NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 4083934" data-attributes="member: 704">It always vexes me when people use the word game as though it were some filthy word better used for describing parasite infested testicular cysts.  The example comparing 4th edition to a first person shooter is one that implies that games are purely for the simple minded and easily amused while the Grand High Art of Roleplaying is reserved for those of refined sense and taste.  What you forget is that games are meant to be fun, as is D&D.  As a leisure activity, it competes for your time and money against going to the movies, playing video games, going out and getting drunk, snowboarding and going to the museum.  If the gameplay is not fun, then no one will play it.Those who would justify having the wizard as the most powerful character in the party by using the flawed logic of "the wizard is a wizard, and that's what wizards do" is failing to see the point at which D&D goes beyond being a fantasy fiction novel.  If I happen to like playing as a savage and bloodthirsty half orc barbarian, I do not want to have my character start to suck when the Gandalf clone learns to cast Enhanced Deathspell 4.  I probably also do not like it if we have to focus the game on the Gandalf wannabe and plan around the 15 minute adventuring day.  Per encounter and Per day powers may break immersion for you, but the current system simply makes the game kind of suck.Considering how many DMs refused to run games at the higher levels when things get unmanageable should be a big clue.  Having 19th level wizards who can shatter worlds and bend reality to their will that you never get to run makes about as much sense as buying a new 52 inch HDTV and then only using it to play Pong on an Atari 2600.  Maybe you play D&D wanting to create a character similar to Gandalf.  It will be a whole hell of alot easier to do that for you and for many other players if you actually have a chance to run the game past level 12 without your DM stroking out due to the game becoming too much like work.  And if you have played the higher levels, perhaps you would get to enjoy the higher level play without running up against Save or Screwed roulette.Also consider that D&D is just as much a social activity and a game as it is an exercise in story telling.  The story telling is important, but it is not that much more important than the game rules.  For every example of a game being ruined by a power gaming optimizer, there are just as many examples of games that were ruined by Railroad DM's, Mary Sue DMPC's, and DMs trying to cripple players by conspiring to have them captured and stripped of gear.Another problem with the Roleplay before gameplay view is that story telling in D&D is very limited.  The narrative must always follow the player, so you never get scenes where the Villain is speaking with his loyal henchmen.  There are usually 3 to 5 player characters, so you do not get to have a single strong main character to drive the story.  Most games tend to consist of all male players and a male DM, so doing any sort of romantic angle is going to get pretty damn awkward.To me it sounds like 4th edition is going to try to play to its strengths much more than it has in the past.  The numbers behind the rules will make sense, and an effort has been put into making sure no player ever has to suck.  There are fewer numeric variables to keep track of in combat, which will make the DM's job easier to run at all levels.  I am looking forward to giving the new edition a shot.END COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

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