Compendium « WeeBeeGamers.com

11Jan/114

Total Insanity- D&D 4E Rules in Review

: Cover via Amazon

I'm something of a 'mechanics guy'. The 'crunchy bits' of how a game functions intrigues me, both from a simulationist (how well the mechanic matches reality) and a gamist (how well-balanced the mechanic is within the framework of the game) perspective.

Often, mechanics that try and match reality tend to be somewhat over-complicated and even broken- simply put, the universe has a lot more variables running at any given time than anyone can keep track of.

So the best, and most balanced mechanics, are the simplest ones. And usually, the mechanics most divorced from 'reality'.

At both ends of the scale you get a lot of arguments. One of the features of 4e design is that the rules are made as simply as possible, using something that has been defined as “exception-based” design. There is a set of basic rules, which regulate the game. Unless a game element goes out of it's way to say it changes these rules, you always default to the basic rules.

For example:

Tagged as: 4E, Compendium, crunchy bits, D&D, Essentials, flavor text, free actions, game functions, mechanics, review, rules, thoughts Continue reading

16Jul/102

D&D Essentials? What’s New? Formatting and Marketing

Bill Slavicsek posted today a new glimpse of the D&D Essentials product line and clarified to everyone confused about the what
" essentials" is. Basically D&D Essentials is the same as any other D&D 4E books, just a new format and marketed to new players. The Rules Compendium compiles all the rules in one place with all the updates already in place and the new "classes" are just new builds that open up new play mechanics.

I think this is a great idea, especially with the ongoing D&D Encounters bringing in more and more new players. This is a product line that will allow newbies a fresh starting point to jump in, instead of having to sort through the back library of books released. And for all of us existing players, new builds for our favorite classes, similar to the source books.

My only advice to Wizards is to get this product line into more general stores, such as Wal-Mart and Target, etc. in addition to the bookstores and LGS.

The second part of the article introduced the Mage build for wizards. Mages are the traditional scholarly wizards who can learn from different schools of magic, such as Enchantment School, Evocation School, and Illusion School.

One thing that I noticed that was a little more clear was that is sounds like your class feature levels up with you. So for example a mage graduates from Apprentice Mage to Expert Mage at level 5, gaining new benefit. This is a great idea and I am excited to see more about it.