has creative plagiarism from WoW (Character Visualizer). The paper-and-pencil table-top game feels like a video game now, or even like a sister game, Magic! The Gathering (many players have decks of cards with their abilities on them).
I have yet to see the promises materialize from when the announcement of the new edition happened last year (August 2007). There is no computer table-top yet, and combat is NOT faster. This was supposed to be the big plus, that you could have so many more combats in a night of gaming. Creating a character is not player-friendly (the Character Creator program is not ready).
Creating your own new campaign material is not intuitive anymore. The designers have made changes to the vernacular (the role of a creature in a combat needs to be considered before you can just pick a creature to use; terrain for an encounter needs to be picked before an encounter.) Changing to 4e from 3.5e is like changing to C++ from Fortran IV. Not impossible, but not necessarily intuitive.
Simplifying complex rules are good, a colossal "dumb down" is another. GET REAL, people.
- by GRANDMAGI July 3, 2009 8:56 AM PDT
- I've been playing the Dungeons and dragons game now for well over 30 years...I've spent approximately 70,000 hours playing, creating. and DMing. It's been my favorite pastime...that is UNTILL fourth edittion came along like some kind of evil doppleganger and stole my game! :( The game is now only the same in name, it has only a few titles that are even still consistant. Everything, and I do mean everything about the core rules has been changed to the point of rendering my 70,000 hours meaningless. If someone had taken Worl of Warcraft and named it "Dungeons and Dragons", there wouldnt be enough of a difference between the current (4th) edittion game and it to dispute. It's NOT the same game by ANY stretch of the imagination, to say it's been "dumbed down" is an understatement of epic proportions!!! I have NEVER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE been THIS let down or dissapointed in well...ANNYTHING!! An evil doppleganger has supplanted itself as our game...personally I think the players that had difficiulty understanding it should have either #1. Gone to a player or DM that could teach them, or #2. Stick with something simple like pokiemon, chutes and ladders, (or 4th edittion Dungeons and Dragons). The 4th editttion game is lame, it doesent deliver 1/8th of the enjoyment as previous edittions did, and I wont at all be surprised to see it slowly wither to extinction. All because someone wanted to play World of Warcraft in "DND land".
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