4e--can you write a novel using it?

[Roger]

how can they justify a fighter having healing surges? you train all your life with sword shield and armor, and next thing you know you can close you eyes, twinkle your ears, and heal yourself. huh?

The impact tore his wounds and dazed him for an instant. Conan fought the rushing tide of blackness, sick and dizzy, but realized that the iron muscles that sheathed his vitals had saved him from permanent injury.

-- "A Witch Shall Be Born", by Robert E. Howard.​

Cheers,
Roger

 

[UngainlyTitan]

EDIT: Double post

 

[cangrejoide]

the gord the rogue books novelize the 1e system. the drizz't books novelize the 2e system. the war of the spider queen books novelize the 3e system.

1E had Gord.
2E had Drizzt.
3E had Spider Queen series


4E has the rest of good fantasy literature.

The impact tore his wounds and dazed him for an instant. Conan fought the rushing tide of blackness, sick and dizzy, but realized that the iron muscles that sheathed his vitals had saved him from permanent injury.

-- "A Witch Shall Be Born", by Robert E. Howard.​

Cheers,
Roger

You sir, you win this thread.

 

[Grimstaff]

i hope this post made a little bit of sense.

Hmm, hiding edition wars with an odd premise that one RPG can't be reflected in fantasy literature while another works just peachy?

Yep, makes perfect sense...

 

[SweeneyTodd]

The idea behind this thread really amuses me, because if I look at almost any heroic fantasy book I've read that WASN'T based on D&D rules, I think 4e could reasonably model them.

I mean, two of the tropes you picked out as "I don't see how this could possibly happen in a fantasy novel" are:

1. The protagonist comes back from near-defeat to win the day
2. Untrained farmboy learns to master magic

Aren't those in, like, every fantasy novel?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

the drizz't books novelize the 2e system.

This is news to me. Second edition had a boring, set in stone combat system (unless you were using kits), and Drizzt frequently used abilities that simply didn't exist in the game rules, and weren't even supported, either.

In fact, his fighter/ranger combo was illegal in the game rules, not to mention his incredibly high AC, hunter rage and combat "feats".

 

[Scribble]

This is news to me. Second edition had a boring, set in stone combat system (unless you were using kits), and Drizzt frequently used abilities that simply didn't exist in the game rules, and weren't even supported, either.

In fact, his fighter/ranger combo was illegal in the game rules, not to mention his incredibly high AC, hunter rage and combat "feats".

by "Feats" do you mean his percentage chance to just kill you in one hit?

He made you a minion!

 

[Walknot]

You know, maybe 4E seems too strange to you. Talked to my son about 4E, and he pointed out how it was so similar to WoW. I don't know WoW, but anyway I thought he meant that in a bad way. But no, he meant that in a good way! So, maybe sometimes a new thing can remake an old thing. Maybe you can't be young again, but the game can be new to you anyway.

So give it a try, on the table you can play it, then in your imagination you can see it clearly. Maybe it will surprise you?

 

[Shemeska]

In Demon stone Drizzt summons a demon without any ritual or spell, he basically does a knowledge history check (If you were to translate it into game mechanics)

I'm not sure you want to defend 4e by using an actual video game as an example of something.

 

[Celtavian]

re

I've found the 4th edition system the most friendly to story telling. More friendly to story telling than any edition of DnD ever.

Since I write quite a lot, screenplays, books, and short stories, I find it refreshing to be able to render a story without many of the standard conventions that grew cumbersome with DnD such as the excessive magic items, the need for magic to do anything worthwhile, and the wizards and clerics being the only characters with really interesting and variable abilities that worked in battle and out of battle.

4th edition is the best edition of DnD for a pure storyteller. The more I learn about it and what you can do with it, the more I like it. It is as open-ended as any DnD system ever made and its class structure allows you to tell interesting stories using ever single class now that each class has abilities useful for other than doing damage.

Healing surges were a brilliant idea for handling fantasy story healing. I've never once seen Conan or any fantasy character gain healing from a priest (rarely even in an actual DnD novel...notice that there were no priests as standard traveling companions in any of the Driz'zt novels), and in 4th edition you can play without a priest and still have your character good to go.

4th edition is the best edition of Dnd yet for story telling. I thought it would suck and have learned that I was very wrong. I've been writing stories with the new system just to see how it renders into prose, and I have been able to tell stories in a fashion I never could before in previous editions of DnD.

Once again I say good job to the designers. 4th edition is a story teller's dream system for epic fantasy.