D&D 4E Mouseferatu weighs in on 4e

[jonrog1]

What's with the mouth fixation?

Kidding, kidding. It was a great post and really interesting to see another playtester's perspective.

Hmm, I didn't even notice that. I may need to seek professional help ...

 

[A'koss]

And speaking of another perspective...

So what is your favorite class(es) in the new edition John? Favorite monster(s)?

 

[DaveMage]

Thanks, Ari!

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

So, John, basically the writers' strike was your opportunity to playtest 4e?

Talk about making lemonade.

 

[Stormtalon]

Somehow I don't think it affected his Blue Beetle gig. Still, the bit of extra time from not writing TV/Movies etc, I can see that helping with the playtesting.

On the more on-topic note, I'm really liking hearing the from-the-DM perspective stuff. That's my main gig usually these days, so the more good stuff I hear, the more excited I am. Only 5 more months to go.... Le sigh....

 

[Geron Raveneye]

I couldn't help but read jonrog1's report, grab my old 1E MM, look inside and go "Yep, only the most important information that helps the DM to run the monster in combat, the rest got relayed by flavour text and his imagination"...and then have a good laugh at the total reverse design took in that regard from 3.X, and back towards older editions.

 

[Klaus]

Thanks! Love your art, by the way.

Mucho thanks!

We should work on something together!

 

[I'm A Banana]

Take it as you will.

Sounds pretty solid. I am *definately* more interested in the page of flavor text and the "behind the scenes" social encounter and monster-fiddly-bit rules than I am in combat stuff at this point.

I know, I know, combat will be kickass. I get it.

Tell me about something ELSE!

 

[Irda Ranger]

Trap design in particular made me want to kiss Dave Noonan on the mouth.

Don't know if want.



Great post. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Cam Banks]

I'm sure you are primarily concenred about dragonlance, and IMO the answer is obvious.

No, I'm actually fairly certain Dragonlance will work with 4e. Having spent the past five years designing 3.5 material for DL, and working to extricate it from its 1st edition origins and bringing 20+ years of often contradictory continuity together, I think it's in great shape for a 4e transition at some point in the future. It was driven more by the novels than the game products, too, and those have come a long way since Chronicles.

I'm thinking more along the lines of such settings as Birthright, Dark Sun, Planescape, et al. I'm also wondering how many settings designed around the d20 OGL/SRD will fare under this rules shift, too. Many of them seem locked into some specific 3.X design notions that are being tossed out, which I find to be a potential challenge.

Cheers,
Cam
PS: You have it switched, too - Silvanesti = eladrin, Qualinesti and Kagonesti = elves. Though given the current situation in the Age of Mortals, it's more like elves of Baleph = elves, elves of Inath-Wakenti = eladrin.