D&D 4E Former 4E doubter , I have high hopes now

[Lonely Tylenol]

The Model T may be more iconic than the Focus, because it was revolutionary when it first came out... but I'm pretty sure that the Focus is, objectively, a better car to drive.

Question: do you own a Ford? Because you don't talk like a man who owns a Ford.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Oh, I hate that about Oblivion too, I just didn't mention everything I dislike about the game because most of it has nothing to do with Fourth Edition D&D. Trust me, it's more than you, I've played everygame in the series.

The thing is, "dumbing down" is just a less politically correct way of saying exactly what you are saying. They are stripping down everything about the game to it's bare essentials in order to appeal to those who can't handle the complexity of the current game, and refuse correct their problems themselves by simply not using the parts they don't understand. Then they add a bunch of badly thought out gimmicks and buzzwords to make it "cool". It's the most common design in gaming these days.

Or, perhaps your characterization of people who don't want unnecessary complexity as "unable to handle complexity" is insulting and erroneous.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Wew, thank god. I already own the old one.

Heh. You win the thread. Although, WRT Wolfspider's comments, the dragon boobs do bug me. What the hell is that? Seriously. The only explanation I have for that is some kind of creepy furry/scaly prurience on the part of someone on the art team. If we're all paranoid about people getting the wrong idea about half-orcs, perhaps we should also keep tabs on the amount of weird fetishes that wind up in the new edition?

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

You are very wrong, but if that's how you play, cool.

Funny, IIRC Robin Laws agrees with him.

 

[Wormwood]

The only explanation I have for that is some kind of creepy furry/scaly prurience on the part of someone on the art team.

The only possible explanation?

How about, "Let's be able to easily differentiate between sexes" as a possible explanation.

/Occam

 

[The Ubbergeek]

Wish peoples would return to sanity about boobs...

Say anything on furries, they are the best at drawing such anthropomorphic art.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

The only possible explanation?

How about, "Let's be able to easily differentiate between sexes" as a possible explanation.

/Occam

Give one of them a frill. Make one somewhat bigger. Make one a different colour. Make one have a stockier or leaner build. Give one a wattle. Make one smell like musk.

Once you slap a breastplate on, you can't see the boobs on a human anyway, but we have little difficulty in telling that the one with a beard, six extra inches, and 50 extra pounds with the top-heavy build and lack of prominent hips is the man.

Anything in my list above would make sense for a more-or-less reptilian thing. Boobs don't. Therefore, Occam says that the reason they went with boobs instead of any other thing--including just saying "you see a female dragonborn"--is that someone gets their jollies from drawing boobs on a lizard.

 

[Wormwood]

Give one of them a frill. Make one somewhat bigger. Make one a different colour. Make one have a stockier or leaner build. Give one a wattle. Make one smell like musk.

None of those are visually representative of 'you are looking at a girl'.

Once you slap a breastplate on, you can't see the boobs on a human anyway. . .

If modern fantasy art has taught me anything (and 3e is NO exception), it's that men and women wear very different chest armor.

 

[Voss]

Throwing away books is like throwing away people!
Wolfspider, stop him!

Yep. Both are produced in large, unsustainable numbers.
Dumping is pretty much the only way to go.

 

[AZRogue]

I think some people may place too much importance on the POL setting philosophy/window dressing. It's no different from 3E and the Greyhawk campaign material that was in the PHB and DMG. It's a simple, non invasive, way of giving some basics to those new to the game without having to actually put Grayhawk back in as the iconic example.

Use the POL philosophy as you see fit. It isn't that different from what every DM does, at least in a frontier-feel campaign. Hell, it can even be loosely applied to a city-political intrigue campaign.

As the sidebar on page 20 of the W&M says:

"In the expression 'points of light,' 'light' shouldn't be taken to mean 'good' or even 'safe'. A point of light in the D&D world is just a place where travelers can anticipate a nonhostile welcome without doing anything special to ensure that lack of hostility."

It's not something that limits how a DM runs his campaign, as shown in the same sidebar further down:

"If an adventure calls for the characters to become involved in the nasty goings on, though, all bets are off."

Not exactly shackles to one's creativity.

Not that it matters. Hopefully Al-Qadim makes a comeback and I can pick it up.