Dionysus and D&D

[cavalier973]

Just found this: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612
"The DM of the Rings"  The Lord of the Rings as D&D

It's still not as funny as Order of the Stick (so far).

[freeAgent]

It's been downhill ever since they got rid of THACO

[cavalier973]

Ok, time to resurrect this thread, I think, since I found the following video: it's an "unveiling" of the new D&D Red Box.  WOTC announced a new line that they call "D&D Essentials" (and which some cynical souls are calling "D&D 4.5"), and the Red Box is the first item in the line to be released.  I think I'm going to try to get it...

http://revision3.com/trs/rear_shot#rev3Player


(Since it's not a Youtube video, I'm unable to put the video in this post)

[John Shaw]

(and which some cynical souls are calling "D&D 4.5")

Dunno why it's cynical when WOTC have released products called "X.5" before. There's significant precedent in their making small tweaks and rebranding to extract jingle.

Also, WOTC D&D is balls. Second edition 4 LYFE YO. Or hell, even 1st ed. with Unearthed Arcana and MOTP.

[davann]

Or hell, even 1st ed. with Unearthed Arcana and MOTP.

I'm with you Shaw. Still have my Dieties and Demigods around some where.

Funny story. When my brother's wife was pregnant he told be he was hoping his offspring would have his blue eyes. Than he went into the whole Big Bs explanation of how genes are passed and such. When he saw the confused look on my face he asked me, "You know about Big Bs, right?"

I answered "The only Big Bs I know is Bigby's Crushing Hand".

[dalebert]

I still have my 1st edition books including a DMG with the efreet on the front that's signed by Gary Gygax when I bumped into him at a vending machine at the Atlanta Fantasy Fair.  I volunteered several years in a row back around the mid 80s.  That's since been eclipsed and put out of business by Dragon Con which I was a DM for the very first year.  It was very small that year.  It was just a gaming convention.

[Sam Gunn (since nobody got Admiral Naismith)]

I have a problem with games that use "Magic" instead of "science".  Maybe its because I was a sci major in college and read lots of hard science fiction but w.e..  I don't like magic bullshit.  Why isn't there a hard science fiction version of this game?

[John Shaw]

I have a problem with games that use "Magic" instead of "science".  Maybe its because I was a sci major in college and read lots of hard science fiction but w.e..  I don't like magic bullshit.  Why isn't there a hard science fiction version of this game?

There was and you missed it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_World

7th edition comes out in October.

[Brooklyn Red Leg]

I have a problem with games that use "Magic" instead of "science".  Maybe its because I was a sci major in college and read lots of hard science fiction but w.e..  I don't like magic bullshit.

Actually, Vancian style 'magic' is essentially high end technology that cannot be explained. Its from the Dying Earth series that Gary Gygax was very fond of and a number of those 'spells' appear in D&D such as Prismatic Spray.

[cavalier973]

Well, I got the Red Box, got the Heroes of the Fallen Lands, and the Dungeon Master's Kit will be here in a couple of days.  I play with my kids; they love it, I love it, it's a lot of fun.  I never played the tabletop versions of the earlier editions (just the computer versions like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights), so I don't have a basis for comparison between 4th ed. and the earlier versions, but I really like 4th edition rules, especially the "Essentials Rules".

Under Essentials, the various classes have been diversified to some extent.  Fighters and Rogues no longer get Daily Powers, and only a few encounter powers.  Fighters rely on making basic attacks that are modified by various stances which can give the fighter a bonus to hit, to damage, allow him to shift, etc.  The Rogue's powers focus on movement; the rogue gets to shift (move without incurring opportunity attacks) quite a lot, and then attack.  The rogue's main goal is to get combat advantage, usually by moving into a flanking position.

Clerics in essentials get split into the "Sun Warpriest", which focuses more on protection and buffs, and the "Storm Warpriest", which focuses on damage.

The Wizard can focus his magic efforts into one (eventually two) schools of magic; Evocation, Enchantment, and Illusion are the schools presented in HotFL.  The best spell, in my opinion, is from the Red Box, though:  "Slimy Transmutation", which turns the target into a toad, even if the spell misses (hitting makes the target make a saving throw to end the effect, while missing has the target remain a toad only one turn).

[cavalier973]

Bought the Monster Vault last night.  Now the circle is complete.

This is entertaining, if you like D&D:

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Feature.aspx?x=dnd/feature/paxgame

[cavalier973]

Something I wrote over at www.enworld.org


D&D is better for kids than Monopoly

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

D&D has gotten a lot of bad press over the years, being accused of imposing a variety of ill-effects on people who play them: people get too wrapped up in the character(s) they play; people become prone to suicide; people are introduced into occult magic and demon worship.

But I would rather my kids play D&D (I'm using D&D as shorthand for roleplaying games in general) than Monopoly, because D&D teaches them valuable lessons, while Monopoly teaches them some very bad ideas.

D&D incentivizes the use of imagination, develops the skill of creative thinking and problem solving. It teaches cooperation in the face of difficulty. It teaches the importance of balance between risk-taking and cautionary behavior. While both D&D and Monopoly can allow the players to practice math skills, the D&D math is a little more esoteric (especially older editions), and requires use of math more frequently. D&D can also teach the consequences of bad behavior (assuming the DM has not developed a campaign that rewards slaughter and plundering).

What does Monopoly teach? That the business world is zero sum. In order for me to win, you have to lose. That the way to accumulate wealth in the marketplace is by extracting it from other people rather than offering a good or service demanded by the people. That business competition is more prevalent than business cooperation. Monopoly isn't really a business game, anyway; it is more a fancy version of roulette. Nevertheless, it seems to me to be most people's idea of how the business world works. Not to say that every lesson of Monopoly is bad; the property trading aspect can be a useful lesson, and the lesson that the most expensive item is not necessarily the best value (the orange properties are preferable to the dark blue for a variety of reasons).

D&D also teaches the use of resource management; the acquisition, conservation, and use of items and powers, and how to use them to mitigate the random factors of encounters and other situations. Monopoly (aside from the trading part of the game) relies primarily on blind luck to move the game to its end.

And that concludes this short rant about the relative educational benefits of two popular games. I'm glad I got that off my chest.

[cavalier973]

Wizards of the Coast is introducing its Virtual Table Top program, and it's not just for 4th edition; earlier editions apparently can be played using it.  Here's a review:

http://critical-hits.com/2010/11/23/preview-dungeons-dragons-virtual-table/

[BobRobertson]

When moving out of my house (separation, bitch kicked me out, damn her to eternal torment) I recovered my salesman's sample case (or pilot's map case, take your pick) of D&D stuff from where it had been relegated to the back of the portable hole that was the garage.

I'd last used my dice bag to teach my 7 year old what "Pythagorean Solids" were, with pretty, 30 year old, clear "crystal" dice.

I just checked, there are no version numbers on my hard-back books, but they were published in 1978 and 1979, with "Monster Manual II" from 1983.

There's also a, well, not "simplified" so much as "hard core" "what's left after the chaff has been removed" role playing rule system in a flat box in that same case called Rolemaster by Iron Crown Enterprises, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolemaster but while the Wikipedia entry lists 1995 as their earliest date, mine is dated 1982.

Even taking into account the "Disney Monopoly Jr." version of D&D that the 4.5 sounds like from people's descriptions here, I think what matters is not so much the system as the people you're playing with.

I had a BLAST 1978-1983, playing with about 10 regulars, we got to know each other's styles, characters, and generally became a "team" in the best sense.

I don't like "figures" unless or until it's "As soon as the last of your party enters the room, the door slams shut and the room is suddenly flooded with light! Ok, let's figure out where everyone is, here's a map of the room that you can now see, and here are the bad-guys...."

And I also really don't care how it is that you fit a 10 foot pole into your backpack, or carry 80 lbs of stuff and your armor all day long. It's a GAME.

Speaking of which, I suffered under near total writer's block until I was 22. I figured that out when I first saw "Throw Mamma From The Train" and saw Billy Crystal's wonderful loathing, depression and frustration, "The night was.... THE NIGHT WAS..... AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!" and recognized what I had felt every time I tried to write for most of my life.

What broke the spell for me was accidentally running across an episode of "The 700 Club" in '84 or '85 where some dipshit of a "father" was bemoaning D&D and how his son had killed himself because of the game, having spent most of every day playing for years and finally doing something spectacular and would later be termed "Gothic" to end his miserable life.

Not one moment of thought by that "father" about how he "didn't know his son played that game, or even what it was, until going through my boy's things after his death."

Maybe, oh Holier Than Thou ass-wipe, your son's depression had something to do with the fact that you IGNORED HIM?

My never-sent all-night-long endless letter to The 700 Club and that asshole was the first time I had been able to write an "essay" (blech puke spew hate that word) without agony.

I think I'll keep the books and stuff, it's nearing time to introduce my daughter to the joys of, "It's an oak door on iron hinges. It's closed. What do you do?"

[cavalier973]

"Piratecat" over at Enworld.org seems to be a DM of particularly creative abilities.
Try this:  http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/242305-running-player-commentary-pcats-d-d-4th-edition-campaign.html