And now a word from...
Wizards of the Coast, whatever you or anyone else may think of them, have one goal: to make money. This is their business. A great many of them may also find it a hobby, but at its core, it’s a business and it’s about the dollar. Having said that, the best way for them to make money is to find out what we, the fans and players, want, and incorporate that into their products. This is part of the reason I’m psyched about Fourth Edition. I’ve been told that Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition is a bridge between Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 and Fourth Edition, and from what I’ve seen, I love it.
Now, if they’ve shown the same attention to detail that they have with what else I’ve heard of Fourth Edition, the power of spells will be retrained without jeopardising the fun of the game. Throughout Third Edition and 3.5, I favoured the Spellcaster classes because, to put it bluntly, they’re more difficult. If we had someone who wasn’t quite there, we’d give them a Fighter or Barbarian, or something easy. But the spellcasters have so many special rules, durations, everything to keep track of, it took away a lot of the fun of it.
Much as Fitz seemed to suggest, I hope that spells are mostly fluff, but otherwise treated as basic concepts. Magic Missile is a good example of one that doesn’t require much tweaking. It’s long been a staple, it’s instantaneous, sure there’s no saving throw, but it’s never been phenomenal cosmic power. But I’ve seen games where players had to pull out scrap paper, and start doing long division to figure out how long their spell lasts, what it affects, how it affects them, or just as bad, having to pull out a Player’s Handbook, read and research the spell for fifteen minutes, by which time the other players are bored to tears.
It’s a delicate balance to be sure, but if the designers can come up with a version of Dungeons and Dragons where an intelligent player can read the book, play perhaps 2-6 sessions, and not have to revisit that book every subsequent session, then they will have come up with a winner. For those of us who want more out of it, I’m sure they will create endless supplements, but and I speak only for myself and the players I’ve known the longest, most of us want the game to be fun, still be Dungeons and Dragons, but not have to repeatedly look up rules, spells, skills, et cetera until insane.
And now, while I seem to have gone far off topic, back to the spellcasters. If spells are kept to an instantaneous, one round, perhaps two rounds, and then jump to encounter, and day, then that will certainly help with the flow of the game. When a spell has duration of seven rounds, some players stop taking note of it after 5, others might be still using it at after 14. It’s not intentional, but it happens even with the best of players. Keep modifiers to rolls to a minimum. Over simplification is possible, but it’s better than the alternative. Some players just aren’t capable of dealing with +2 because of what the Bard’s doing, I’m now Large which means I’m no longer encumbered because of my new strength score, but I’m more of a target, and it’s a Tuesday, so my special doesn’t work so well, but it’s night, so I get a bonus to my... somewhere along the lines, things are lost. Whether they’re accounted for twice, not accounted for at all, or there’s miscommunication, the game drags to a halt when someone points out, “Wait, that ended two rounds ago” and the DM has to choose whether to go back, or just move on.
Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition has given me reason to hope again. But I had high hopes for 3.5. Please don’t let me down again guys. Thanks.
