www.play-board-games.com blogs about How DnD 4th Edition is like a board game

[Festivus]

Not to fan flames, but really, everything stated could be said about any role playing game, including 3.5.

I know some of these mechanics are not exclusive to DnD let alone 4th edition. But for some reason playing 4e seems more board game-like than earlier editions of the RPG. It isn’t something I can put easily into words. Maybe it’s the cards and powers I can’t quite put my finger on it. Can you?

You don't need cards to play 4E, but they make things way easier. In fact, I would use spell cards in 3.5 often.

Nope, it's none of what is on the list that makes any edition of a role playing game different from a board game, it's that you are using your imagination to move a story in unexpected directions. Those who don't aren't trying hard enough to make it a non-board game. When is the last time you played any of the boardgames listed and said, no, I choose not to follow where the game is telling me to go?

 

[Herschel]

Wow, I expected massive nerdrage at just the sight of the thread title. Have we reached peace at last? *Exchanges swords to ploughshares*

It's in the 4E forum. Put it in general where the threebies are and it would most likely get different very quickly.

ps: Threebies works, but fourbies? Sounds too much like Furbies. *shudders*

 

[Aegeri]

I use miniatures in Call of Cthulhu, does that make it a board game?

Actually, I cannot think of a single RPG I've played I didn't use miniatures. If I have the warhammer and such around, why not use it?

 

[Gort]

It's in the 4E forum. Put it in general where the threebies are and it would most likely get different very quickly.

ps: Threebies works, but fourbies? Sounds too much like Furbies. *shudders*

*sigh* Everyone knows it's 3tards and 4rons.

 

[Gort]

I use miniatures in Call of Cthulhu, does that make it a board game?

Actually, I cannot think of a single RPG I've played I didn't use miniatures. If I have the warhammer and such around, why not use it?

I tend only to use minis for stuff where positioning is particularly important. In CoC you don't really have things like flanking and combat advantage and getting past the tough guys to get to the weak but powerful ranged attackers behind them, so I wouldn't bother.

 

[Aegeri]

I tend only to use minis for stuff where positioning is particularly important. In CoC you don't really have things like flanking and combat advantage and getting past the tough guys to get to the weak but powerful ranged attackers behind them, so I wouldn't bother.

If I have a map of the house and the models, nothing is hurt by using the models and it's only to the games benefit. I mean, CoC doesn't have complicated rules but models were still a fun way of making it clear what was going on. Same with 2nd edition DnD, we didn't HAVE to use models, but we did anyway because it made the game more fun and we had them.

 

[LostSoul]

4E plays more like a board game because it doesn't require you to give the fictional content any weight.

It's like how building a road through mountains in Settlers of Cataan is the same as building a road anywhere else; the fact that it's through mountains, or "haunted, bandit-plagued mountains" doesn't matter.

 

[Jhaelen]

I agree with the bloggers comparisons. I disagree with his conclusion. All editions of D&D I have played have shared the same similarities with boardgames that he compares with 4E.

Agreed. However, I recently realized that the way that D&D Encounters is set up is _very_ similar to a board game set up:
It requires a minimum of prep-time, comes with battle-maps, sample characters, tokens, etc. About the only difference to a 'normal' board game is the role of the DM.

I'm not sure if there's ever been something as close to a board game in previous editions.

I think it's a good thing, though. This might really be a way to increase the player base a bit.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

I tend only to use minis for stuff where positioning is particularly important. In CoC you don't really have things like flanking and combat advantage and getting past the tough guys to get to the weak but powerful ranged attackers behind them, so I wouldn't bother.

In Call of Cthulhu, the monsters are inside YOU!
And several other non-Euclidian parallel dimensions of questionable integrity and sliminess!

 

[mkill]

If 4th edition is like a boardgame and like WoW at the same time, does that mean WoW is a boardgame?

On a more serious note, I guess it just means that if the group plays a lot of boardgames, they'll play 4th ed in a very boardgamey fashion, if they hang around in MMOs a lot they'll play it like an MMO, and if they did a lot of old-school dungeoncrawls they'll play it like a Gygaxian nightmare.

News at 11.