Retro-News Scoop; August 1999 (rumors about 3E....)

News from August 1999

August 19, 1999

WotC's Jim Bishop talked a little about 3E over on the Neverwinter Nights "hot topics" board (spotted at BG Chronicles):
On game balance: "I think everybody's going to be pleasantly surprised with the way the game is balanced. And for the angry minority of us who hate power gamer munchkins, 3E is a lot harder to abuse."

August 18, 1999

A reminder to all about fact vs. rumor: "Nothing on this page is set in stone. I am doing my best to inform you of not only what was said, but who said it, so that you can make a judgment about whether something is "official" (or as close as possible) or merely well-informed speculation. Items that have been posted by TSR employees are a pretty safe bet; all others are juicy rumors at best. For the non-official info, I've been trying to only pass along items that seem likely or come from a source that seems reputable (playtesters, people who got to try it at GenCon, etc.). And even the TSR info is subject to change as the rules are developed, tweaked and tested. Hey, that's part of the fun -- seeing where certain rumors turned out to be true, and where certain 'facts' didn't pan out at all." (from Eric Noah, the guy who runs this site)

The lucky gamer who tried 3E at GenCon dropped some more (unconfirmed) info:
Fighters receive special abilities called "Heroic Feats." Some of these include Quickness (an initiative bonus), Weapon Focus (an attack bonus with a chosen weapon), and Heroic Fray (doubles the number of attacks for a short while). Details about how and when these Feats are earned were unavailable.
Some large-sized weapons penalize the wielder's chance to hit an opponent, but have a bigger Critical Hit multiplier or make a Critical Hit more often (say, on a natural 18-20 instead of just a 20).

August 17, 1999

Unconfirmed rumor about ability score improvement: PCs will be allowed to improve one ability score (ST, DX, CN, IN, WI, CH) by one point every four levels. What restrictions might apply (i.e., is there a limit to how many times a single score can be raised?) are not known. (scoop sent in by Rhaz)

August 15, 1999

More comments from playtesters: "...if there's one catchphrase for 3E, I think consistent would be it. Wherever possible without losing the D&D flavor, the rules were rewritten to be consistent with one another." (from Owen Stephens on rec.games.frp.dnd)
Another post from Ryan Dancey indicates that there will be no XP bonus for characters who have a high prime requisite. (Scoop sent in by Allister Huggins)

August 14, 1999

The reaction of a playtester to 3E: "...it's great.... Offhand, I can't think of anything new that they've added that I DON'T like. Oh, there's still a few of the old annoying features around, but you can't have everything. And, truth be told, they couldn't change EVERYTHING without losing the spirit of AD&D, which is what they ARE preserving." (from Sea Wasp on rec.games.frp.dnd)

August 13, 1999

Initiative info: Initiative will be rolled on a d20, modified by Dexterity, and high roll goes first. After rolling for the first round, each character then acts in that same order -- unless they choose to "Delay" their actions (presumably gaining some other kind of bonus in exchange) or "Focus" (possibly giving up an attack to gain an earlier initiative spot in the cycle). It sounds as if "casting time" for wizard spells is disappearing, at least if the original 2nd ed. spell had a casting time less than 1 round. This would make sense, given the fact that weapon speeds will be gone from the rules as well. So when a wizard casts a spell, it just goes off on his turn in the initiative cycle, unless the casting time is greater than one round. (scoop sent in by Jean-Francois Lebeau)
Rumors going around about Sorcerers: They achieve high-level spellcasting slower than Wizards. One example mentioned a Sorcerer gaining access to 2nd level spells only upon reaching 5th level. Sorcerers will apparently have their own spell chart that looks a bit different from that of a Wizard. What the trade-off is remains to be seen. It could be something like the ability to cast a greater number of lower level spells. (from the TSR message board)

August 11, 1999

Sean Reynolds of TSR fame (on the TSR message board) wrote about the fate of the Core Rules 2.0 CD-ROM: "We're aware of the concerns of the people who have the CR1 and CR2 CD-ROMs and are considering our options for a solution. Phew, how's that for marketspeak? ; ) "

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Olgar Shiverstone said:

Neat. I missed that period, only returning to D&D (and finding this site) in 2000.

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Doppleganger said:

News from August 1999

August 19, 1999

WotC's Jim Bishop talked (...")And for the angry minority of us who hate power gamer munchkins, 3E is a lot harder to abuse."

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Mark said:

Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh

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Zappo said:

That Heroic Fray feat seems way overpowered, though the Heroic Surge feat in SWd20 is conceptually similar and balanced.

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jasamcarl said:

How off base is that statement? I didn't play previous editions, but everything i've heard makes them sound like a nightmare of ambiguities and ineffective restrictions.

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jasamcarl said:

How off base is that statement? I didn't play previous editions, but everything i've heard makes them sound like a nightmare of ambiguities and ineffective restrictions.

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