I’ve covered a somewhat varied amount of media types in my own limited way since starting this little blog. We’ve enjoyed movie reviews, TV show reviews, videogame reviews, and even a video game console review. However, we haven’t yet jumped in the book review pool, and those who know me will know exactly why that hasn’t happened yet. I’m a pretty slow reader so in order to do a book review, I’d have to devote months to reading the book, take copious notes so that I don’t forget my thoughts along the way, and worst of all, dog ear multiple pages of said book. I know there are a few who will consider that an positively revolting prospect, #booklivesmatter. I’m sorry, that’s just the way things are when I read a book for maximum comprehension and retention. I will tease this, there are a few fine book reviews already in the pipeline, I just haven’t quite gotten them polished yet. Anyway, faced with the prospect of keeping good on my word to review all types of media, and also to bring big changes this year, we’re going to look at a book, or rather a series of books that also happen to form the basis for one of the most renowned RPG systems of all time. See, I found a loophole. I could either spend months reading a book, take copious notes, and dog ear multiple pages of said book, or I could dip my toe in this pool by reviewing books that I’ve already read several times. See? Loophole. So why RPGs? Those who know me, even just a little know that there are a few things that rank really high in my echelon of hobbies. First, is Star Trek. And second is RPGs. In fact, I love them so much that this year I’ll be running my group through each iteration of Dungeons & Dragons and I figured that it would be a missed opportunity if I didn’t provide some commentary as I experienced some of these systems for myself. There, now that we have all of the formalities out of the way, it’s time to roll up those pants legs because we are about to take the giant plunge into the giant world of literary criticism… only on the shallow end so you don’t need to roll up your pants legs too far.
What can be said about Dungeons & Dragons on the whole? Well, it began in the far away times of 1971 with a little nerdy experiment called Chainmail. Chainmail was co-developed by E Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. Now, Chainmail was a tabletop miniatures wargame that borrowed heavily from the fantastical elements of The Lord of the Rings, and it was only three years later that those rules were ported over in order to develop the original basic edition of Dungeons & Dragons. In fact, the Original Dungeons & Dragons (OD&D) rules intended players to already own the rules for Chainmail so that these players could reference racial abilities, and combat mechanics during game play. Why do I bring this up? ...You’ll see…
As the article title already explained, we’re looking at D&D 4e, as it is called by the hip crowd. Currently, D&D is in it’s fifth iteration, but I thought it would be fun to start my reviews in the same place that I started my lifelong obsession with RPGs, and for better or worse, I started with D&D 4e. Fourth edition was released in August of 2008, but development began about three years previous to that. A lot of what I know about the franchise previous to that has been garnered through conversation, and some research, but from what I understand, the first and second editions were difficult for new players to pick up, and heavy on rules that bogged down gameplay, and most importantly, storytelling. See, unlike other games, RPGs are cooperative games where players act out scenarios presented by a game master. These sorts of games rely heavily on the ability of that game master and the players to tell a story with as little interruption as possible. So having a bunch of rules that need to be double checked constantly can be a detriment to the overall experience and it can pull players out of the story. It’s a lot like trying to read a good book and getting incessant phone calls. Anyway, the first two editions were created under a company called Tactical Studies Rules, Inc., or TSR. In 1997, TSR was nearly bankrupt, and to save face, as well as wallets, they sold their IP to Wizards of the Coast, who make Magic: The Gathering. Wizards released a new edition in 2000, and the story goes that it was such a monumental improvement over the previous edition that many players to this very day believe that it’s been one of the best systems ever devised. But then how does that factor into this story? Well, stick with it because we’re getting there.
Remember that I said that D&D 4e was released in 2008, and that development began in 2005? That’s kind of a big deal because in 2004, World of Warcraft was released. I only bring this up because I’ve heard a lot of people over the years draw comparisons between World of Warcraft and D&D 4e. This made some of the longtime fans upset, and alienated them from the franchise, but if you think about how many people were playing WoW at its apex, you can see why D&D developers would think that this was a good idea. The previous edition of D&D, the third edition, had focused combining the basic and the advanced rules sets together as one thing, and standardizing quite a bit of the class and race specific elements. While this was good, developers felt that the rules could be streamlined even more. And that was the basic idea behind D&D 4e. Wow, this has been a lot of backstory. Like some of the movies I review, this has been a slow burn so far…
Alright, let’s do a miniature RPG 101 for a minute. What makes for a good RPG? First, it should be a system that a group can have fun playing. That’s pretty much the most important thing. It’s also the lowest standard by which you can judge a system. Believe me, I’ve played some pretty terrible systems in my day, but still managed to have fun with the group, mostly because of the group with whom I was playing. Anyway, second, good systems have rules that are easy to pick up, and intuitive to use. Third, a system shouldn’t feel like the rules get in the way of the storytelling aspects of the game. They need to be there to referee in certain situations, but players shouldn’t feel strangled by them. Optionally, a system should provide players options for playing a wide variety of character builds. I say this is optional because there are some systems that I’ve played that seem restrictive in this area, but I have found that the challenge of the situation actually helps me to build better characters.
So now you know briefly the criteria by which I’m measuring my review material, let’s get to the main event. How exactly does D&D 4e stack up to this criteria? I would say if you bear in mind some of the backstory, it’s nearly an even split. Remember that D&D was originally developed off of a miniatures wargame, and 4e took it way back to those roots. The use of miniatures during gameplay was heavily marketed and encouraged by the company selling it. Miniatures were everywhere! You could by randomized packs with monster minis, and starter packs with hero minis. I’m sure that this was an attempt to ground the game and make it feel a little less abstract in order to attract World of Warcraft players. However, one of the drawbacks to this decision is that the combat rules because really unwieldy. There were so many minute rules to remember that combat could take forever. Another side effect is that once the miniatures hit the table, the game felt less like a cooperative storytelling experience and more like a miniatures wargame. Players became focused on using perfect tactics to get advantages, and keeping out of harm’s way. It took a bit of the fun out of the experience if these elements were utilized poorly because rules could get in the way of the storytelling. However, on the flip side of combat, fourth edition introduced an official rule for creatures known as minions that were hard to hit, but died once they did get hit. This allowed game masters to run fantastic cinematic large scale battles without the burden of tracking a ton of monsters, each with their own life totals. Instead, you could take a type of creature, like goblins, and make a large group of them with each individual represented by a point of health. Then by the end, all of the goblins are dead as soon as all the group health is gone. It’s a fabulous tool for game masters.
Now, if we divorce this system from its somewhat bloated combat mechanics, it’s actually a pretty good, and fun system to play. There’s a feeling of high excitement that D&D 4e captures as you’re jaunting pulling off feats of superhuman calibur. I like to tell people that it’s very swashbuckling and I think that fits. The general rules are meant to make you feel like you can do just about anything, and they do, and it’s not only fun, but I find it to be pretty relaxing as well. I get a bit of wish fulfillment in my D&D 4e games. That’s not to say that there aren’t flaws. One of the focuses with this iteration of the world’s oldest RPG was balancing character classes. In D&D a player can be a wizard, or a fighter, or any number of other classes. Usually, these classes come with different strengths and weaknesses. They’re designed to fill a specific role within an adventuring group, and the idea is that if each player plays one of these different types of classes then a party will be balanced, and able to do what they need to do in the game. With fourth edition, the developers tried to make it so that no matter the party load out, there wouldn’t be any deficiencies. A group could wander off without a healer, but still be healed, and whatnot. What this did, is it made certain things feel kind of generic. There were nuances to each race and class in the previous edition, and those were pretty much gone. This made a lot of longtime players upset. But what it also did beyond that, is it created a game system that fit with our more modern and busy culture. Let’s face it, getting a group of three to seven people together can be a herculean undertaking in and of itself. But if your game system allows for one or two people to be absent without any detriment, then it’s not as big of a deal.
Let’s talk about a little thing called powers real quick. This has got to be the biggest sticking point for critics of the D&D 4e system. In the olden days, it used to be that wizards, and sorcerers, and mages, and sometimes clerics got spells in D&D. If you played some sort of brutish fighting type, or a ranger type, or a rogue, you had specialized abilities that you would get that could enhance your capabilities, but they were rarely ever magic. In fourth edition, they introduced powers to every class. These powers could be used anywhere from whenever you wanted to once per day. They did enhance players’ capabilities, but they were magical. Suddenly, everyone was magical. This just added to the perceived blandness of the system, and it made making a character a bit clunky and burdensome. But it had a good payoff because it really helped newer players to understand what their character could do, and it guided them through the process of upgrading that character. Was it good for the more experienced players, probably not, but for the uninitiated, it was great.
Where does all this leave D&D 4e in the rating area? I’d call it a good RPG system. It does have it’s flaws, and it has some definite strengths that are unique to this system. And as with previous systems of both D&D as well as other non-D&D systems, players and game masters were encouraged to omit, and add rules that would help them to better run a smooth, story driven game. This really gives fourth edition a bit of an edge because once players understand the combat mechanics pretty well, they can easily know which rules to throw out in order to streamline the combat. This adds to the versatility of this system as a vehicle for smooth storytelling, and that’s a definite plus. I’d say this is a fun system, especially for beginners, that can be learned fairly quickly and easily, and it serves as a great jumping off point for those looking to get into the hobby. Is it the end all be all of RPGs? Certainly not, but it makes a great gateway drug! Stay tuned to next week to see what we’ve got cooking, and expect a D&D related article about once a month starting later this spring!
No comments:
Post a Comment