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Is D&D rubbish? Well, a chap named Nikolas Lloyd thinks it is. He's made a series of videos which looks at the various editions of D&D over the decades. His three videos - "Early D&D Was Rubbish", "Mid-period D&D Wasn't Great" and "Fourth Edition D&D Is Terrible" make it clear what his opinion of the game is; there are some good points in there, although I disagree with the premise that "D&D is rubbish".
Forum members on a vegetarian dating site took exception to the title of the piece “Why vegetarians should be force fed with lard”. It was one of a series of deliberately incendiary treatises, which included “Why banning hunting is wrong”, and “A woman's place”.
If he's not antagonizing the vegans, he's taunting the NRA, poking the feminists, and now kicking the RPG geeks (while they're down). This guy needs a body guard ;-)
__________________ The Helix - Datahaven When cutting edge isn't sharp enough. I will not accept that. No regret.
Quite frankly I can't help but agree. D&D has always and will always be a horrible system, IMHO.
I do disagree with his ranting on 4E when it was clearly the GM being a horrible GM, not the systems fault, but yeah, other than that little bit of his videos there, I agree 100% with the rest of the guy's comments.
He was doing okay until he started rolling out the same tired old (and entirely unfounded) criticisms of 4e that were floating about years ago. He also spent most of the last video moaning not about the system (even if he thought he was) but about his group. My advice? Get a GM and a group who match your play style, stop trying to make magical things logical and have some fun!
I think he is right 100%. Even his description of D&D4 is not that off the mark. This edition, that I play at the moment, is full of abstract systems and WotC did not bother to give any way to translate into roleplay experiences.
It would be nice if WotC came up with a DMG 3 that would mend this aspect by giving us tools to narrate power use, hp loss, healing surge use, etc.
Even better, they could replace to awful free Keep on the Shadowfell with a better adventure incorporating such advices in a simplified set of startup rules.
As it is now, the system looks like a skirmish game, and a very slow one. One can turn it into a roleplay experience, but it requires thinking out of the box or out of the books. It's a shame, because, there are very good things in this game...
Actually, the whole thing seemed to be a (thinly-veiled) advertisement for Runequest. Once he started extolling that system's virtues, the whole thing seemed like less of a criticism of D&D and more of a schoolyard "My system is good, so yours is junk!" thing.
I can't really remark on his pre-3E comments, as my pre-3E D&D experience consists of the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games. But, I have to admit that I found his criticisms of 4E lacking, as they seemed to be the result of a bad DM rather than the game itself. He even said that a better DM could have come up with a way for his rogue to smash a crystal. Hell, when I heard it I immediately came up with a grab attack, followed by a hard Thievery check. If I really sit down and think about it, I might even come up with a better way, but that's just off the top of my head.
If an evoker-type wizard bores him, why not play one that specializes in other ways of doing combat? Choose powers that make walls or create difficult terrain or inflict status effects on enemies! I think of all the classes in 4E, the wizard really has the most variety in its power selection. His boredom is self-inflicted.
Does 4E read like a wargame rulebook? I have to admit that, yes, the first PHB does give off that vibe. That was a conscious decision on the part of WotC, too. Remove the fluff from the crunch. Let people make up their own fluff. I like that approach, and I like the fluff-heavy approach of Essentials as well. There is room for both.
I guess that, after that, all I really have to say is I'm glad he has his system of choice. It's unfortunate that he feels the need to blast another game to make himself feel better about his choice of game, but c'est la vie.
And, if I could speak to this guy face to face, I'd just tell him one thing: If D&D 4E isn't a roleplaying game, then you're doing it wrong.
Edit: I love the preview image of the second video. That look on his face is amazing.
Last edited by thewok; 20th August 2011 at 08:06 AM..
I mean, these are the same, tired old arguments that have been trotted out for frigging YEARS.
Take the wank about running around the Centaur creature and breaking its stone. "Not supported mechanically"? Really? Page 42 is pretty much directly speaking to this. THIS is precisely what 4e is SUPPOSED to do.
Shame he had a crap DM.
__________________ Why try making D&D look more ludicrous? That's like shooting fish in a barrel.
I have to agree with some of his points such as healing surges and how you don't need to roleplay at all in 4th edition. There are a few parts of his argument that, as previously stated, stem from his GM. But for me 4th edition is just not that enjoyable to play as I can find better elsewhere (3.5).
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