Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition core rulebooks, book 3
Rating - 4: useful for any campaign (buy it)
This one is hard to review because it is like reviewing an encyclopedia or a cookbook. Since it is mostly good, and you cannot run much of a D&D campaign without it, it gets a 4. I regret not being able to say the same about the DMG, which was better written but less universally needed. It had limited application outside the cinematic style, while this book's variations on classic fantasy monsters can be used in non-D&D campaigns.
This is the third core rulebook for the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons. It has almost three-hundred pages of monsters, including classics and new additions to the game.
So how do you review something like an encyclopedia? There are about 100 separate entries, and I have not tried them all out.
First, let's talk about how monsters are presented. The stat box is more compact. There is nothing relating to their rarity, ecology, or treasure types in the box. The organization adapts from late-3rd Edition quite effectively. The closer it is to the top, the sooner and more often you need it. The attack options have their own markup and code that are difficult to read at first but very intuitive once you learn the jargon.
You get a few sentences of description, the stat block, a few sentences of tactics, and then what your knowledge skills report at different rolls. It ends with a sample encounter group.
You will note that there is not anything about their ecology in that. The old Monstrous Compendium pages that luxuriated in details about anatomy and history are gone.
Instead, you get two to three versions of each monster on one or two pages. The DMG has some tips on how to fill in the levels in between.
Many of the smaller monsters are gone, or have been reserved for a sequel. I recall dozens of level 1-4 monsters that would presumably be advanced with character levels, often suitable for PC classes. Now level 1 has the shortest list of monsters outside the epic levels. This makes some sense: put in lots of mid-level enemies, because you do not use level 1 enemies for very long. You can use a level 3 as a hard fight at level 1 or as cannon fodder at level 7. It does mean that we lose lots of wildlife and minor threats.
You may have an emotional reaction to your favorite monsters' having been moved around. Aboleths, beholders, and mind-flayers are suitable end-bosses for paragon levels. Azers have been bumped up to level 17, ogres are up to 8-11, and orcs are 4+ (leaving those bottom levels for goblins and kobolds). The mohrg is now a type of devourer, and ogre magi are now oni. Orcus is the biggest, nastiest thing in the MM, with the Tarrasque and ancient dragons competitive. Dragons have 4 age categories now, from young level 5s to ancient level 20+s. The lamia takes the award for "most changed while remaining superficially the same."
The new book makes heavy use of the "unaligned" alignment. You could come into conflict with anything. There are many evil and chaotic evil enemies, but no good and only one lawful good (a horse, the celestial charger). Angels, you may note, get "any" as an alignment. The same types of angels serve all the gods, so the servants of Pelor and Bane use the same stat block. You can mix up their color schemes for the special effects. The role of elementals is now shared with archons, chaotic evil beings bent on returning the world to its component elements. The new take on demons and devils is perfectly serviceable, further separating the roles that 3rd Edition gave them and eliminating the blood war (which may be missed, and whose resurrection is sketched in the descriptions of Bane and Gruumsh).
There are not many new monsters, although there are some new variants on the classics. I do not recall battlebriars (plant siege engines) from before.
An appendix at the end gives racial traits for many monsters. This is a great section for those who felt hemmed in by the PHB race selection. They are even designed for level 1 characters, without the ECL hardships of 3rd Edition.
The art here is the best of the core books. It starts off strong with two excellent large pieces: Wayne Reynolds's cover and Michael Kormarck's introductory illustration, although I am having trouble guessing how that latter scene came to be.
Every monster has an illustration, which is a good practice to continue. Some images have been recycled from previous editions, probably also a good idea in indicating continuity. My favorites include Dave Allsop's atropal, foulspawn, and sorrowsworn; Arnie Swekel's take on the tarrasque, balor, and otyugh; RK Post's banshrae; Jim Nelson's beetles; James Zhang's chimera; Sam Wood's demons and oni night haunter; Jim Nelson's kobolds; Ralph Horsley's skeletons; and Steve Argyle's zombies. Daren Bader also has an enjoyable take on the basilisk, along with Arnie Swekel's battlebriars, Anne Stokes's berbalang, Michael Kormarch's displacer beast, Izz Ymedrano's quickling, and Lars Grant-West's stirge. How about Stephen Crowe's hyenas? That's a disturbing little image. Steve Prescott gets a note for including Regdar in the medusa picture (in case you wondered what ever happened to him).
Lars Grant-West provides the iconic dragon pictures, which are reference-perfect to how D&D describes each type, and good artwork of course, but (to me) lack the striking character that my favorites had. I feel the same way about the pieces from Eric Vedder and Adam Vehige: absolutely perfect illustrations, but the stillness of the images limits their emotional impact. Jason Engle's giants are similar, with the storm giants crossing the line into really compelling (for the rules mavens: they are evil now). See also Steve Prescott's lizardfolk for a perfect illustration with just enough motion to give it life. I feel bad about nicking perfect illustrations of the monsters for lacking some emotional "oomph" that I have trouble articulating.
Did we really need that many pictures pointed out by name? Yes. I am the least visual person you know who is not legally blind, and I found that many illustrations that appealed to me. Granted, the book has many chances since there are so many illustrations, but this is good art that deserves recognition.
This is the prettiest of the three core books, with a full-color illustration of ever variation on every monster presented. The PHB is the crunchiest of the them, with the essential pieces of the rules. The DMG is the best written of them, as a book to be read rather than an explanation of tables and technical aspects.
Amazon link
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Dungeon Master's Guide by James Wyatt
Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition core rulebooks, book 2
Rating - 3: useful for many campaigns
This book is, wonder of wonders, a guide to being a dungeonmaster. It is not, as many previous editions have been, "the rest of the rules." Instead, it is real advice on being a gamemaster: describe the world well, understand player expectations, create interesting encounters, and run a fun game. It also has some rules.
That intro is the summary.
The new PHB rules support a "kick in the door" style of play, with the rules being kept mostly out of the way. The new DMG furthers this by promoting a cinematic style of play. The default D&D game is assumed to resemble a summer action movie, with high adventure, a good number of fights, and most downtime glossed over.
This is not the only way to play. If you want a different playstyle, this book will not be as helpful to you as others might be. If you play wargaming style, you mostly need the crunch. If you enjoy deep roleplaying, you don't need someone to tell you rules for pretending to be an elf.
Most of the rules and all the (non-artifact) magic items have been moved to the Player's Handbook, as have the paths that replaced prestige classes. This leads to a shorter DMG that still has more space to focus on building a game.
Running a game is actually the point of the book, not a chapter or two mixed in with rules and campaign setting. I repeat because it really is a rare decision. I have a variety of gamemaster books that are filled with the secrets players are not supposed to know, with some mention tossed in of how you might play with them. Here, the game is first.
In this game, fun is first. Realism advocates may be shocked by the approach of "toss anything that is not fun." Get the players involved, don't let things slow down for rules contemplation. Again, it is a cinematic style, not a world of careful planning or personal horror. Respect at least that they are committed to it.
You still get some rules and campaign background. Some of these are unnecessary or inappropriate for the players. Some are here because there is nowhere else to put them. The setting information is a bit sparse, although there seems to be some encouragement to keep the rest of your setting vague beyond the immediate needs of your campaign. I will address the rules in the chapter-by-chapter.
Chapter 1, "How to Be a DM" (12 pages) is all about style. What sort of game are your players looking for? What sort of game do you want to run? What is your metagame? When joining a new campaign, I always recommend asking what book or movie the setting most resembles. A player attempting to play James Bond, walking into the enemy's den with little more than wit and flair, is going to die horribly in a gritty realism campaign. Meanwhile, your Lord of the Rings-style players are morally offended by the high-powered Forgotten Realms.
Chapter 2, "Running the Game" (18 pages) deals primarily with the flow of the game. Time expectations, setting up, the stages of a session, narrating events in the cinematic style, pacing of events and information, improvising, and ending. Much gamemaster wisdom is incorporated into four pages of "Troubleshooting": dealing with death, DM error, problem players, new players, and oddly sized groups. This could perhaps use more, with more examples, but we have the whole Guide ahead of us.
Chapter 3, "Combat Encounters" (18 pages) has two parts. The beginning goes into great detail on keeping track of all this stuff when there are a characters and monsters, each of who can have a dozen abilities. You also get four pages on what is going on before the first sword is drawn. It then transitions into specific rules for various circumstances: cover, forced movement, water, mounts, flying, disease, and poison. Note the crunch here. You get a page each of diseases and poisons, so expect many more in future supplements. The new disease format takes up much more space than the old one, and poisons are longer. Contrast with 3rd edition's single table with dozens of poisons.
Chapter 4, "Building Encounters" (18 pages) is a template for just that. 4th Edition monsters each have explicit roles such as "artillery" or "brute." Here are the monster types, here is your experience point budget, here are some standard encounter packages. Optionally add interesting terrain or substitute traps for monsters. This chapter's crunch includes rules for terrain (magical and mundane) and objects (using and breaking).
Chapter 5, "Noncombat Encounters" (24 pages) starts with skill challenges: negotiations, getting lost in the woods, and all the other things players can do with non-combat skills, individually or as a group. Half a page of this is incorporating a skill challenge into a combat encounter, so note the rule emphasis: 8 pages on rules for non-combat skills, half of which are examples; several books of combat encounters. Next we have a few pages on puzzles, which is classic but not at enough length to be more useful than "and you'll want to look some of those up." We end with traps, another classic DMG section. You get two pages of use and explanation, followed by seven pages of examples. As with diseases, these have longer descriptions. The descriptions, however, are rather good: they have sections for perception, triggers, effects, and countermeasures, providing much more detail than the old "DC 25 to disable." Each takes a quarter-page.
Chapter 6, "Adventures" (24 pages) if half little sub-sections and one big section on setting. You can see the work of editors in the six two-page sections, where the pages face each other. An topic must fit in the visible space when the book is open. Two pages each on personalizing adventures for your players and world, adjusting an adventure that is not flowing how you expect, structure, encounter mix, quest templates, and NPCs. The other half is about your setting: how different spaces encourage different adventures, what personality your world has, mapping specific sites for action to take place, and the differences between dungeon-based, outdoor, and event-based structures. We return to the fun-based, cinematic style: "Build...within the context of the campaign's story and history, but keep an eye out for creating fun, interesting encounters." Everything builds to your summer blockbuster with continuous crowning moments of awesome; don't be surprised if the next D&D movie is directed by Michael Bay.
Chapter 7, "Rewards" (12 pages) talks about experience points (when, how), quest rewards, action points, and of course treasure. The discussion of currency and gems reinforces the recurring theme, as wealth is always in a convenient-to-transport form. Never give copper, stop using silver around level 5, stop using gold around level 20. In the late game, 5,000,000gp in astral diamonds weighs one pound. Not exactly your classic Smaug hoard, but it keeps currency and encumbrance from getting in the way. There are four pages of "treasure parcels," templates for per-encounter loot. Note also: "Tailor [magic] items to your party of characters. ... ask them for wish lists."
I pause before the "Campaigns" chapter to note what has been built. The playstyle discussed here is not for the harsh realist. If you want to simulate fantastic pseudo-medieval economies in great detail, this will not help you; instead, the DMG assumes that works in the background, and whatever part the PCs need works (unless you need to push them to the next city, which just happens to have the item they want to buy). Monsters and environments will be fitted to one another, and the loot they are carrying is exactly what your players wanted. Everything falls into place, just like in a movie, and we proceed to the next big scene. Chapter 9 will explain, "'The world' in which the D&D game takes place doesn’t have a map —- not until you create one. And you shouldn’t feel in any great hurry to create one. A map is important only when the characters seek out the places shown on it." Hence the "preparing in one hour" section early on. If this is not the world you want to run, this is not your book (although you may want those rules). Neither the PHB nor the DMG encourages much forethought or detail. If you like a bit of Exalted in your D&D, this facilitates and helps you with that style.
Chapter 8, "Campaigns" (18 pages) is an outline of setting up your own campaign (again structured in pairs of pages). It starts with suggesting using a published campaign setting (ahem). The exception to the page-pairs is a longer section on different types of campaign structures and subgenres. I recommend the consideration of story arcs and dungeon-of-the-week styles. This returns in the "campaign story" section. The "super adventure" (Temple of Elemental Evil, Undermountain, World's Largest Dungeon) gets its own bit: an entire campaign as one really huge extended adventure. The final sections are on starting out, tying things together, and moving through the tiers of play to a conclusion.
Chapter 9, "The World" (28 pages) explains the assumptions of the 4th Edition world. No map, just some concepts. Page 150 is very good, laying out the big idea of a "points of light in the darkness" setting: heroes, monsters, magic, and ancient ruins. Civilization (from villages to cities) takes up six pages, two for environmental dangers in the wild, two for the new outer planar cosmology (the wheel is dead), all the evil gods in two more, and seven pages on artifacts, mostly used for four examples. The artifacts are your bit of crunch here.
Chapter 10, "The DM's Toolbox" (24 pages) starts with ten pages of monster customization that should probably have been in the Monster Manual. It has all the 3E templates like lich or vampire lord, along with functional and class templates. "Creating" is only six pages: two for monsters, three for NPCs, and one for house rules. Does this suggest to anyone else that you are encouraged to use published products rather than homebrew? Or maybe homebrewers don't need or use guidelines. At any rate, you do get guidelines, recommendations for generic monster stats (customize from these mini-menus). NPCs get the novel concept of "magic threshold": a generic power boost so that simplified NPCs keep pace with the PCs. Instead of choosing every power for a 13th level Cleric, you choose a half-dozen and add the bonus to everything. It ends with a half-dozen pages on random dungeons and encounters. Because you are going to need those if you spend only an hour planning.
Chapter 11, "Fallcrest" (24 pages) is a sample setting sketch. It described a town, its surrounding valley, and an adventure you might have there. It overlaps with the pre-release adventure, if you already have that. The sample adventure reminds me of a simple formula (from Dragon Magazine?): the five-room adventure. A few hooks, a bit of detail about the area, and a half-dozen encounters that should last for about an evening of play. Don't read too much if you plan to play this.
On art, William O'Connor again headlines, with good pieces from Rob Alexander, Howard Lyon, Chris Stevens with Espen Grundetjurn, and Anne Stokes. Steve Argyle is notable for his large piece opening chapter 8.
The DMG is the best written of the three core books, as a book to be read rather than an explanation of tables and technical aspects. The PHB is the crunchiest of the them, with the essential pieces of the rules. The MM is the prettiest of them, with a full-color illustration of ever variation on every monster presented.
Amazon link
Rating - 3: useful for many campaigns
This book is, wonder of wonders, a guide to being a dungeonmaster. It is not, as many previous editions have been, "the rest of the rules." Instead, it is real advice on being a gamemaster: describe the world well, understand player expectations, create interesting encounters, and run a fun game. It also has some rules.
That intro is the summary.
The new PHB rules support a "kick in the door" style of play, with the rules being kept mostly out of the way. The new DMG furthers this by promoting a cinematic style of play. The default D&D game is assumed to resemble a summer action movie, with high adventure, a good number of fights, and most downtime glossed over.
This is not the only way to play. If you want a different playstyle, this book will not be as helpful to you as others might be. If you play wargaming style, you mostly need the crunch. If you enjoy deep roleplaying, you don't need someone to tell you rules for pretending to be an elf.
Most of the rules and all the (non-artifact) magic items have been moved to the Player's Handbook, as have the paths that replaced prestige classes. This leads to a shorter DMG that still has more space to focus on building a game.
Running a game is actually the point of the book, not a chapter or two mixed in with rules and campaign setting. I repeat because it really is a rare decision. I have a variety of gamemaster books that are filled with the secrets players are not supposed to know, with some mention tossed in of how you might play with them. Here, the game is first.
In this game, fun is first. Realism advocates may be shocked by the approach of "toss anything that is not fun." Get the players involved, don't let things slow down for rules contemplation. Again, it is a cinematic style, not a world of careful planning or personal horror. Respect at least that they are committed to it.
You still get some rules and campaign background. Some of these are unnecessary or inappropriate for the players. Some are here because there is nowhere else to put them. The setting information is a bit sparse, although there seems to be some encouragement to keep the rest of your setting vague beyond the immediate needs of your campaign. I will address the rules in the chapter-by-chapter.
Chapter 1, "How to Be a DM" (12 pages) is all about style. What sort of game are your players looking for? What sort of game do you want to run? What is your metagame? When joining a new campaign, I always recommend asking what book or movie the setting most resembles. A player attempting to play James Bond, walking into the enemy's den with little more than wit and flair, is going to die horribly in a gritty realism campaign. Meanwhile, your Lord of the Rings-style players are morally offended by the high-powered Forgotten Realms.
Chapter 2, "Running the Game" (18 pages) deals primarily with the flow of the game. Time expectations, setting up, the stages of a session, narrating events in the cinematic style, pacing of events and information, improvising, and ending. Much gamemaster wisdom is incorporated into four pages of "Troubleshooting": dealing with death, DM error, problem players, new players, and oddly sized groups. This could perhaps use more, with more examples, but we have the whole Guide ahead of us.
Chapter 3, "Combat Encounters" (18 pages) has two parts. The beginning goes into great detail on keeping track of all this stuff when there are a characters and monsters, each of who can have a dozen abilities. You also get four pages on what is going on before the first sword is drawn. It then transitions into specific rules for various circumstances: cover, forced movement, water, mounts, flying, disease, and poison. Note the crunch here. You get a page each of diseases and poisons, so expect many more in future supplements. The new disease format takes up much more space than the old one, and poisons are longer. Contrast with 3rd edition's single table with dozens of poisons.
Chapter 4, "Building Encounters" (18 pages) is a template for just that. 4th Edition monsters each have explicit roles such as "artillery" or "brute." Here are the monster types, here is your experience point budget, here are some standard encounter packages. Optionally add interesting terrain or substitute traps for monsters. This chapter's crunch includes rules for terrain (magical and mundane) and objects (using and breaking).
Chapter 5, "Noncombat Encounters" (24 pages) starts with skill challenges: negotiations, getting lost in the woods, and all the other things players can do with non-combat skills, individually or as a group. Half a page of this is incorporating a skill challenge into a combat encounter, so note the rule emphasis: 8 pages on rules for non-combat skills, half of which are examples; several books of combat encounters. Next we have a few pages on puzzles, which is classic but not at enough length to be more useful than "and you'll want to look some of those up." We end with traps, another classic DMG section. You get two pages of use and explanation, followed by seven pages of examples. As with diseases, these have longer descriptions. The descriptions, however, are rather good: they have sections for perception, triggers, effects, and countermeasures, providing much more detail than the old "DC 25 to disable." Each takes a quarter-page.
Chapter 6, "Adventures" (24 pages) if half little sub-sections and one big section on setting. You can see the work of editors in the six two-page sections, where the pages face each other. An topic must fit in the visible space when the book is open. Two pages each on personalizing adventures for your players and world, adjusting an adventure that is not flowing how you expect, structure, encounter mix, quest templates, and NPCs. The other half is about your setting: how different spaces encourage different adventures, what personality your world has, mapping specific sites for action to take place, and the differences between dungeon-based, outdoor, and event-based structures. We return to the fun-based, cinematic style: "Build...within the context of the campaign's story and history, but keep an eye out for creating fun, interesting encounters." Everything builds to your summer blockbuster with continuous crowning moments of awesome; don't be surprised if the next D&D movie is directed by Michael Bay.
Chapter 7, "Rewards" (12 pages) talks about experience points (when, how), quest rewards, action points, and of course treasure. The discussion of currency and gems reinforces the recurring theme, as wealth is always in a convenient-to-transport form. Never give copper, stop using silver around level 5, stop using gold around level 20. In the late game, 5,000,000gp in astral diamonds weighs one pound. Not exactly your classic Smaug hoard, but it keeps currency and encumbrance from getting in the way. There are four pages of "treasure parcels," templates for per-encounter loot. Note also: "Tailor [magic] items to your party of characters. ... ask them for wish lists."
I pause before the "Campaigns" chapter to note what has been built. The playstyle discussed here is not for the harsh realist. If you want to simulate fantastic pseudo-medieval economies in great detail, this will not help you; instead, the DMG assumes that works in the background, and whatever part the PCs need works (unless you need to push them to the next city, which just happens to have the item they want to buy). Monsters and environments will be fitted to one another, and the loot they are carrying is exactly what your players wanted. Everything falls into place, just like in a movie, and we proceed to the next big scene. Chapter 9 will explain, "'The world' in which the D&D game takes place doesn’t have a map —- not until you create one. And you shouldn’t feel in any great hurry to create one. A map is important only when the characters seek out the places shown on it." Hence the "preparing in one hour" section early on. If this is not the world you want to run, this is not your book (although you may want those rules). Neither the PHB nor the DMG encourages much forethought or detail. If you like a bit of Exalted in your D&D, this facilitates and helps you with that style.
Chapter 8, "Campaigns" (18 pages) is an outline of setting up your own campaign (again structured in pairs of pages). It starts with suggesting using a published campaign setting (ahem). The exception to the page-pairs is a longer section on different types of campaign structures and subgenres. I recommend the consideration of story arcs and dungeon-of-the-week styles. This returns in the "campaign story" section. The "super adventure" (Temple of Elemental Evil, Undermountain, World's Largest Dungeon) gets its own bit: an entire campaign as one really huge extended adventure. The final sections are on starting out, tying things together, and moving through the tiers of play to a conclusion.
Chapter 9, "The World" (28 pages) explains the assumptions of the 4th Edition world. No map, just some concepts. Page 150 is very good, laying out the big idea of a "points of light in the darkness" setting: heroes, monsters, magic, and ancient ruins. Civilization (from villages to cities) takes up six pages, two for environmental dangers in the wild, two for the new outer planar cosmology (the wheel is dead), all the evil gods in two more, and seven pages on artifacts, mostly used for four examples. The artifacts are your bit of crunch here.
Chapter 10, "The DM's Toolbox" (24 pages) starts with ten pages of monster customization that should probably have been in the Monster Manual. It has all the 3E templates like lich or vampire lord, along with functional and class templates. "Creating" is only six pages: two for monsters, three for NPCs, and one for house rules. Does this suggest to anyone else that you are encouraged to use published products rather than homebrew? Or maybe homebrewers don't need or use guidelines. At any rate, you do get guidelines, recommendations for generic monster stats (customize from these mini-menus). NPCs get the novel concept of "magic threshold": a generic power boost so that simplified NPCs keep pace with the PCs. Instead of choosing every power for a 13th level Cleric, you choose a half-dozen and add the bonus to everything. It ends with a half-dozen pages on random dungeons and encounters. Because you are going to need those if you spend only an hour planning.
Chapter 11, "Fallcrest" (24 pages) is a sample setting sketch. It described a town, its surrounding valley, and an adventure you might have there. It overlaps with the pre-release adventure, if you already have that. The sample adventure reminds me of a simple formula (from Dragon Magazine?): the five-room adventure. A few hooks, a bit of detail about the area, and a half-dozen encounters that should last for about an evening of play. Don't read too much if you plan to play this.
On art, William O'Connor again headlines, with good pieces from Rob Alexander, Howard Lyon, Chris Stevens with Espen Grundetjurn, and Anne Stokes. Steve Argyle is notable for his large piece opening chapter 8.
The DMG is the best written of the three core books, as a book to be read rather than an explanation of tables and technical aspects. The PHB is the crunchiest of the them, with the essential pieces of the rules. The MM is the prettiest of them, with a full-color illustration of ever variation on every monster presented.
Amazon link
Friday, July 18, 2008
Player's Handbook by Rob Heinsoo, Andy Collins, and James Wyatt
Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition core rulebooks, book 1
Rating - 4: useful for any campaign (buy it)
This is unusual for my gaming book reviews in that it is an entirely new system. All the previous reviews were for books in existing systems, which gave them context. Was X or Y a good addition to game Z? Here we have an entirely new game, which you could take or leave as a whole. Despite that, this book at least is one that you may want if you are the sort to read reviews of gaming books, even if you do not plan to play D&D 4th Edition.
Do I need a summary? D&D is the original tabletop role-playing game. This is its 4th Edition, the Players Handbook being the core book of actual rules, with character creation, races and classes, spells and abilities, and magic items.
I say that you may want the book because of the central place D&D has on the gaming scene. I don't think you can be an informed consumer of or commenter on role-playing games without some awareness of D&D, World of Darkness, GURPS, or other major systems. This is the meta-game, and if you want to see what system you will enjoy most, you need to know your options; whatever one you pick, you can steal from the rest. This may not concern you at all, but then why are you reading a review of a D&D book? You apparently care enough to read the review, so I will proceed on that basis.
Funny enough, the new system in many ways caters to the person who does not care enough to read reviews about it. If you are into meta-game thinking, character optimization, plotting out long-term plans before starting level 1: that kind of thing is rewarded far less in 4th Edition. Character advancement instead takes a menu approach: pick one of these four powers at each level. Careful planning is not needed with re-training built into the system.
Page 29 of the PHB is the essence of character advancement. One table applies to every class. Every level you pick something off this level's menu. This makes spellcasters much simpler while giving Fighters more options (see Tome of Battle for the beta version).
Character abilities are arranged around daily powers (large, 1/day), encounter powers (medium, 1/fight), and at-will powers (small, unlimited). Everyone gets comparable numbers, with comparable power levels, so the system is more balanced. A Fighter could conceivably take a Wizard after level 5, which you did not see in 3rd Edition.
Multi-classing options are down. You pick a class, with some inter-class swapping available via feats. You are a Fighter, not a Fighter 4/Barbarian 1/Ranger 2/Rogue 3/Dervish 10. The new edition has Paragon Paths, which will be its equivalent of prestige classes (including expected proliferation in future supplements). Pick one per character, the focus you want for him/her.
The rules facilitate a kick-in-the-door style of play. They focus on combat options. On one hand, this makes sense, since you do not need rules telling you how to pretend to be an elf. You can just pretend to be an elf; the rules are there to adjudicate conflict (combat). On the other hand, downplaying the role-playing elements feels like a shift in the game's attitude. It reads more like a MMORPG or wargame. The powers and combat rules assume miniatures; this simplifies many things, but the rules only make sense in terms of battlefields built from squares.
A more important way that it is MMO-like is that it needs content patches. To use our terms, this is a stable release that is light on content. Let us hit that stable part first. If there are holes in the rules, they are not so glaring that I could spot them before putting them in use. The rules are simple, streamlined, and they should stay out of the way of gameplay. We do not want massive slowdowns like 3E grappling rules. The less time you are staring at the books, the more time you are actually playing.
The content that exists is good. There are eight races and classes, and they cover most of the major fantasy archetypes. Fighters have options for sword-and-shield or big two-handed weapons. Rangers can be Legolas or Drizzt. Wizards get fireballs and battlefield control.
The downside is that those are the only options, and expanding the list takes more work than previous editions. Your Cleric is channeled into one of two paths, battle cleric or healing/support, and all the powers and paragon paths assist those two roles. Your Druid does not exist, and making a new class involves writing the full 15-page menu of options for powers, if you want the class to have any options at all.
No Druids, no Monks, no psionics. Those are all coming in future books. Note the subtitle: "Arcane, Divine, and Martial Heroes." The initial release has a place carved for expansion packs (MMO!). Future books should also add more options to the classes' menus and more paragon paths. It is a readily expandable system that looks like it plans that as a revenue model.
For the present book, do not expect much in the way of shape-shifting, telekinesis, or unarmed combat. There is no rage, no incarnum-shapers, no truenames, and no animal companions. Warlocks are in, but Bards are out. Illusionists and diviners have a small set of rituals instead of a class.
If this were an MMO, I would recommend waiting a few patches to see how the new content fleshes out a pretty good skeleton. As a book, it has no monthly fee (unless you go for D&D Insider), so you are free to buy it now and poke around for interesting bits.
I nearly forgot the traditional chapter-by-chapter comments that gaming books get:
Chapter 1, "How to Play" (8 pages), is the by-now more or less classic D&D introduction. This is a role-playing game, these are dice, here is a quick example of play.
Chapter 2, "Making Characters" (20 pages), explains in general what will follow in specific. It is here that you get the outline of all the changes to come. These are the eight races, these are the eight classes, and these are the four roles the classes fulfill. This overview transitions into the start of character generation, ability scores, transitioning into the role-playing aspects of the character: alignment, deities, personality, appearance, background, and language. It concludes with the basic mechanics of attack rolls, skill checks, and leveling, which makes this chapter a bit of a catch-all. The leveling section includes the new concept of three tiers of play. Note page 29.
I think this is a healthy introduction, especially for new players. Establish your character concept before getting into the crunch. Do you want to be an elf, dwarf, or dragon-man? Do you want to hit things with swords, arrows, or fireballs? Are you a hero or a mercenary? While it is organizationally odd to include the mechanics of skill checks in that, it explains the meaning of all the crunch that follows.
Chapter 3, "Character Races" (18 pages), devotes two pages to each race. Dragonborn, dward, eladrin (high elf), elf, half-elf, halfling, human, and tiefling. No gnomes or half-orcs, although see the Monster Manual for some options.
Chapter 4, "Character Classes" (126 pages), is the bulk of this book the way that spells were the bulk of previous editions. This is because each class's menu of abilities reads a lot like a spellbook. Belay that: it reads like a stripped-down version of a spellbook, with a one-sentence description followed by pure crunch. It is good crunch, well organized and mostly clear, although I did not see where "[W]" was explicitly defined. Each class has about two pages of its description, picture, and abilities, followed by 10 pages of powers across its levels and 3 of paragon paths. Each class has two builds and four paragon paths, except for Warlocks (3). This ends with the four shared epic destinies.
Chapter 5, "Skills" (14 pages), is shorter than you might expect. Skills resemble 2nd edition more than 3rd, although with the added functionality from 3rd. "Thievery" subsumes disabling traps, opening locks, picking pockets, and sleight of hand. "Perception" covers list, search, spot, and track. The skill system is further refined by binary training: trained gives +5, untrained does not. Done, no skill points or 1st edition percentages for each Rogue skill.
Chapter 6, "Feats" (20 pages), puts them in the three tiers of heroic, paragon, and epic. Each race and class gets its own feats, in addition to the shared feats. This is also where the two pages (!) of multiclass rules are hiding, since that is accomplished via a small set of feats.
Chapter 7, "Equipment" (46 pages), includes all the magic items. Weapon and armor rules are different but not significantly less complex. Magic items have had some streamlining, and you will note how this section is far shorter than previous editions' DMG magic item sections.
Chapter 8, "Adventuring" (8 pages), is a short version of the rules that are in the DMG. It is a very short version, since one-quarter of the space is pictures.
Chapter 9, "Combat" (32 pages), explains all the details of the terms that have been in use for the past 250 pages. Action points, pushes and pulls, movement types, healing, and dying are all in here.
Chapter 10, "Rituals" (20 pages), is the actual spellbook. Rituals are shared spells that lie outside the normal encounter system. The real utility spells have been moved here, things like teleportation, scrying, enchanting items, raising the dead, illusions, and Tenser's Floating Disk. They all take a bit of money and a bit of time, sometimes a lot of time. Non-combat spells have been banished to the back of the bus.
The index is passable. The character sheet will probably get beat up with frequent erasures for hit points, encounter abilities, etc., while running out of space at higher levels. For style points, there is a lengthy page of playtester credits, and the designer credits page mentions all the previous editions and dedicates the book "to the memory of E. Gary Gygax."
I should comment on the art. I liked the simple 3rd Edition covers, but I also love Wayne Reynolds. William O'Connor has most of the iconic art for 4th Edition, and you can see what a great choice that was. He does excellent illustrations that focus on a single color, and his artwork does much of the heavy lifting in selling the new dragonborn race. Eva Widermann has good smaller pieces that have strong lines. Lee Moyer and Anne Stokes have some nice work, and Matt Cavotta bears note for the dynamic scene that starts out Chapter 9.
This is the crunchiest of the three core books, with the essential pieces of the rules. The DMG is the best written of them, as a book to be read rather than an explanation of tables and technical aspects. The MM is the prettiest of them, with a full-color illustration of ever variation on every monster presented.
Amazon link
Gameplay recommendation: cards or something similar to track powers. Photocopy each power you have and tape it to an index card, with different colors for at-will, encounter, and daily powers. Have a discard pile for powers used this fight. Refill your hand of encounter powers at short rests. Refill everything at extended rests. Tokens or chips that represent your healing surges may or may not be going too far.
Rating - 4: useful for any campaign (buy it)
This is unusual for my gaming book reviews in that it is an entirely new system. All the previous reviews were for books in existing systems, which gave them context. Was X or Y a good addition to game Z? Here we have an entirely new game, which you could take or leave as a whole. Despite that, this book at least is one that you may want if you are the sort to read reviews of gaming books, even if you do not plan to play D&D 4th Edition.
Do I need a summary? D&D is the original tabletop role-playing game. This is its 4th Edition, the Players Handbook being the core book of actual rules, with character creation, races and classes, spells and abilities, and magic items.
I say that you may want the book because of the central place D&D has on the gaming scene. I don't think you can be an informed consumer of or commenter on role-playing games without some awareness of D&D, World of Darkness, GURPS, or other major systems. This is the meta-game, and if you want to see what system you will enjoy most, you need to know your options; whatever one you pick, you can steal from the rest. This may not concern you at all, but then why are you reading a review of a D&D book? You apparently care enough to read the review, so I will proceed on that basis.
Funny enough, the new system in many ways caters to the person who does not care enough to read reviews about it. If you are into meta-game thinking, character optimization, plotting out long-term plans before starting level 1: that kind of thing is rewarded far less in 4th Edition. Character advancement instead takes a menu approach: pick one of these four powers at each level. Careful planning is not needed with re-training built into the system.
Page 29 of the PHB is the essence of character advancement. One table applies to every class. Every level you pick something off this level's menu. This makes spellcasters much simpler while giving Fighters more options (see Tome of Battle for the beta version).
Character abilities are arranged around daily powers (large, 1/day), encounter powers (medium, 1/fight), and at-will powers (small, unlimited). Everyone gets comparable numbers, with comparable power levels, so the system is more balanced. A Fighter could conceivably take a Wizard after level 5, which you did not see in 3rd Edition.
Multi-classing options are down. You pick a class, with some inter-class swapping available via feats. You are a Fighter, not a Fighter 4/Barbarian 1/Ranger 2/Rogue 3/Dervish 10. The new edition has Paragon Paths, which will be its equivalent of prestige classes (including expected proliferation in future supplements). Pick one per character, the focus you want for him/her.
The rules facilitate a kick-in-the-door style of play. They focus on combat options. On one hand, this makes sense, since you do not need rules telling you how to pretend to be an elf. You can just pretend to be an elf; the rules are there to adjudicate conflict (combat). On the other hand, downplaying the role-playing elements feels like a shift in the game's attitude. It reads more like a MMORPG or wargame. The powers and combat rules assume miniatures; this simplifies many things, but the rules only make sense in terms of battlefields built from squares.
A more important way that it is MMO-like is that it needs content patches. To use our terms, this is a stable release that is light on content. Let us hit that stable part first. If there are holes in the rules, they are not so glaring that I could spot them before putting them in use. The rules are simple, streamlined, and they should stay out of the way of gameplay. We do not want massive slowdowns like 3E grappling rules. The less time you are staring at the books, the more time you are actually playing.
The content that exists is good. There are eight races and classes, and they cover most of the major fantasy archetypes. Fighters have options for sword-and-shield or big two-handed weapons. Rangers can be Legolas or Drizzt. Wizards get fireballs and battlefield control.
The downside is that those are the only options, and expanding the list takes more work than previous editions. Your Cleric is channeled into one of two paths, battle cleric or healing/support, and all the powers and paragon paths assist those two roles. Your Druid does not exist, and making a new class involves writing the full 15-page menu of options for powers, if you want the class to have any options at all.
No Druids, no Monks, no psionics. Those are all coming in future books. Note the subtitle: "Arcane, Divine, and Martial Heroes." The initial release has a place carved for expansion packs (MMO!). Future books should also add more options to the classes' menus and more paragon paths. It is a readily expandable system that looks like it plans that as a revenue model.
For the present book, do not expect much in the way of shape-shifting, telekinesis, or unarmed combat. There is no rage, no incarnum-shapers, no truenames, and no animal companions. Warlocks are in, but Bards are out. Illusionists and diviners have a small set of rituals instead of a class.
If this were an MMO, I would recommend waiting a few patches to see how the new content fleshes out a pretty good skeleton. As a book, it has no monthly fee (unless you go for D&D Insider), so you are free to buy it now and poke around for interesting bits.
I nearly forgot the traditional chapter-by-chapter comments that gaming books get:
Chapter 1, "How to Play" (8 pages), is the by-now more or less classic D&D introduction. This is a role-playing game, these are dice, here is a quick example of play.
Chapter 2, "Making Characters" (20 pages), explains in general what will follow in specific. It is here that you get the outline of all the changes to come. These are the eight races, these are the eight classes, and these are the four roles the classes fulfill. This overview transitions into the start of character generation, ability scores, transitioning into the role-playing aspects of the character: alignment, deities, personality, appearance, background, and language. It concludes with the basic mechanics of attack rolls, skill checks, and leveling, which makes this chapter a bit of a catch-all. The leveling section includes the new concept of three tiers of play. Note page 29.
I think this is a healthy introduction, especially for new players. Establish your character concept before getting into the crunch. Do you want to be an elf, dwarf, or dragon-man? Do you want to hit things with swords, arrows, or fireballs? Are you a hero or a mercenary? While it is organizationally odd to include the mechanics of skill checks in that, it explains the meaning of all the crunch that follows.
Chapter 3, "Character Races" (18 pages), devotes two pages to each race. Dragonborn, dward, eladrin (high elf), elf, half-elf, halfling, human, and tiefling. No gnomes or half-orcs, although see the Monster Manual for some options.
Chapter 4, "Character Classes" (126 pages), is the bulk of this book the way that spells were the bulk of previous editions. This is because each class's menu of abilities reads a lot like a spellbook. Belay that: it reads like a stripped-down version of a spellbook, with a one-sentence description followed by pure crunch. It is good crunch, well organized and mostly clear, although I did not see where "[W]" was explicitly defined. Each class has about two pages of its description, picture, and abilities, followed by 10 pages of powers across its levels and 3 of paragon paths. Each class has two builds and four paragon paths, except for Warlocks (3). This ends with the four shared epic destinies.
Chapter 5, "Skills" (14 pages), is shorter than you might expect. Skills resemble 2nd edition more than 3rd, although with the added functionality from 3rd. "Thievery" subsumes disabling traps, opening locks, picking pockets, and sleight of hand. "Perception" covers list, search, spot, and track. The skill system is further refined by binary training: trained gives +5, untrained does not. Done, no skill points or 1st edition percentages for each Rogue skill.
Chapter 6, "Feats" (20 pages), puts them in the three tiers of heroic, paragon, and epic. Each race and class gets its own feats, in addition to the shared feats. This is also where the two pages (!) of multiclass rules are hiding, since that is accomplished via a small set of feats.
Chapter 7, "Equipment" (46 pages), includes all the magic items. Weapon and armor rules are different but not significantly less complex. Magic items have had some streamlining, and you will note how this section is far shorter than previous editions' DMG magic item sections.
Chapter 8, "Adventuring" (8 pages), is a short version of the rules that are in the DMG. It is a very short version, since one-quarter of the space is pictures.
Chapter 9, "Combat" (32 pages), explains all the details of the terms that have been in use for the past 250 pages. Action points, pushes and pulls, movement types, healing, and dying are all in here.
Chapter 10, "Rituals" (20 pages), is the actual spellbook. Rituals are shared spells that lie outside the normal encounter system. The real utility spells have been moved here, things like teleportation, scrying, enchanting items, raising the dead, illusions, and Tenser's Floating Disk. They all take a bit of money and a bit of time, sometimes a lot of time. Non-combat spells have been banished to the back of the bus.
The index is passable. The character sheet will probably get beat up with frequent erasures for hit points, encounter abilities, etc., while running out of space at higher levels. For style points, there is a lengthy page of playtester credits, and the designer credits page mentions all the previous editions and dedicates the book "to the memory of E. Gary Gygax."
I should comment on the art. I liked the simple 3rd Edition covers, but I also love Wayne Reynolds. William O'Connor has most of the iconic art for 4th Edition, and you can see what a great choice that was. He does excellent illustrations that focus on a single color, and his artwork does much of the heavy lifting in selling the new dragonborn race. Eva Widermann has good smaller pieces that have strong lines. Lee Moyer and Anne Stokes have some nice work, and Matt Cavotta bears note for the dynamic scene that starts out Chapter 9.
This is the crunchiest of the three core books, with the essential pieces of the rules. The DMG is the best written of them, as a book to be read rather than an explanation of tables and technical aspects. The MM is the prettiest of them, with a full-color illustration of ever variation on every monster presented.
Amazon link
Gameplay recommendation: cards or something similar to track powers. Photocopy each power you have and tape it to an index card, with different colors for at-will, encounter, and daily powers. Have a discard pile for powers used this fight. Refill your hand of encounter powers at short rests. Refill everything at extended rests. Tokens or chips that represent your healing surges may or may not be going too far.
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