Gabe (Penny Arcades) take on Essentials Red Box

[Aegeri]

So I think this is worth its own thread, because Gabe from Penny-Arcade has posted his impressions of the Red Box. We'll take the core part out of it from what he felt with playing with the essentials classes:

As a DM there was really no difference in adjudicating the Essentials game. I can see how someone could play an Essentials character at a table of 4e players with no difficulty. The Red Box is a great product and it really does give you everything you need to play Dungeons and Dragons. They have succeeded in stripping away everything that is not “essential” to playing D&D. The end result just happens to be something I’m not interested in.

I never played the older versions and so I don’t long for some return to the “good old days”. I don’t have a group of friends torn apart by edition wars. Essentials isn’t a new edition or even a dramatic departure from the current game. It’s really just a slightly different way to play 4e. I think it’s worth picking up and showing to your players. I say get it and run it as a one off some night. Who knows, maybe one of them will fall in love with it and want to play an Essentials character in your regular game. There is certainly no harm in exploring different ways to play D&D and in the end that’s all Essentials is doing.

So basically it's not the end of the world according to him, if it doesn't take your fancy it's not going to destroy your current games utterly and if you want a good place to start playing DnD it's for you. Note that I particularly liked the statement "Essentials isn't a new edition or even a dramatic departure from the current game. It's really just a slightly different way to play 4E".

In any event, these impressions do help ease my feelings considering Gabe has been DMing 4E for a while and is quite a fan of it. We'll all know for certain soon however!

 

[Stumblewyk]

Yeah, Gabe really has been a fan of 4e, so the fact that he doesn't feel the least bit threatened by Essentials should bode well for the people who are afraid their books are about to burst into flame and have the ashes crumble away so that Wizards can make them buy more product.

 

[renau1g]

So you don't believe WotC put a self-destruct chip in each book they sold? Silly you....

 

[Stumblewyk]

Call me naive, but I steadfastly hold to my belief that my 4e books will remain in perfectly working order come the arrival of Essentials.

 

[Aegeri]

You obviously haven't seen the crack team of Ninja's that Mike Mearls and company have carefully trained for essentials release. They will simultaneously (they are fast if you're wondering) break into EVERY players household and burn every pre-essentials 4E book instantly.

 

[Stumblewyk]

Well, by definition - no - I haven't seen them. They *are* ninjas after all.

 

[Aegeri]

Well, by definition - no - I haven't seen them. They *are* ninjas after all.

Well then, you're in quite a lot of trouble aren't you? I mean, once they burn your books how will you ever play DnD again with a 2d4+int magic missile with range 20 and counts as a ranged basic attack that you can look up in your original print PHB any time (that is now burnt)? Remembering this is inconceivable and will permanently destroy your 4E DnD for the rest of Essentials.

 

[ak1287]

Well then, you're in quite a lot of trouble aren't you? I mean, once they burn your books how will you ever play DnD again with a 2d4+int magic missile with range 20 and counts as a ranged basic attack that you can look up in your original print PHB any time (that is now burnt)? Remembering this is inconceivable and will permanently destroy your 4E DnD for the rest of Essentials.

I do not think this word means what you think it means

 

[Stumblewyk]

Well then, you're in quite a lot of trouble aren't you? I mean, once they burn your books how will you ever play DnD again with a 2d4+int magic missile with range 20 and counts as a ranged basic attack that you can look up in your original print PHB any time (that is now burnt)? Remembering this is inconceivable and will permanently destroy your 4E DnD for the rest of Essentials.

Well, I guess I'll just hire a few pirates, and have them guard my books for the first week or so after the Essentials release. I should be just fine. And bonus! I'll have the only surviving pre-Essentials 4e material left in the entire world. I'll be like, a bajillionaire or something.

 

[Aegeri]

I do not think this word means what you think it means

Wizards stole my dictionary while they burned my old books.

True story.